Thanks, all, glad you liked them. I was afraid that the macro shots might be considered "cheating" even though they're with a kit lens! I got the idea for doing this from Nass's
Anybrand MP-E65 project with a nudge from reading
Lefkowitz. Being a masochist, and not having an expendible 50mm A series lens to sacrifice to create Nass's empty lens with aperture control capability, I put up with a darker viewfinder than his set-up would produce. At some point I'm gonna get me
an adapter ring that will offer me aperture control of reversed lenses lacking an aperture ring, like the 18-55. I would deglass it, of course. I'm guessing other kit zooms might be good as well. My first kit zoom macros were with an old F 35-80. I wasn't expecting much, so when I saw what it could do, I was amazed. The shot that made me go WOW was this one of a dandelion with dark specks on it:
With the unaided eye, I really couldn't tell what those funny little dark things were, I only knew I'd never seen a Dandelion with those on before. I magnified the playback and HOLY CRAP THOSE ARE BUGS!
100% crop of the above shot:
Here I am seeing compound eyes and body hairs on creatures I never knew existed, on things that I didn't even know were creatures at all when I took the shot. Not bad for a lens I got for free off a junked Pentax AF film body.
For the price of a reverse adapter, you can't go wrong.
---------- Post added 06-28-18 at 01:18 PM ----------
Originally posted by LensBeginner ... but never thought to try it on a zoom lens, always used it on primes, becauseI reasoned that quality could't possibly be good...
I'm going to try that for sure
That's what I'd thought as well. Maybe there are lenses that are technically "better" than what I'm using that would give "better" results, but this works for me. I know there are all sorts of things that I have to put up with, but I'm willing to do so to get the results I get.This might be one of those times where "better is the enemy of good." I really enjoy the flexibility that the zoom gives me, letting me accomodate subjects of varying size by just adjusting the focal length.
Moving slightly off the purpose of this thread, I've had great results from reversed movie lenses as well, using D mount optics originally meant for 8mm cine cameras. Having seen what the kit zooms have done for me, I wonder what an old zoom movie lens might accomplish? Lefkowitz advises against using w/a or zoom movie lenses for reverse macro work, but I wonder if that is part of the same conventional wisdom that advised/advises against reversing zoom still camera lenses. I wonder...
The Laowa 25mm 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro looks interesting, but I'm not sure it's going to give me enough "more" of what my kit lens reversal play gives me. The laowa would get me to 5X; the 18-55 almost gets to 4. Both are manual aperture without auto diaphragm. The Laowa has more diaphragm blades, so there's that. I'm sure it would work very well, but I do enjoy the fun factor of doing what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and that's not nothing. Cheaper, too.So far, I feel I have yet to exhaust the potential of the reversed 18-55; I might perform some upgrades like getting that (deglassed) adapter that would allow more precise aperture control, but I think that any problems with my results are more my technique than the lens.