Ladybirds, spiders and bee fly

Some more macro attempts from today. Whilst still nowhere near the standard of other member's images that have been posted I think these are the best I've managed so far. All shot with the Pentax K-r, M 50mm 1.7, 50mm extension tube and onboard flash with a little material over it to diffuse it a little. All f16, around 1/100 sec and hand held using 'catch in focus'

My feeling is that the 50mm with tube is sharper than the 50mm with the macro teleconverter and, my own inexperience and technical limitations aside, this is getting on for as good as it can get with the £30 M lens and tube setup.

Considering how cheap this setup is I think the combination works pretty well. Obviously it's nowhere near the standard of some of the magical shots from Malaysia recently, but I'd be interested in people's opinions about how much better off I might be upgrading to say a Pentax 100mm f4 or a Tamron SP 90mm adaptall. Working distance aside I'm not convinced the extra cost would be worth it and that I perhaps ought to wait until I can afford a D FA 100mm macro?

My rosemary plant was infested with ladybirds earlier so it would have been rude not to take some pictures. Both uncropped with minor PP.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/ladybird-1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/ladybird2.jpg[/IMG]

I think this is a bee fly. First one uncropped - second one cropped about 50%. Both with slight contrast adjustment and sharpening applied.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/beefly.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/beefly2.jpg[/IMG]

Lastly one for when you have eaten! I saw this spider eating a fly, though it might not be obvious that's what it's doing because of the limitations of the DOF. Second one is a crop of the first. Contrast and sharpening adjusted PP.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/spider.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/spidercrop.jpg[/IMG]

Excellent shots. I haven't tried extension tubes, but I suspect as they don't have any glass in them they'll have less effect on quality than a teleconvertor (with the proviso that this may not apply to some matched teleconvertor/lens combinations).

Thanks. The extension tube definitely gives better images when I compare it with the teleconverter, but the teleconverter gives a better working distance and the ability to alter the magnification when it might be a tight shot with the fixed magnification of the tube. It's a bit of a trade off, but ultimately I'd prefer fewer good images to lots of mediocre ones.

What I can't decide is whether a older proper macro lens would give me much of a step up in image quality and would appreciate any advice.

Yes, I can see the flash relection on the ladybirds. Unfortunately I don't have an external flash yet, just the onboard one so it goes wherever the camera does!

Thanks for the helpful advice and encouragement.