No, it's me that should say 'sorry' Alan, that one went right over my head I'm afraid! It's been a long day at work today.........

On a serious note, I never use the TC on my zooms - the results are so poor it's not worth trying. Put it on a prime though and it's pretty decent.

Regards
David

Alan, not sure what you mean by 'increasing the maximum aperture'? My 2x T/C doesn't do this! Where can we see EXIF?

Regards
David

These are great Alan, you have clearly mastered the 150-500 lens.

I can't really pick a favourite as they are all so good!

Regards
David

Do not worry about fungal spores infecting any other equipment. There's a lot of rubbish spouted about fungus in lenses and 'infecting' other items. The fact is that the old style leather cases that lenses were kept in were a breeding ground for fungus, especially if lenses were put away damp, or stored in slightly damp conditions. Spores are everywhere but they will only grow if the conditions allow.

If you can clean out the fungus by dismantling the lens and removing it from all surfaces, it will never grow back unless you leave the lens in conditions which allow it to grow. Keep it in a dry atmosphere and it cannot grow. Best thing is to use it regularly but not in the rain!

You may or may not be capable of dismantling and cleaning the lens yourself. I have successfully cleaned and re-assembled 2 Takumar lenses that were riddled with fungus, both are now perfect. I have ruined one which I could not re-assemble.

As you have got the lens for 'free' it must be worth a try, but be warned that zooms are very tricky - primes are much easier to take apart and put back together.

Regards
David

Pretty darn good for 'first attempts'! The Siskin and the Blue Tit particularly nice.

Regards
David

All four shots are brilliant Cliff. I'm not going to make any comments about rogues or MI-5 as I may get myself into trouble! I'll leave the controversial comments to other more able members in this department!

Regards
David

Is the glass in the M 28mm F3.5 the same optics as your version? I have the M 28mm F3.5 and advertised it recently for £45 but got no interest whatsoever. I would have thought someone would have wanted it? It is absolutely mint with original case.

Regards
David

PS I've taken it off sale now as I'm not letting it go for next to nothing.

It sounds like you are making for yourself a convincing case to buy yourself a dedicated 100mm Macro lens! This is probably the only way you will get the working distance you need with the correct magnification. Another alternative is a teleconverter as you have mentioned. This increases the magnification without altering the focussing distance. Therefore, with a 2x teleconverter you could get twice as far away and still get the same magnification. A macro focussing teleconverter is one step further and magnifies the image whilst also allowing you to focus even closer. However, as with most things in life there is a downside, or rather with this combination several downsides!!

1. You will lose some image quality and sharpness
2. You will lose some light (2 stops with a 2x teleconverter)
3. You will find it harder to focus accurately
4. Camera-shake will become even more of a problem

I would recommend the approach that George suggested. Buy yourself a set of decent quality tubes (dont buy the very cheap Amazon ones as they are rubbish) and experiment with them. FFordes photographic (www.ffordes.com) often have a good selection of quality tubes by makers such as Vivitar for between £10 and £20. Only when you have tried out different approaches will you be able to make a decision about what piece of equipment you should buy next.

Regards
David

Regards

Yes Barrie, Eneloops do come ready charged. I would echo all of the recommendations above for the Sanyo Eneloop batteries - they are brilliant.

Regards
David

What I was meaning was that a lens which focusses closer without a tube will also focus closer with a tube. So, assuming you have two lenses and one focusses closer than the other, using an identical extension tube length, the closer focussing lens will give you the biggest magnification!

Hope this is clear! George is also correct that you can increase the magnification with more tubes (because this will allow closer focus), but you get to a point where this becomes impractical.

George also makes a good point in that longer lenses allow more working distance between the camera and the subject, which is why I sometimes use my 135mm and 200mm lenses for macro work. Less risk of disturbing the insects this way!

Regards
David