[Na Horuk]

He was talking about the Konica lens the OP mentioned. A PK mount lens will not need an adapter.

Yes, all Pentax K-mount lenses will connect directly, no need of adapter. But other brands might not! You need to find about what mount the lens has. Some mounts can be adapted to Pentax K-mount, but some cannot. It gets confusing when some lenses are made in many different mounts, so you need to make sure you get the lens in the mount for your camera, Pentax K.
Extension tubes and bellows can be used for almost any lens, and they will give you extra magnification.

F, FA, DFA Pentax 100mm will go directly on your camera, will give you 1:1 magnification (true macro!) at minimum focus distance, and will give you full automation (auto-aperture, auto focus). I definitely recommend any of these lenses. Stunning image quality, for a fair price!

[csa]

He was talking about the Konica lens the OP mentioned. A PK mount lens will not need an adapter.

Thanks for clarifying it!

[Volker76]

two things:

you can use the camera to set aperture. Don't buy rings for 10$. The more expensive ones have all the contacts needed. So you can use lenses without an aperture ring.

If I use macro rings with my K-30 I can't use the built in flash. The camera will just lock up. Either on the first shot or just after it. And I mean have-to-remove-battery-and-wait-a-couple-of-seconds lockup.

[Na Horuk]

Oh, one other thing you can do is buy a macro filter. Most are not very good, but some are. Especially well liked are the Raynox ones. They give good image quality.

[UncleVanya]

two things:

you can use the camera to set aperture. Don't buy rings for 10$. The more expensive ones have all the contacts needed. So you can use lenses without an aperture ring.

If I use macro rings with my K-30 I can't use the built in flash. The camera will just lock up. Either on the first shot or just after it. And I mean have-to-remove-battery-and-wait-a-couple-of-seconds lockup.

This is an odd problem and one that I haven't heard of before.

[Volker76]

it is real. Those are not 10$ plastic-without-connections-rings, but some with all the connectors. And somehow it REALLY confuses the camera.

[UncleVanya]

it is real. Those are not 10$ plastic-without-connections-rings, but some with all the connectors. And somehow it REALLY confuses the camera.

How many rings involved? Have you tried contact cleaner?

[jgirl57]

Thank you so much for the replies...

I will be speclializing in taking pictures of snowlfakes in the winter, and especially insects in the summer...
I am not fond of macro flowers at all.. but these two things just facinate me and I want to really get involved in it...

Right now I cheat and I take my 50mm lens off and then switch it around giving me the macro feel but it just doesnt do well, I plan on doing some macro stacking as well when I process it...

Hope that helps!

I am not into doing close or far away subjects

Right now I do own a Yoguono 560-II and I LOVE IT!! but only used it a few times, I hope to be out in nature taking these shots using natural lights and not indoors

---------- Post added 11-29-14 at 09:39 AM ----------

I have already tried the Macro filters just for fun and I was really not impressed with using them ... I just thought they did a crappy job and the details to the images were not there at all...

I resold those...

These are the images I really want to to try to recreate... I fell in love with these

https://www.google.com/search?q=snowflake+macro&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&imgil=45x...ml%3B662%3B497

[Volker76]

How many rings involved? Have you tried contact cleaner?

one, two, three... doesn't matter.

Using external flash on the other hand - no problem.

Using rings without contacts, no problem either.

IMHO it is the p-ttl automatic that gets thoroughly confused.

[baro-nite]

For snowflakes you need extreme (as I will call it) magnification, because a snowflake is typically only a few millimeters in diameter. Working distance is not an issue other than for lighting, and you probably want to light from the sides and/or back anyway, so not a problem.

Note that many of the snowflake photos on your search page are by Alexey Kljatov, using very modest equipment: a point and shoot with a reversed 58mm prime lens in front. Unless you want to buy the Canon MPE-65 (and, of course, a Canon body to go with it) you're going to have to do something similar to get this kind of magnification. Having experimented extensively with reversed lenses on bare extension vs. stacked onto another lens, I find that results are generally better with stacking (pace the conventional wisdom, which says that bare extension is better). A 28mm prime reversed onto something in the 100mm range will give you about the right magnification. Trying to take magnification higher than this with ordinary camera lenses doesn't actually get you additional detail, because of diffraction. For working with this kind of magnification you will definitely want to read up on diffraction, and how effective aperture varies with magnification.

Photographing live insects can be done with a similar rig (see John Hallmén), but only if they're not moving. Most insect photography (of live subjects in the field) is done at lower magnifications, and working distance (and lighting) become the primary problems. So for this kind of shooting you want a longer focal length macro lens. On the other hand, see Thomas Shahan for some different ideas about what is possible.

So, a couple of reasonable ways to approach this. Get a 100mm macro lens, which will give you a bit of working distance at 1:1 (not lots, but enough for some insects), and get an appropriate macro coupler and a 28mm lens to reverse onto it for the extreme magnification shots. Or, a bit cheaper, get an ordinary (non-macro) prime in the 100mm to 120mm range and some extension tubes, plus the macro coupler and 28mm lens. Or, buy a zoom such as the DA55-300 and the Raynox 250. I've never used that combination so you'll want to look into what magnification range and working distance this gets you, but this should give you some versatility. Or, this.

Here's an example of a snowflake shot with a reversed 28mm lens on extension:



And I know you said you aren't interested in flower macro, but there's lots of interesting stuff to be found in the plant world, and it doesn't fly away from you or melt while you're trying to photograph it:



Macro is fun and fascinating, so enjoy the journey.

[Na Horuk]

Beware, snowflake photography is very advanced. You need to get extreme magnification (usually its best to get a macro lens and then reverse mount another lens on its filter threads; or you can use macro bellows). Then you need to have a good light setup - light that is bright, but doesn't melt the snowflakes too fast! And you also need to find a way to capture snowflakes without crushing, melting, or clumping them together, and then put them in front of the lens and in-focus. You need to have the right camera settings, and then you need to post process the photo to make it look good (shoot raw and use Photoshop, Lightroom, Faststone, RawTherapee,..). I recommend you start off with easier tasks, but there are some snowflake macro tutorials on blogs and on these forums as well. We had a good thread about it, and I think even the photographer that took the photo you linked to chimed in. I think he uses some version of Helios 44 on bellows for those photos, which is actually a very budget solution.

[Volker76]

Right now I do own a Yoguono 560-II and I LOVE IT!! but only used it a few times, I hope to be out in nature taking these shots using natural lights and not indoors

even outdoors, with super bright sunlight, you will need a flash. Your DoF is so shallow doing macro that you really need to keep the aperture as small as possible, without introducing distortions. So F/11 for example. And then you need flash. Really, you do. Also with extension tubes or a 100mm macro lens, you want to keep your shutter speed high.. and the insects are moving to...

this all adds up to: use a flash. You'll make your life easier that way.

[jgirl57]

Thank you guys I really appreciate all the help here!

I have been playing with the K-3 now for about a week and getting used to the lenses, I have found out how to use the 135 Macro but yet have to figure out how to use the Albinar 28mm Macro Manual lens, I can get decent landscape shots with it but using it up close is another story, why i brought it in the first place.

I have now also the pentax extension tubes, 1,2 and 3. (not the cheap plastic ones the metal ones) _ added, I also have my tripod ready to roll as well as a remote.

Now, I am searching for the flash and I know that it was mentioned in the past posts, I have been scouring and combing through the threads about flashes, TTL and ring flashes and this is all confusing me LOL
I am not sure I want a ring flash but it seems that is the way to go for the macro?

My budget is around $75.00 for a flash, I was hoping for something that I could use off camera as well if I needed too with a cable release for when I work on still photography.
I am not sure what I am looking for when it comes to the flash and the details of what is good or not.

I did find this
Vivitar DF-283 Shoe Mount Digital TTL Auto-Focus Flash f/Pentax VIVDF283PEN

Suggestions on other good brands or what shall I be looking for when it comes to flash, i was really hoping to spend around 35-50 but No more than 80$

[Nass]

Hello,

Be careful with that Albinar - it has a ricoh pin and you should google carefully about this before mounting it in anything other than a reversed position! But, reversed on tubes, it'll be perfectly splendid . Reversing a lens on extension tubes is a fine way to shoot some extreme macro, say in the 1:1 to 5:1 range.

I agree flashes are confusing, I do feel for you. Ringflashes are very much an acquired taste and although it works for me, it's not for everyone. I'd recommend against the vivitar flash you linked to though - as far as I can tell it doesn't have manual power settings and they're usually most convenient when it comes to small bug macro and the ilk. I've heard some great things said about yongnuo flashes and that might be a brand to look at for some good value for money options.

In terms of budgeting, you might add a couple of other items to your list - a flash bracket/flash arm and a lead to connect flash and camera on the arm. The diffuser is easily and better home made.

Good luck!

[baro-nite]

Suggestions on other good brands or what shall I be looking for when it comes to flash, i was really hoping to spend around 35-50 but No more than 80$

The key to making flash look like natural light is direction and diffusion. (Color too, in some circumstances.) In macro it is easy to achieve broad diffusion because the subjects are small and the camera is close -- the diffusion only needs to be broad relative to the subject. Which is why even the pop-up flash can do well for macro. Put some kind of diffusing material between flash and subject -- this can be as cheap and simple as a piece of paper with a lens-sized hole in it. My review of one such diffuser has a couple of examples.