Took some shots this AM of the final blooms on a Crepe Myrtle next to our mailbox. Cool caterpillar that I tried different lens combos on to also practice my manual focus w/o a diagonal or prism. Enjoy.

Soligor 135mm, mf, 1/40", SR on (handheld), EV +0.7, ISO 100, F2.8 (I think)
you can see the blurry critter in the bottom of this first frame

Kiron 28-70 Macro, mf, 1/100", SR on (handheld), EV +0.7, F5.6, ISO 200

DA18-55ALII (42mm) with 6x close-ups, AF.s, 1/100", SR on (hand), EV 0, F7.1, ISO 200

SMC-M 50mm F1.7, 2x TC, mf, 0.6" (tripod, self-timer), SR off, EV +0.7, F16 (32 equivalent?), ISO 100

Soligor 135mm, mf, 100% crop, 1/30", ISO 200, (tripod), SR on (not using self timer), EV +0.7, F(?) taken from about 6' away then cropped PP

[jimH]

Good job on the manual focus! Neat shots of the caterpillar, very colorful.

[Ash]

The first three have a brilliance about them from the backlighting.
Josh, these ol' MF lenses render some lovely images.
Well done.

[jheu02]

The first three have a brilliance about them from the backlighting.
Josh, these ol' MF lenses render some lovely images.
Well done.

Thanks both for the comments.

Regarding older lenses, I put up a couple others taken this morning with the Soligor 135 F2.8 in the thread titled that from a couple days ago. I think the 100% crop one really came out nice, just wish I had remembered to write down what f-stop I used. That lens also seems to have some nice Bokeh.

Maybe it's the cheapskate in me, but I find it kind of fun to do some research on an "off" lens and see what it can do. The Soligor was a "bonus" lens. I won an auction in which I was going for an SMC-M 50mm F1.7. It ws attached to an ME body and the Soligor came with. Looks almost brand new (still has the inspection sticker!)

Another Soligor arrived today MC 85-300 C/D F5 Macro. It goes to 1:2 in macro and is built like a tank. Heavy metal indeed. LBA has seriously set in.

[and]

the first shot looks a bit muted but the next three have ha nice pop to them with great sharpenss and color. thats one weird caterpillar