I have been purchasing different items for a few months now to experiment with differing magnifications of macro photography.
I have purchased

• both M42 & K mount Bellows
• M42 & K Mount extension tubes
• M42 & K Mount tele converters
• Various male to male lens fliter thread adapters
• Various Step down rings
• M42 to PK adapters

I have purchased another lens and adapter to go with my potential Macro setup

• M32x0.05 female to M42x1 male adapter ring
• Schneider-Kreuznach Comparon 105mm 1:4.5 enlarger lens

So I decided to use this lens today and this is my setup :

Top Left "Pentax-A 80-200" Middle Left to right "49mm male to 52mm male filter thread adapter", "52mm to 58mm Step up ring", "PK Mount end of extension tube" (Which happens to be 58mm female thread), "PK to M42 Adapter", "M32x0.05 female to M42x1 male adapter ring" & "Schneider-Kreuznach Comparon 105mm 1:4.5 enlarger lens" Bottom right - Schneider lens cap.

When using this setup I get up to 1.9583x Magnification on my K-70 with the Pentax-A 80-200 set at 200mm
And 0.87x Magnification when using the lens at 80mm

I worked all this out with my K-70 sensor being 23.5mm.
I am quite happy with the Schneider lens helping to make an ordinary zoom into a mighty macro tool.
I aim to post some interesting macro pics in the future.
I hope this helps others aiming for similar results.

That's all really cool! What did it soak you for all that stuff? I can appreciate the use of the M42 lenses, I guess you can get some great glass for pretty much cheap, eh? But isn't it a pain having to work out what combination of "stuff" you'll need for a particular shot, and what about having to lug it all around and do assembly, disassembly, and reassembly in the field?

I have my Tamron 90mmSP Di Marco for in the field so to speak for now. I think I will concentrate more on Macro in my home made studio first as I am still very much only learning. I did take some pics with the above setup of some rose petals with dew on them and the results were nice but I need to use a tripod for clearer shots.
Lugging it around already setup in my backpack is an option I guess. It would be better to carry it without the Pentax lens attached and with the various 49/52/55/58/62mm male to 58mm male lens mount adapters which cost exactly $Au $3.85Au each delivered from eBay (China) & they are lightweight at only a few grams each. Then I could use the setup on a multitude of lenses. Almost all my lenses will have the capability to use the above setup once the others arrive from eBay.
OK.. Prices have been mentioned so I will continue on that...
I have been lucky to find the Schneider lens for only $20Au in its box still in the original wrappings with silica gel included. I should probably add $20 in fuel to pickup this lens making this lens total $40Au.. The owner found it in their shed and sold it not knowing what lens it was or what it could attach to. So I snapped it up as the lens to me looked in perfect condition making it worth quite a lot more tbh. I picked it up in Melbourne via Gumtree.
The lens did turn out in what I think is perfect new condition. The crystal clear glass and the distortion free magnification made me want to use it for macro.
After finding out exactly what lens it was and the exact thread I then sought the Female side - M32.5x0.5 thread. Male side - M42x1 screw thread to ring (20grams) which again I bought off eBay delivered for $12.47Au from USA.
The m42 to pk adapter was trial and error.. I actually bought 2 different types.. One flange type and one that locks in and unlocks with a provided tool. The flange type is lighter, cheaper, quicker and much easier to use. It cost me $3.26Au on eBay delivered from Hong Kong.
The 9x step up rings and 9x step down rings 37 to 82mm & 87 to 37mm cost me $17.48Au delivered from Sydney.
"Rear Lens Mount Protection Ring for Pentax PK K mount Camera with 58mm thread" bought off eBay for $6.51 delivered from China.
I did say it was the PK end of my extension tubes in the above post but I was mistaken as they are almost identical. Wasn't until I started this response and looked for the prices on eBay and see what I had bought.
I have seen the total until now and I am surprised.
$98.25 Aussie dollars.
Cheap to me.

I want to try this setup on a reversed lens. I already have a 52mm pk and 55mm to pk mount adapter.
I would need a 2nd rear lens protector(female pk mount to female 58mm) & a 58mm male to 58mm male adapter.
I also want to try it on the end of my 90mmTamron 1:1 macro lens. Waiting on my eBay order for this to happen.
I think my DFA 28-105mm will take some nice shots with this setup attached. Again waiting on delivery for this to eventuate.
All in good time I guess.. The 2 to 6 week turnaround for some items only builds more anticipation for future photography shots with this setup :-)

Great work, thank you for sharing.

agree wholeheartedly - but two more observations, @villainofoz:
1) Because the sensor in a dslr is electrostatically charged, and it takes a while to discharge, I always wait a bit after turning off the camera before removing a lens or cover, and then I work as fast as I can to avoid having atmospheric dust from being attracted and sticking to the sensor (or stuff around it inside the camera).
2) There are magnifying "filters" you can get to screw on the front of a lens, and for macro work you might be able to use a couple of those in addition to the rest of your stuff. Lots of distortion, but effect like a microscope.

I have only a 4x magnification (close up) filter lens atm. It is one I bought cheap for only a few dollars and I think the quality represents the price.
I do intend on getting more.
I always hold the camera upside down when changing lenses so that the dust should fall out rather than in.

If you're not familiar with electrostatic air cleaners, you might want to read up on 'em - specifically how they trap dust particles. The sensor works the same way - the charge that develops on the surface is the opposite of that of the dust, so it's like magnets attracting each other. The duration of the charge after the camera's turned off depends on how long it takes for the capacitors in the system to be fully discharged - general rule of thumb, wait at least ten full seconds after turning off the camera before opening it up. Holding it upside down or at least sideways is good as to the effects of the Earth's gravity on the dust particles, but they're light enough to fly upwards, given the mutual attraction of the dust and the sensor. They love each other and want to be together.

That is the best explanation of this that I have ever heard. Thanks.

Isn't there a seal around the mirror that effectively stops dust from reaching the sensor when you remove the lens?

Yes indeed! +1

I do not always turn off the camera when changing lenses (but I do the Upside-down manoeuvre). I understand the electrostatic concept here, but never thought of it in that context.

But after reading that, I will follow the rule of thumb here for sure... and may save on sensor cleaning fees on thelong run...
Thanks dlh for the info!

So I decided after just today (after some time now) to attempt another macro method using a very similar setup.
Sigma 100-300 lens with aperture wide open and extended to 300mm. Various Step Up and Step down rings to accommodate the Schneider-Kreuznach 105mm enlarger lens reversed, (Same step up/step down rings as before with a few added) and also with the aperture wide open, mounted on front of the Sigma lens and a 2x rear mounted converter in the front of the Sigma lens for a much better magnification result than my earlier attempt.
I shot the 1st of the following following 2 pictures with my K-70 camera, also used a "Godox LED M150" solid light and a cheap LED ring light (on a magnifying glass) on the subject to give it some light with a 1 second shutter speed to gather enough light.

I also used a JJC intervalometer (Timer remote series) plugged into the K-70 so as to avoid camera shake as the depth of field is extremely small.

So with the K-70 sensor length being 23.5mm and the first picture showing 4.1 mm, this equates to approximately 5.73 magnification (1:5.73) which is a hell of a lot cheaper than say a Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens with slightly better magnification.

My next step is to purchase "Zerene Stacker" to be able to stack the many images I will need when photographing my insect targets and the like.
I am still learning Photoshop and Lightroom and am unsure if either can give the same stacking results.



Next is just a picture of the setup used to give people an idea of how I took the image.

My suspicion is, based on reading and personal work, that you will get better IQ when the Schneider is in reversed orientation mounted on your base lens. It's also good that you're planning to use stacking, Somewhere between 1/2 life size and 1:1, for all practical purposes DOF ceases to exist. Beyond life size there's a only a surface of focus, DOF is much less than one mm. In photographing a US penny @ about 4X I found I needed at least 8 focus-stacked images to get enough DOF to go from the surface of a letter to the background surface of the coin.

Thanks for all the info!!!!

Thanks for the information and sharing your set up