[kwb]

With Q7, SMC PENTAX MACRO 1:4 50mm and PENTAX K-Q adapter.


Jumping spider feasting on crane fly by k kwb, on Flickr

[baro-nite]

Good catch, both you and the spider!

Pentax 03 lens @ minimum focus (about 1 inch):

IMGP4123

[kwb]

Pentax 03 lens @ minimum focus (about 1 inch):

Good sharpness and color, good job!

03 is the most closeup-friendly of the native Q lenses I own (03>02>08>06=01 in terms of maximum physical magnification).

Good sharpness and color, good job!

03 is the most closeup-friendly of the native Q lenses I own (03>02>08>06=01 in terms of maximum physical magnification).

Thanks!

It really gives a unique perspective, doesn't it?

The bee image is pretty much SOOC, a little sharpening and vibrance added. I shot it on a Q7 with a strip of paper over the contacts, to get a little more coverage.

[kwb]

It really gives a unique perspective, doesn't it?

The bee image is pretty much SOOC, a little sharpening and vibrance added. I shot it on a Q7 with a strip of paper over the contacts, to get a little more coverage.

Yes, interesting perspective indeed!
If you're post processing anyway, why shoot in jpeg? I guess that's why you need to cover contacts, to prevent Q7 to automatically crop a little when producing jpeg?

Yes, interesting perspective indeed!
If you're post processing anyway, why shoot in jpeg? I guess that's why you need to cover contacts, to prevent Q7 to automatically crop a little when producing jpeg?

Right. Even if you shoot in RAW with the 03 on the Q7 it will autocrop to fill the frame. It isn't a big deal, but you do get a little more coverage and can easily clone out the corners.

I almost always shoot jpegs, with minimal camera sharpening, always sharpening in PP. I've never been able to justify the time or storage requirements that RAW demands for the results I get. If the lighting is particularly bad I will shoot RAW once in a while for more control of color temperature.

[kwb]

Right. Even if you shoot in RAW with the 03 on the Q7 it will autocrop to fill the frame. It isn't a big deal, but you do get a little more coverage and can easily clone out the corners.

Hmm, I was quite sure that the DNG file contains all pixels without cropping from my experience with RawTherapee some time ago, but nowadays I use Lightroom, I looked at one of my files and sure enough, it seems to be auto-cropped. But using RawTherapee it's not.

Attached are screen shots of embedded jpeg, Lightroom and RawTherapee in this order.

What's going on here seems to be that the DNG contains full pixels as well as cropping information, and Adobe products honor that to autocrop and stretch, but RawTherapee doesn't. I don't know how to bypass auto cropping in Lightroom, so if I want to get the full pixels maybe I also need to cover the contacts.

I didn't know about RAW Therapy. I just use Photoshop.

Great examples, that's exactly the kind of lighting situation where I would use RAW.

[kwb]

Great examples, that's exactly the kind of lighting situation where I would use RAW.

Thank you.

[barondla]

Right. Even if you shoot in RAW with the 03 on the Q7 it will autocrop to fill the frame. It isn't a big deal, but you do get a little more coverage and can easily clone out the corners.

Do you cover all the electrical connections?
Anyone know if SilkyPix, packed with the Q, auto crops in Raw?
Thanks
barondla

Do you cover all the electrical connections?
Anyone know if SilkyPix, packed with the Q, auto crops in Raw?
Thanks
barondla

I cut a piece of paper in a "c" shape somewhat bigger than the row of contacts, then, with the camera body on its back, mounted the 03 lens. You have to enter 3.2 on the opening screen to enable SR properly.

I've never used SilkyPix, so I don't know.

It seems to me that the non-auto cropped image has a little more resolution than the auto crop, at least towards the edges, in addition to giving more coverage. Here is a cropped image (not auto cropped) from the 03 that is also on the "Insects" thread:

IMGP1295

Front element was about 1 inch from the bees, I shot at ISO 800 to freeze motion. Looks like lens and sensor resolution limits are pretty close to each other, you could probably get a little more at ISO 200 but then the bees' motion would show up.

[barondla]

Superb dual bee shot! Very impressive quality. Like the dramatic look.

Thanks for the info Cipher. Tried the c paper and it worked fine on the Q7/03. Not surprised the uncropped has more resolution. Cropping throws away pixels. Original Q is probably sharper than the Q7 in crop mode with 03.

Thanks for sharing
barondla

Superb dual bee shot! Very impressive quality. Like the dramatic look.

Thanks for the info Cipher. Tried the c paper and it worked fine on the Q7/03. Not surprised the uncropped has more resolution. Cropping throws away pixels. Original Q is probably sharper than the Q7 in crop mode with 03.

Thanks for sharing
barondla

Flickr erodes some IQ too, the original file is even better. That dramatic look the 03 gives in extreme close-ups would be hard to duplicate with any larger format sensor, and certainly not hand-held. The 03 may only be a "toy" lens, but what a great toy!

[kwb]

Anyone know if SilkyPix, packed with the Q, auto crops in Raw?

I checked today and SilkyPix auto-crops when loading DNG, but you can revert it back.
Click "trim" button (scissors icon at the top), then press "Enable all data including invalid area in RAW data" button at the bottom right of "Setting for trimming" window.