Received the Amscope microscope objective and RMS to M42 adapter. Seems to work well; it'll be quite a beast to tame in the field for single shot images. Microscope objectives are more often used for macro stacking, which I might get to some day, but for now it'll be single image shooting.
Here's what it looks like:
Here it is mounted on the simpler of the two bellows I've got:
Working distance is pretty tight:
The field of view at about 120mm of extension is 5.13X.
What can it do? Here are some quick tests to find out. Nothing special for the lighting, just self timer and whatever AV decided to give me.
First some manufactured objects. A canadian nickel. Not exactly mint condition.
Canadian $10 bill. Our paper money is no longer paper, but polymer, so you won't see any paper fibers.
A bus ticket. (I told you nothing special for subject matter!
)
The perforated edge of the opening on a box of facial tissues. You can see how smooth the glossy card stock surface is in contrast to the fibrous interior exposed in opening the box:
And now for some organic subjects. Our violet is my most commonly used first subject for new macro gear. These were taken using my Asahi Pentax M42 Auto Bellows at slightly greater extension than the above shots. Live view rather than OVF. Unlike the above shots, I'm using the KP's on-board flash with extender/diffuser. I'll have to break out a manual- capable auxiliary flash to provide more light for future shooting. DOF is veeeery shallow.
Overall, I'm pleased. It'll take some getting used to, and I'll probably opt for tubes rather than bellows if I take it out into the wilds for bug hunting. It will be a challenge! But for $20 Canadian (!)., I figure I couldn't go far wrong. To have a look at the work of someone who actually knows what there doing, check this out Robert O'Toole's Close-up Photography:
$17 Plan 4x Objective ? Close-up Photography. He warns that there are similar looking objectives that do not perform as well. I think I got one of the good ones. Any shortfall in image quality you see in my examples above is more likely to be the result of my technique than any deficiencies in the optics. It is a demanding little lens, and I will have to up my game if I want to get the best out of it in single-shot use. I will post results here as I (I hope) progress and advance in my use of this little unit. I'm looking forward to the challenge!