It's not M42, but I do very much love my M-28mm F3.5. Does anyone know if this has the same glass as the Takumar 28mm F3.5?

Regards
David

I agree with Darkskies on this one. I've done a fair bit of gig photography and whilst John R's shot is good and illustrates what's possible in certain situations, it's not what I would call a gig shot. You want action, you want drama, you want sharpness, colour and movement - but not blur! That's why you need a reasonably high shutter speed, Darkskies says 1/25 minimum, but this is nowhere near enough for most gig shots. I have just my K-3 and K-5iis, but I can't get any decent results (what I would call decent anyway) above ISO 1600. Any higher than this and I start to hate the noise, so I tend not to use these images. This is why my DA*50-135 is my most used lens for these events, because it has a constant F2.8 aperture and gets used a lot at the maximum. Yes, it would be great to have more cheaper (F4) lenses, but not for specialist use like Darkskies is referring to.

BTW, my gig shots are nowhere near pro quality, I see them as decent amateur attempts, but I can't really do much better with the kit I have.

Regards
David

Hi David

AF is a non-starter I think, the conditions (as you will be well aware) that you are working in for extreme macro are really not conducive to using AF, even if you butchered a zoom that has this facility. I think you would struggle to get any decent AF results.

Regards
David

Hi David

These are really great in every way, colours, subjects, sharpness, composition, they hit the mark for me. I particularly like the first one, 55 degrees.

Regards
David

Hi David, I've done this too, but not the way you've described it. I removed the glass from an automatic zoom lens, which is then mounted on the camera as normal to preserve aperture control. I then mounted a Nikon F2.8 Enlarger Lens (reversed) onto the filter ring of the de-glassed zoom. This too provides extreme magnification, but at a shorter working distance than you have here. I used it to shoot insects in their natural surroundings, which is a pretty difficult task with that setup, but can yield some spectacular result with a lot of practice and favourable outdoor conditions (no wind, even a light breeze scuppers this). Here is one example of a shot taken this way:




Cheers
David

Hi John, yes the inks are a ridiculous price, but only if you buy OEM. I've used third party inks for years with no issues, mine are from 'Signal Inks'. They don't clog and the photos on my walls haven't faded or degraded in any way after several years of display. As far as I can tell, the colour fidelity is accurate too.

Regards
David

Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to view and comment, much appreciated.

Regards
David

Some great images in this set, the ones that grab me the most are 4, 5, 6 and 10. Hope 2018 is a better year for you.

Regards
David

It's good to see the rip-off manufacturers of printers finally coming to their senses, although you can use refillable inks anyway with any printer if you buy refillable cartridges or ink tank systems. However, the real scandal is the printers shutting down after a specified number of print cycles due to 'waste tanks being full'. This effectively bricks the printer unless you pay to get it reset, which results in people buying a brand new printer. This practice should be outlawed and printer manufacturers should be forced to stop marketing products with a built-in time bomb.

Regards
David

What a gorgeous image, I'm not surprised you revisited it!

Regards
David