Also, it depends on the genre. In macro, lots of lenses without contacts are very usable, especially enlarger lenses & objectives that will never have them.

This doesn't surprise me. Most camera companies seem like consumer luddites to me, relying largely on 25 year old ideas of what a camera should be, with very little innovation at all, whilst lazily relying on profits by box shifting compacts. I mean sure we get more pixels and faster fps but that's just better components. But they're not thinking along USP lines, ie what can we make this bit of tin do that a phonecam can't. Honestly the camera business has to be amongst the most conservative of businesses there is - heck they even look the same as cameras of 30 yrs ago

Give zerene stacker a shot too, it's the best out there

I can't tell you about the budget list, but the recommended list is a bit off.

The 58-1 has been superceded by the 58-II, on which the firmware is upgradable
The 540 is ok but expensive and lacks some functionality of the 58-II
48 and 530, don't know sorry
The 360 is ok but there's a new model out which has tils and swivel, the older just tilts? (up and down)

In terms of budget, google a bit about the Yongnuo YN 560 III, it's allegedly a good budget priced alternative to the Pentax 540

Link?

Of 5 purchases, 1 seller didn't understand what they sold me and hadn't used it much so the item wasn't quite as described, but I was able to work round it and I'm 100% happy. What's nice about buying from here is that it tends to be from names you know so they're unlikely to be scam artists. And it's UK, I've only ever bought one item from the other place simply because there just strikes me that much more can go wrong with Transatlantic purchases. So yes, very happy.

Yeah, I should have bought one months ago but the price is criminal. It's actually most useful for me in the adjustment stage, getting the thing in focus and facing the right way and diffusion ok and having the flashes angled right. I usually illuminate with a Jansjo and output onto PC screen during that adjustment which eats juice. That used to be a very hurried process with spare batteries on hand, but with the power lead I can do it properly and take my time now, 1-2 hrs getting the setup right isn't atypical. It's a great relief. It was worth the wait, I got it for 30 on ebay in the end.

Hello,

I do, ping me a mail if you need hard or soft, and your address.

Cheers

This is the sort of eveness you can get with a shape like this, although again this is a slightly different variant which actually stretches diffuser material quite far back too. Because of it being far back it means you can get a bit underneath the subject too. With this particular lens I have a huge working distance of about 10cm or so, so there's plenty of room for a diffuser on top



Small Elephant Hawkmoth by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, on Flickr

This works for me, although I use a different connector nowadays as PC-sync is a binary signal whereas PTTL requires a different signal. One thing to look at is the differential between the bottom of the eye and the top of the eye. It's a problem I havn't properly solved myself yet although I have a slightly different setup this year using a beauty dish. We'll see



Equipment For Reverse Lens Extreme Macro Photography by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, on Flickr