Life will be far more fun if you don't ... trust me!

Steve

Or there's the Irix 150mm macro (manual focus) for about £400, put it on a 1.4TC and its a 210mm f4 macro. Great for bug-hunting . Not sure what it would do with the F1.7 AF adapter, I've resisted the temptation (so far...).

Steve

Nobody has mentioned the blue and white versions yet... Anybody want one??

Steve

And here is the same pin-head taken with a Q-S1 on the bellows and electronic shutter (stack of 11). It does seem to have less wobble than with the K3. And the amount of detail it is picking up appears to be more than with the K3, presumably due to the smaller and more closely packed pixels. This looks like the way to go for high magnification macro (OK, I know both the K3 and Q-S1 are getting the same image and the Q-S1 is just doing a centre crop...).




And I seem to have stumbled on one reason for slight wobble: everything is fixed to a desk which is on a carpet on floorboards, so the desk itself isn't a rigid fixture. Nothing I can do about that apart from be very, very careful.... or install a concrete floor in the spare bedroom .

Steve

Thanks. I'm not sure yet what the cause of slight wobble is, but I should have pointed out that it's an indoor, desk-mounted macro rig. There's a board clamped to the desk and everything clamped to either the board or the edge of the desk. So not a tripod in sight (and no room for one, either). The camera (now with bellows) is on a geared head, with Novoflex crossed focus racks for positioning and 'move the camera' stacks. The subject is on a slider (Manfrotto) for fore/aft positioning which is mounted on a scissor-jack lifter for vertical positioning. A bit Heath-Robinson in concept, but it's very flexible and can deal with all sizes of subject from a pin-head to Mrs L's plants (which I must never, ever damage ).

Like you, I don't dare touch anything once it's set up for a shot, except for adjusting position between shots for a stack. Each shot is triggered by wireless remote with 3-sec delay. Live view with HDMI output to PC with big screen (also on the desk) means I don't have to go near the camera - or even move - to see what's on its display.

To be honest, I'm not sure whether the slight wobble is something to be concerned about or not. If it can be induced by shutter movement then it is. If it can't be then it won't affect the picture so it isn't a concern. It would be nice if the K3 had electronic shutter so no chance of shutter-induced motion, but as far as I can see it doesn't (please don't tell me that the K3III has it.....). So there's some investigation to be done. It should keep me occupied for a while during the dark, autumn evenings .

Steve

Perhaps Ricoh didn't drop lots of pre-release hints because it's more of a mid-life refresh (to use automotive terminology) than a new model. It seems to have surprised people on other forums, too. Still, it's nice to see a new non-mirrorless on the market. And strangely comforting to see the usual moaning threads appear on other forums (we surely wouldn't do that here...:wink!!

Steve

A Pentax Bellows A. Just for fun, of course.

The bellows had its (their?) first outing today. The Laowa 25mm x2.5-5 macro was attached at full 5x magnification and f4. The aim was to see how far the lens could be pushed with bellows and to find out where there might be problems with my current macro rig. A pin was therefore positioned in front of the lens. An LED light and reflector were added without any thought for artistic effect. A set of 22 shots were taken, moving the back standard (with camera attached) slightly between shots. And here is the focus-stacked result. Approx 9x magnification (width of pinhead on sensor/true width of pinhead). Not the best picture ever produced, but it shows promise and is not the mass of diffraction-blur that I was half expecting.




And the problems? Only one so far. What seemed rock solid at around 1x magnification is not rock solid at 9x - it's close but could do better. So another challenge to be overcome!

Steve

Lovely little things (as long as they are outside the house). The pictures ooze cuteness .

I have to use a camera trap to see mine. They emerge after dark and raid the bird feeders. Some have even learned to flip the lid of the nut feeder to get inside - so much easier than nibbling a nut through wire mesh.

Steve

The face of Desparate Dan with the hair of Dennis the Menace - once seen, never unseen! Great picture .

Steve

And hello to you, too

What are you kicking? Anything interesting?

Steve