[Thagomizer]

Mate they are some fine macro shots.

Thanks!

[Scout]

Yesterday night,
the ferry boat at Indre makes the connection between shores of La Loire (north and south), from the morning to the night

35mm F2.4 Pentax K70
cross posted

[Scout]

Green tomato DA 35mm F2.4

[Thagomizer]

Decided to skip the extension tube trial and opted for some macro shots with the DA 35/2.4 in reversed position. To give me some aperture control, I used a Fotodiox adapter originally intended for mounting Pentax lenses on Nikon bodies. Removing the supplied optics meant for infinity focus in its primary role, I end up with a fairly thin ring that lets me change the aperture on my reversed lens despite its lack of aperture ring. It doesn't eat up a lot of working room; I can still get light onto my subjects from the onboard flash with my trusty Pringles tin extender/diffuser. Horizontal field of view is about 17mm, so this is 1.43X magnification.

Here's that Fotodiox adapter:




Results? I'm quite pleased. Can't say I've ever had such a good look at the neck muscles of the insects I shoot!




And at 100%:






100%:









100% again:



I'll have to try it on my K-S2, as its focus peaking is a bit more user friendly than that of the PK: it doesn't wink off when you apply any pressure to the shutter release button, but stays on through the exposure process.

Cross posted with "Macro by any means necessary" and "Show me your insects" threads.

[ChristianRock]

Decided to skip the extension tube trial and opted for some macro shots with the DA 35/2.4 in reversed position. To give me some aperture control, I used a Fotodiox adapter originally intended for mounting Pentax lenses on Nikon bodies. Removing the supplied optics meant for infinity focus in its primary role, I end up with a fairly thin ring that lets me change the aperture on my reversed lens despite its lack of aperture ring. It doesn't eat up a lot of working room; I can still get light onto my subjects from the onboard flash with my trusty Pringles tin extender/diffuser. Horizontal field of view is about 17mm, so this is 1.43X magnification.

Here's that Fotodiox adapter:




Results? I'm quite pleased. Can't say I've ever had such a good look at the neck muscles of the insects I shoot!



And at 100%:






100%:









100% again:



I'll have to try it on my K-S2, as its focus peaking is a bit more user friendly than that of the PK: it doesn't wink off when you apply any pressure to the shutter release button, but stays on through the exposure process.

Cross posted with "Macro by any means necessary" and "Show me your insects" threads.

Really nice. Excellent results. Some people frown at inverter rings, but I find them to be the easiest and cheapest way to get macro shots - other than having an actual dedicated macro lens.

[Grippy]

P3II9300

[Thagomizer]

Really nice. Excellent results. Some people frown at inverter rings, but I find them to be the easiest and cheapest way to get macro shots - other than having an actual dedicated macro lens.

Thanks! One of the nice things about reversing a lens is that you always know you're going to have a working distance at least equal to the registration distance. Using extension is often not as generous when using wider angle lenses; the point of focus can be inside the lens!

[StarTroop]

I fell guilty sometimes for not using my plastic fantastic enough. It was the first Pentax lens I bought, before my KP even arrived, and it's still the only one I bought new, yet I still mainly use my DA Ltd and vintage lenses for their build quality, and I already dream of replacing it with the 31mm and 40mm Ltds. Despite all that, every time I go out with the plastic fantastic I'm consistently impressed with the results, which is what keeps me from wanting an interim upgrade to the FA 35 or DA 35 Ltd.
It's just so darn sharp across the frame, fast to focus, and light enough to forget it's even on the camera, and it works well on my Super Program! I don't fool myself with its limitations, but it still goes beyond my capabilities as a photographer, so I'll be happy to force myself to keep using it for several more years at least.

Here's a shot I took at Niagara Falls a short while ago. I don't normally go for B&W because I actually have a soft spot for naturalistic, unbalanced colours, but in this case I was reminded so much of an L.A. or Vegas-style noir film that I just had to edit it in a way that evoked old cinema. I had to drastically darken the blues and brighten the reds with RawTherapee's global tools to achieve the "red filter" look, which creates some visual artifacts, but I think the darkened sky is necessary to achieve the look I'm going for. I'll probably revisit this in the future to do local adjustments in GIMP instead for the tone balance.

[asharpe]

I had to drastically darken the blues and brighten the reds with RawTherapee's global tools to achieve the "red filter" look, which creates some visual artifacts, but I think the darkened sky is necessary to achieve the look I'm going for. I'll probably revisit this in the future to do local adjustments in GIMP instead for the tone balance.

Or, bring a polarizing filter!

[Grippy]

I'm going to have to use this little ripper of a lens more, it has sat idle in my cupboard until recently.
P3II9292

[StarTroop]

Or, bring a polarizing filter!

If only I had the time to screw on my polarizer, but this was a spur of the moment shot as I was crossing a vehicle entrance, and I also didn't want to miss a shot of the guy in the suit. I've already had so many missed shots that I'm just happy that I managed to finally nab one!

[rayallen]

New growth on the cycad. K10D and plastic fantastic.

[Des]

Valencia Creek. K-30 + DA 35 f2.4




I took the same scene with my Tamron 18-250 and was astonished by the difference in resolution - visible without any pixel-peeping. I didn't use the superzoom much after that.

[Scout]

Pentax K70 DA 35mm f2.4
cross post

[rayallen]

Bad Betty. In the channel at Woy Woy. Pentax K10D.