Nice set - I like the final one particularly

Wonderful stuff - and thank you for sharing it

They've said it all - these are magnificent

Do you need to worry about focus with the moon? I just wang it round to infinity

Afraid not, but I quote from May's "Digital Camera" .... (page 20)

Techart has launched the world's first autofocus adaptor for manual lenses. (....) the device enables you to turn a manual Leica M lens into an auto focus lens. It can also be used with other lenses. $349 www.techartpro.com

Since it's in a respected magazine, we must have imagined the Pentax one in our dreams?

Give 'em their due, they did provide us with some quite positive editorial in the same edition

Super portraits

They came up with some amazing stuff over the years. I recall a computer application that printed a strip of paper similar to a bar code which could later be read by the appropriate Kodak reader. The bar code was the equivalent of today's SD card except it could be photocopied, faxed, posted and still be capable of being read to reproduce the original image, text, program code or whatever consituted the original. Brilliant idea -- it flopped
Going back to Chinon, I've got an f1.7 50mm. Lovely lens

I found a pair of the tiniest toadstools I have ever seen growing in a seedtray into which I have recently pricked out some summer flowers
This first picture is simply to provide scale and context. The green seedlings have just sprouted their 1st pair of true leaves



The degree of magnification reduced the available DofF considerably and the real plants kept getting in the way.
The little green thing here is not one of them - it's a weed but I daren't pull it out !



The surrounding compost is transformed into a pile of gigantic boulders through which these oh so delicate things emerged



A portrait of each of them






These were taken with a Pentax SMC 'M' 100mm f4 macro lens on a 12mm extension tube, on fully extended Pentax bellows and a K5
The result is pushing the limits but none of these crops is anywhere approaching 100%

I use more manual than auto lenses but, that said, if a faster focus is needed, my old eyes can't cope and so I use a Tamron 28-200 AF. Otherwise, I absolutely adore my extensive collection of MF lenses and I match them to the task in hand.
As to John's comment regarding how hard people have used their 2nd hand lenses, the front element of my 'stack of primes' SMC 35-105mm looks like it has undergone a meteor bombardment but the results from it are consistently very good. On the other hand, an SMC 'A' f1.7 50mm that I have is a complete lemon despite it looking like a near mint bargain.
Given the cost of these on E-Bay (peanuts) you will be daft not to try them out. If you don't like it, what have you lost? Sell it on. You pay "a lens a month" worth for your mobile phone, so why not pay the same and get some value from it

I have no idea how I missed this on Ebay - you would have had some more competition. It looks to be well worth the purchase
(Absolutely wonderful accomodation you had there)