Ah yes, I have seen your work before Tyr, great shots, in fact one of the first things I did with this latest setup is shoot a ball point pen, so I could compare it with yours! I got in nice and close and sharp but your lighting and a shinier pen beat mine so mine is destined for the bin.

I bought some cheap extension tubes totaling about 200mm! so I can try my prime lenses on their own. and I feel a spell in the garage coming on to knock up some sort of sliding mount.

I got the flea looking at me - very scary, and the lighting was much nicer but after a day stuck to a post-it note and then being super glued to a wire, he was looking a bit worse for wear! so I'll have to wait till Loki starts scratching again.

yes, of course!
seems obvious now you point it out! - so I just consider it one lens with a big light collector at the front and stopped down at the back for DOF. That would certainly explain the vignetting on the second one. Sometimes I feel like my brain just stops functioning! anyway, I'm learning fast (believe it or not!) and having fun in a slightly pathetic way. Has anyone guessed I'm stuck indoors with multiple babies?

this morning Loki (left) donated one of his passengers and I managed to capture the beast well enough to try out some campaign ideas!
again this was the 28mm 2.8 reversed onto the 135 3.5 and 44mm extension tube. I took off 21mm (from 65mm) as the little blighter was too big! I also opened up both lenses to f16 and as he was still alive and thrashing around I put the camera on 1 second and fired the Metz 58 by hand.
Possibly should have used an old milk carton or something on the flash to soften the highlights.



The image was cropped to show about 1mm, sharpened very slightly, levels pulled in both sides a tiny bit and the dodge tool (set to highlights) used to whiten the slightly grey background.

I now need to get the gruesome little dude to stand and face me as the composition is a bit lame.

I have finally got my hands on a 28mm prime (Soligor 28 2.8 ) - £4.50 (possibly all it's worth, but it seems nice) Anyway..
I reversed it on my 135 3.5 and it is clearly my best combination yet - the penny test (about 6x):


Then I put 65mm ext tube between them and the camera and shut both lenses down to f22, (bit too far me thinks)


Seems to have potential (about 10x now) but I am experiencing the usual vibration and focusing issues now.

firstly, does this sound like a good combination?
if so, where should the two aperture rings be set?
and what effect does focusing the various lenses have?
this might sound like a daft question but it is really difficult to tell because everything changes when I touch it and I just end up moving the camera.

Clearly I need some belows or something but I think I'll use my skateboard for now!
Are these things any good? http://cgi.ebay.com/4-way-Macro-Focusing-Rail-Slider-for-Nikon-Canon_W0QQitemZ310014671944QQihZ021QQcategoryZ30097QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks Derek, that's really helpful, cheers.
The 58 definitely does work with the onboard flash but only in certain modes and with certain lenses. I have a crap memory and I can never remember the combinations

Talking of memory, I keep forgetting I can paint with the flash, I used to do it with a torch and various girlfriends in graveyards and other spooky locations!

I'll get back to this thread when I know a bit more because I think the Metz is essentially a cracking piece of kit and it's just me.

I wouldn't read too much into my findings, it is probably me doing something wrong. Light sensors are as cheap as chips, I can't imagine Metz ruining a good Flash with a useless sensor. I'll keep you informed as I get to know it.
Incidentally, both Pentax and Metz manuals are really poor. That's why I am asking you guys.
I keep hearing about 'ebay triggers' what are they? (edit) I assume they are just any cheap trigger on ebay, but it seems an odd way to identify something

Wow! great response guys, thanks.
I was just messin' around in order to learn the equipment.
the focus issue was with the flash on the camera and I think Mannesty was correct with the green absorbing it., plus the ground dropping away. The metz grid definitely works as I saw it perfectly across my daughters face when I forgot the lens cap

Looks like a good torch and a radio remote trigger is the way to go.

I did my first product shoot at a client's with the Metz 58 today and the wireless light sensor was less than reliable. I am still getting to grips with it, but it seems to need to be pointing right at the camera and quite close, (10 feet) although it may have been something else. In any case I think the radio trigger is the way to go. any suggestions for cheap ones?

Just bought a Metz 58 AF-1 and finally found some time to try and get to grips with it! Decided to go out into a dark field with the dog (yeah you guessed it, that's not actually me on the left...that's him) and see if -
1: I could get him with the tele... and
2: I could set the flash up as a slave under a tree and take pictures of ...er...branches.
answer - no and no.
Flash failed to fire as slave - consult manual... again.
And K10/Tammy combo failed to lock onto anything in the dark (murk).

How do you take pictures in the dark? my humble finepix 9600 shines a green light to focus. The Metz claimes to shine a red grid onto the subject to aid focusing but I never saw it and the camera certainly didn't benefit.
any clues to any of this?

ah...that's cracked it. thanks. I thought it was working yesterday (beginning to think I was dreaming)

Finally found a use for the green button! yeh!
for any other newbies - you have to hit the stop down lever and then meter thru the closed aperture, either by twirling the shutter-speed wheel or hitting the green button.

I'm getting there slowly!

Bought an SMC 1:1.7 M-50mm for a tenner on ebay. Gorgeous little lens.
can't get it to stop down tho'.
Is there something I am not doing? I have set the custom setting to 'allow aperture ring' but that's all I can find.

Manual focus is fine, it's actually nice to go back to having fine control over the focus point but the narrow DOF is very limiting.