You should see the cutting room floor. It is almost too difficult a setup to use in the field (for me anyway).

The ones that work best for me are 1, 4 & 9, which are the ones with more muted colour and lower contrast. The mood seems to suit the blur better. I really like the subject matter of 6 but the bright patch distracts. The others I find a little too hard to view, especially the horse with the ghosting. The sombre and faded industrial look though I think works well.

Impressive lack of CA on the sparrow mind.

3 is a lovely image, the last is good, takes a while for a non gannet expert to work out those are feet.

Here is the contribution from the final third of the reversed Nikkor enlarging lens French contingent.

I bought the lens a year ago after seeing the results that Charlotte achieved. However, after trying it on tubes and reversed on various lenses I just didn't get on with it and gave up. Leaving France has prompted me into action as it is a good place for bug shooting. My shutter count has gone up considerably in the last few days but I am starting to see the potential. I am covered in bites and stings and my elbows are sore. This method is reversed onto lenses, not the butchered zoom. I have measured the working distance on the DFA100macro as 2.8cm - it's not easy to approach the subject. Lighting is provided by the Pringles tube method, which actually worked surprisingly well so I shall stick with that. I can't imagine a more difficult area of photography. Most of these images have faults with them but they do demonstrate the potential of the combination. I love the rich, earthy tones which I think suit the subjects. Varying magnifications according to lens (DFA100 or 77) and how far it was extended:

Golden Waspy Looking Thing




Regular Small Fly:




Regular Small Fly A Bit Closer





Really Titchy Fly:




Robber Fly, Quite Large For A Fly:




Daddy Longlegs:




Aphids:




WTF:




Leafhopper (4-5mm):




Grasshopper Nymph ie: Really Titchy Grasshopper (3-4mm)

I have concluded my testing. I tried the Nikkor reversed onto the DFA100 and the 77. The Nikkor wide open and the other lens stopped down as much as possible. The 100 works best with the focus set to 0.35m. There is just a little vignetting but the focal distance is a little less than 3cm which I find only just usable in the field, in fact mostly just too difficult to get a shot. The 77 is easier to work with - you get 4cm or so and a better (almost usable) depth of field. However, I can't get rid of the vignetting. Clearly the butchered zoom is the way to go, which of course you both knew.

Good work, the puffin lineup is really well seen.

Thanks, that sounds good. I have finished processing my efforts. I'm off to see if I can find an optimal depth of field setting. Now I am making progress with the Nikkor then there can be no going back.

Do you have a display of your macros somewhere?

It nearly drove me nuts trying to work out the effects of the different permutations of aperture of the reversed Nikkor and the other lens - I tried 55mm, 77m and 100 macro. I couldn't work out any correlation whatsoever of vignetting and sharpness. I am now convinced that the butchered zoom is unbeatable. It doesn't make any sense tio me but I will be in touch for some lessons..

That is clearly a serious improvement on what I can do reversed on to the DFA100 - my guess would be 3 to 4 times the depth of field and nowhere near the vignetting. I wonder why it should make that difference, I imagine the tube length would be similar.

I tried it first on the tubes, hopeless, and then onto the macro. Initially hopeless but complete envy spurred me on to 'not bad'. If the butchered zoom is a big step up then I will up my ebay bids.