Last week I went to Cornwall armed with just my K1 and the SMC 85mm SOFT (thanks Lennybloke), plus extension tubes. This 30 year old lens allows variable soft focus between F2.8 and f8.0 and for soft focus flowers I find the optimum is F4.5, whilst reducing the aperture below F8.0 results in nice sharp images like a normal lens. I also switched ISO from auto, which tends to be my default, to daylight for these and I must say the colour rendering is far better.

And making it's way up my window to goodness knows where was this small slug. I ended up blending two shots in photoshop to keep it reasonably sharp from head to tail. Pentax K1 + 100mm macro, manual focus.

Ditto re. the wren, they are so quick and never keep still so you have done a really good job in capturing it, well done.

The last offer of the day - again in excellent condition and including lens and end caps, hood, S80-80 soft bag, operating manual and original box. Asking price £225.00 including postage within the UK.

I am putting this lens up for sale, it is in excellent condition with no scratches or marks, clean glass with no visible dust or fungus. It comes as originally issued with end and lens caps, hood, S80-80 soft case, user manual and box. Asking price £299.00 including postage within the UK.

Is anyone interested in this lens? It is a great general purpose lens when you only want the one with you, it is in excellent condition with no visible dust or fungus. Complete with end caps, hood, S80-120 soft case, operating manual and box all as originally supplied. I am looking for £400.00 including postage within the UK.

Given that the K1 is rated to 350,000 shutter activations this really shouldn’t be an issue.

I am thinking of selling my Lee Filters SW150 set, comprising the following:
Lens adaptor for Tamron 15-30mm lens and the Pentax 15-30mm lens. £60.00
SW150 mark II filter holder £100.00
SW150 screw-in 82mm adaptor £45.00
SW150 circular polariser in metal case £100.00
SW150 Little Stopper in metal case £90.00
SW150 Big Stopper in metal case £90.00
SW150 ND Graduated Soft Set (3) with individual fabric sleeves & 3-filter field pouch. £180.00
SW150 ND Graduated Hard Set (3) with individual fabric sleeves & 3-filter field pouch £180.00
SW150 field pouch, black, for 10 filters £25.00

All are in excellent condition, with no scratches or marks on the filters and complete with original packaging. If there is any interest I will post some photos.

Hi Steve, you are not increasing depth of field but simply changing the focal plane: in normal situations the focal plane is parallel to the camera sensor so that things nearer and further away are out of focus, by tilting the focal plane that depth of field stays the same and instead items above and below the focal plane go out of focus. You can also rotate it sideways so items on one side of the image are sharp but on the other side are soft, it is used to get that “toy” effect so that a real railway looks like a model railway etc.

A popular application is for seascapes whereby you can get sharpness from nearby to the horizon, as there are no vertical elements to get softened. This saves focus stacking which is difficult with moving elements like the sea.

To be honest though I very rarely use the tilt and hardly ever take the lens along in a bag for landscapes “just in case” and have only ever used it on a beach on a very calm day given its vulnerability to sand and salt spray. Given it is a 24mm lens I have found a wide angle lens focused on the right spot will give great depth of field anyway.

So in answer to your question, no it wouldn’t help with macro!

I was reminded by Womble's recent post that I haven't used the tilt part of my Samyang 24mm TS lens for ages, so I went down to the woods to give it another go. A tripod is a must as you have to tweak the camera angle and degree of tilt to frame up, the aim is to turn (in this case) the focal plane from vertical to horizontal; the amount to tilt is less than you imagine and is explained in the Scheimpflug Principle. That way everything at ground level is sharp (you have to manually focus) even using wide apertures and things higher above become out of focus, in these examples my tripod was at minimum height and the lens set at f8:




And for good measure a couple with the 50mm Macro lens: