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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-22-2020, 06:57 PM
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18-50 RE on K-S2
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-03-2020, 11:41 AM
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Cosmic turtles.
18-55 II on KP.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-09-2019, 09:26 AM
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18-50 RE on KP:
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-06-2019, 11:12 AM
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The couple in the billboard/poster really threw me for a moment; I thought I was looking at a miniature vehicle! Nicely captured!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-31-2019, 08:37 AM
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Great shots! We've had lots of rain here lately, but I haven't been out shooting in it! I should give it a go: results like that yours certainly worth the wet weather!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-07-2019, 08:03 AM
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Cross poted from the DA Zoom club.
18-50 DC WR RE:
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-11-2019, 08:55 AM
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Cross post with "Macro by any means necessary"
Partial cross post with "Show me your insects" and "Macro Flower Club" threads
Reversed 18-55 II
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-10-2018, 04:39 PM
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(Partial cross post from "Macro by any means necessary" and the "Show me your insects")
Woke up to a bit of snow on the ground yesterday morning. It melted away by afternoon, but it's a good sign that 2018's Outdoor Insect Season is about done. But Indoor Insect Season continues. Like last year, our front hallway is host to a bunch of a tiny, mysterious insect. Other bugs show seasonality, so why not this one, too? So once again I'm left pondering why they show up at this time of year, what are they eating, what else, if anything, do they grow into? Identification would be greatly appreciated!
Being the only show in town, the most accessible of the half dozen of them that have hatched, arrived, or whatever, got a lot of attention this afternoon from me and my K-S2. I used a combination of Kinotel 8mm movie camera lens reversed on extension and reversed 18-55 II, with and without extension. THese are the kit lens shots only. All handheld, with Pringles tin extender/diffuser on the built in flash. All images uncropped unless otherwise indicated.
Reversed 18-55 II
100% crop of the above:
Reversed 18-55 II on extension:
I look forward to seeing what these combinations will produce once I get my KP.
Here are some context shots with a ruler in centimetres for scale (DA 18-50 DC WR RE):
Two for the price of one!
100% crop of the above. Not bad for a kit lens!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-04-2018, 07:39 PM
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DA 18-50 WR RE on K-S2 (cross posted from DA Zoom Club thread, Post your K-S2 shots thread).
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-02-2018, 06:21 AM
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-17-2018, 06:26 PM
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Haven't used my reversed 18-55 II for a while, so I took it for a walk this morning. Cross posted from "Show me your insects," "Spiders" and the "Macro by any means necessary."
Got some shots of a large grasshopper that seemed unusually tolerant of my presence. On seeing the photos, I noticed it had quite a number of injuries to it's head and thorax. They show up as rusty brown marks.It looks like they might be healing.
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Here's a long-jawed orb weaver (family Tetragnathidae) from this morning's shooting:
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-13-2018, 07:30 AM
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Shouldn't this be posted in "Show me your insects"? ;)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-18-2018, 09:16 AM
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For most macro shooting you're moving the whole camera back and forth for focus rather than using the focus ring on the lens itself.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-17-2018, 02:25 PM
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Yes, I do. I've always been pleased with its performance right-way-round, so I'm guessing it would work well reversed as well, though I haven't tried it yet. As it's the only WR lens I've got, it's not as "expendable" as the 18-55 II I've been playing with. I'm also not sure how well the collapsable design would handle revresed treatment. I'm often pushing my camera into tight spaces in pursuit of macro subjects. I'm not sure the 18-50 would like that very much...
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-28-2018, 11:56 AM
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I'd seen those adapters as well. They are deeper than the PK to Nikon one (which also has the aperture control capability), which would use less of the working distance up. The M43 would serve as a hood, but I think I'd rather have the extra working distance.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-28-2018, 09:53 AM
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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 ----------
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.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-27-2018, 07:12 PM
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I've recently discovered that the 18-55 II makes a superb zoom macro lens when reversed. I wedge the aperture tab partially open with a piece of plastic tube cut from a cotton-swab-stick-thing. Changing the focal length changes the degree of magnification. At 18mm it has a horizontal field of view of about 6mm; this is almost 4:1. Theses are all taken hand held, with just a reverse macro adapter, no TC, no extension apart from that native to the lens. K-S2, built in flash with Pringles tin extender/diffuser.
I am constantly amazed by what this lens can do, when I do my bit right at the other end of the camera. Here it is, uncropped, resolving hairs on the legs of a red spider mite.
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