My first macros with the ist
with the focussing, I set the lens up and then, as I was using the triopod sraight down onto the subject, used the geared section to raise and lower the whole unit in a similar wy to a macro rail.
I'll try out the photoshop trick for getting sharpness. I use GIMP, but the idea's the same.
The lens was my soligor 70-210 macro. I had to wait until I got the tubes to be able to mount it (as seen here.. https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2074).
I set it up with.. in order...
camera | 25mm ext tube | 2x converter | 2x converter | Lens
This gave me the greatest close up, after trying a number of combinations with that lens. I've got other lensses I can try, including a 28-80 macro zoom.
Cheers
Liam
"Make your hands respond to what your mind demands." Jesse James
Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the 'ah-ha'. Ernst Haas
I've got a Jessops extension tube set (13mm, 21mm & 31mm) plus a 2x convertor and a Cokin P close up filter so I should be able to get a decent amount of magnification.
Zooms have very poor close up correction in general, and don't follow the normal optical expectations when reversed either.
The last is one of my wife's rings - she has very small fingers which should give some idea of the magnification. All shot handheld with the DS set at ISO 200, 1/125 and F22, an SMC-M 50mm F1.7 with various extension rings and a 400FTZ flash off-camera using the hot-shoe adaptor and extension cord.
I originally started using a tripod but I found it much easier to work handheld, setting the lens to its closest focus and moving the camera to achieve focus.
G
For not big bucks at all, there is a ton o fun and endless subjects to shoot.
I enjoy taking pictures of parts of objects that strike me as pretty and then asking folk to figure out what they are.
Some tubes, a reversing ring and your already extensive (or not) collection of Pentax lenses (all other lenses don't work - so don't even try), and you're off to the races.
I've added an 80A blue filter so I can use available incandescent light, a table-top tripod and a bellows unit for a little more versatility. The combinations are endless, and the results are always fun - and often surprising.
Can't wait for springtime to get outside with the buds and the bugs!
Cheers,
Makes me want to do some more macro stuff - just a matter of finding some time!!
Andy
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931 posts
18 years
Bracknell Berkshire
I'm rushing off to work, but I tried out my new extension tubes a couple of days ago, and this..
http://www.liamsworld.org.uk/galleries/macro1/index.html
is the result.
I'll fill in the details later, but the clarity of the original images is stunning.
On the flower buds, there are little red dots, you can barely make them out. I can zoom in to those and fill the screen before there's any noticeable pixellation, and they can't be more than a couple of tenths of a millimetre across..!!!!!!
God knows what they'd be like in RAW. I think the depth of field is around 0.25-0.5mm, so that was fun trying to manually focus.
(The flower is Mahonia japonica if you needed to know)
Cheers
Liam
"Make your hands respond to what your mind demands." Jesse James
Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the 'ah-ha'. Ernst Haas