It is. And there's no going back. Once a macroholic, always a macroholic...

Nice moth, nicely shot.

Steve

Your usual lunch during lockdown?

Steve

Thanks folks.
Natural light. Low, bright sun from the right direction. Lucky to find one on a dock, shots of the same on the white flower heads of hogweed etc. were OK for identification but fairly boring as photographs.

Steve

Smaller than a Daddy Long Legs and more brightly coloured - abdomen is orange with a broken black stripe along the back and each side. They seem to like hogweed, but this one was visiting a dock. Taken during the daily dog walk around the usual field. There's a lot to be seen in the undergrowth

K3 + Sigma 105mm macro.

Thoughts and comments etc. welcome as usual.




Steve

Thanks folks. Appreciated.

Steve

Not just you...

No. 9 also stands out for me. Everything draws the eye towards that magnificent, big cloud (and is Dumbo flying in from the left?? :shock.

Steve

It never went away - repeats of matches from years ago and pundits discussing their top 10 greatest corner kicks of all time.

Steve

Correct, at least for the Pentax (I don't know about others). Usefully, the Pentax is calibrated so 1 step on the aperture ring corresponds to 1 stop. Not sure whether that's the case for 3rd party adapters.

A nice feature of the Pentax is that a tripod mount of the type used by the DA*300 can be fitted. Essential for macro or a long 'equivalent focal length' lens that doesn't have its own mount, unless you've got very, very steady hands (or you want to risk bending the camera by using the camera's tripod socket :shock

BHphotovideo.com (New York) claims to have the genuine Pentax adapter in stock. When I was looking a couple of months ago, the only other place I found with one in stock was the Ricoh UK/Europe store - and I bought the last one . There were none new or used in the major UK stores, but that doesn't mean there isn't one on a dusty shelf in a store room somewhere in the UK. And I didn't look in Japan or for used copies.

If you haven't already seen it, have a look at user experience in link before you press the button on a lens/adapter combination. Some results are surprising. And it seems that almost any lens can be attached to a Q if you're determined enough!

Good luck!

Steve

Thanks folks.
I apply the Fundamental Rule of Photography, which is --- never show your failures .

You're right about it not being easy. I'm not far up the learning curve myself. That shot actually took hours to produce, including a couple of attempts that didn't quite work out. But once you've started, you've got to keep going, admitting defeat is not an option!!

Steve

I've got the genuine Pentax version, had it for a couple of months. It's pricey but very well made. You're right about it allowing use of lenses without an aperture ring. I always use the iris shutter and haven't noticed any effect on battery life. Any effect is probably minimal compared to the power consumed by the screen while you struggle with manual focus and a screen that's not exactly the easiest to see in most lights.

Whatever the adapter, you'll need to use a lens that can do justice to the tightly packed pixels of the Q's sensor. It's totally unforgiving of aberrations that aren't a problem with an APS-C or full frame sensor. Best to stick to good, modern, primes rather than zooms or old lenses. The 35mm f2.8 macro works well for me, although accurate manual focus at long distance can be tricky because the slightest movement of the focus ring has a big effect at long distance. The 35mm f2.4 is easier to focus at long distance but can show some coloured fringing. When attached to a Q, they're the biggest lenses that could reasonably be called 'pocketable' (and only if you've got good-sized pockets...), which is what the Q is all about.

Here are a couple of scenic examples (second one with a Q-S1), both focussed on the distant monument and hand-held while also while holding a dog on a lead (the dog is not obligatory but if it can be done with a dog then it can be done a lot better without one :wink. Also a shot of part of an elderflower with the Q-S1 + Irix 150mm macro (on a tripod and no dog ), showing the huge magnification that can be achieved.

1. Q + 35mm f2.8 macro



2. Q-S1 + 35mm f2.4



3.Q-S1 + Irix 150mm macro



Hope that helps. And have fun with your Q!

Steve