PentaxForums.com - View Single Post - Looking for suggestions on a macro Lens for butterflies and bees

rvannatta · 12-07-2008, 09:30 PM

Originally Posted by K10DJIM

Duh Vinci,

Thanks a bunch for your help. I greatly appreciate it. I viewed the links you attached and found them to be extremely interesting. What a great way to gain experience and to communicate with some fantastic people like yourself. Thanks again.

Jim

what you want to do is technically the most difficult thing there is.---small moving things.----

Usually flash photography is necessary for these things because you need the lens shut down to F16 or so to get thte depth of field, and you need a quick exposure to stop the action.

One of my favorite accessories is a 'ring light' but unfortunately
Pentax changed their flash technology a few years ago when they abandoned support for the 'TTL' flash automation and adopted the P-TTL solution. There is an announced but as yet undelivered rightlite supporting this new technology which hopefully will be available soon. The ring light screws into
the filter holder on the front of the lens and is thus usable at extremely short distances---- even an inch or two.

I have an old style pentax ringlite which works in manual flash mode and is usable, but a flash that suported flash automation
would be so much better. There are other ways such as bounces and reflections from conventional flash units that will work.

12-07-2008, 09:30 PM	#7
rvannatta Pentaxian Location: Apiary, Oregon Gallery Photos: 0 Posts: 331	Originally Posted by K10DJIM Duh Vinci, Thanks a bunch for your help. I greatly appreciate it. I viewed the links you attached and found them to be extremely interesting. What a great way to gain experience and to communicate with some fantastic people like yourself. Thanks again. Jim what you want to do is technically the most difficult thing there is.---small moving things.---- Usually flash photography is necessary for these things because you need the lens shut down to F16 or so to get thte depth of field, and you need a quick exposure to stop the action. One of my favorite accessories is a 'ring light' but unfortunately Pentax changed their flash technology a few years ago when they abandoned support for the 'TTL' flash automation and adopted the P-TTL solution. There is an announced but as yet undelivered rightlite supporting this new technology which hopefully will be available soon. The ring light screws into the filter holder on the front of the lens and is thus usable at extremely short distances---- even an inch or two. I have an old style pentax ringlite which works in manual flash mode and is usable, but a flash that suported flash automation would be so much better. There are other ways such as bounces and reflections from conventional flash units that will work.