Macro starters, bug experts needed

Got out thisafternoon for some more macro experimentation. Used the old screwmount 100 SMC with a 2x teleconvertor and got a few usable pics (and LOTS of unusable ones, handheld manual focusing is bloody difficult!!)

Bug experts what are these then? some sort of grasshopper type thing....










Then a few other shots, the lavender works well i think with the nice dark background, and other flower shot






lots more practice needed methinks

(Full size versions on my flickr)

These are one of the many species of Cricket, not grasshopper. Most of your images a very underexposed. Good effort though.

Well if these were all taken hand held some aint that bad! I really surgest you get a tri-pod tho to get them nice and sharp!

Looks like a grass hopper to me but I really dont know for sure!

IMO 1+2 ok

3+4 to dark and OOF

5+6 Again to dark and OOF

Thanks Peter / Andy, yeah the underexpose was mainly from trying to keep the shutterspeed up due to being handheld, also had the aperture between F5.6 and f8 to try to increase the DoF in the shots. Used the DoF preview and moved the shutterspeed down so it was indicating 'just' under the correct exposure in the viewfinder..but quick enough to deal with hand/wind shake (around 1/60 to 1/90 IIFC) still learning how to use the camera in manual mode tbh.
I doubt the teleconv was helping matters much either
Cheers Tel.

Ive had the slightly underexposed or blurred from camera shake dilemma when using the fz7 + dcr 150 combo. The first two look fine to me, but the last two a tad dark but pretty good bar the exposure issue

As for the cricket its possibly a speckled bush cricket. Not 100% but I fairly sure it isnt full grown (i.e. a nymph). How big was it?

Hi Neil, the crickets were quite small, one about 6-8mm and the larger one was 12-14mm. (theyre on a small astilbe flowerhead thats only a few inches high at present)
Realised after with all the settings to be done using old manual lenses that i'd forgotten the iso, it was still at 100 on most of these. would bumping it up to 400 have helped get the exposure up without slowing the shutter as I expect, or am i getting the wrong idea here?

if you bumped the ISO up it would of helped the shutter speed.

Use your flash, if you don't have an external unit then use the onboard with some sort of home made diffuser.
Makes a lot of difference if you don't use a tripod, these were handheld with onboard flash.

I like the second one mike, very cool

They're all Spotted Bush Crickets. It is tricky taking macros of insects without any flash. It can be done, but needs good light and usually a tripod. Like Mike, I usually use flash

Never seen them before but they are all over my garden. Have loaded a shot of mine in the gallery. I am told that they are juvenile speckled bush crickets. Mine have only a very short horn on the back but some of these shots show a much longer horn and don't they hop well!!! thoramay

Sorry, I should have said Speckled Bush Cricket as thoramay correctly pointed out.

The "horn" on its arse is the female ovipositor. Generally, the longer it is, the more mature the cricket.

So in the first photo in the thread: the top OOF one is a young female, the main one is a male.