Last year I picked up this little beasty and haven’t yet made time to really do anything with it. 2018 is my year for going Macro (among other things of course).
This is a Russian Macro bellows that I found for under $20. I did test it once using my Olympus Pen-F (for which I have a M39 adapter) and was pretty amazed at the magnification possible. It currently has a Russian 28mm 2.8 lens attached which is all I have right now whilst my other M39 lens is on loan.
This was the test I tried out of the tip of my red ballpoint pen, not a great shot as the pen was just balanced in place and I only had available light, but I like the potential.
I’ve not really done a lot of macro work as I haven’t really had the right gear so now that I have it and I have a lot to learn I thought this might become a recurring series over the next few months.
Incidentally, if you want a cheap digital camera that does pretty good macro, I can recommend Pentax’s compact camera from around 2005 the Optio 550. I had a couple of these (and the 750z which is even better) and found it very versatile. It has a super macro mode which allows focusing down to close to an inch. It also has full manual modes and a decent zoom; these days you can pick them up for under $30.
I took this with one.
January 9, 2018 at 2:04 pm
That’s quite astounding… especially the pen. Very “Fantastic Voyage”.
BTW, did you remove the “gin” from your masthead, or am I thinking of another blog?
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January 9, 2018 at 2:18 pm
ha ha, yes it is pretty impressive how close you can get.
I did have gin and a number of other distraction but as a new focus for 2018 I have removed it; you can read about it here https://carrotroom.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/hello-2018/
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January 11, 2018 at 1:34 pm
Yes, I can understand that the removal of gin would lead to increased focus. Ah, well….
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January 11, 2018 at 1:36 pm
Removal not abstinence 😀
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January 10, 2018 at 12:56 am
Wow, those pictures are really amazing. now i want to do something with my macro lens as well (though I just saw that I left my DSLR at home and they don’t fit on my analog…)
I somehow like the color scheme the first picture has a lot… I don’t know why but it somehow feels nice to look at it 😉
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January 10, 2018 at 10:24 am
I’m hoping to get some really nice shots with this 🙂
ha ha on the pen shot? It was just my office lighting 🙂
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January 10, 2018 at 2:27 pm
Yes, I somehow like it. The whole thing looks different from the usual shots with perfect lighting and it makes it even more intriguing to me…
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January 10, 2018 at 1:03 pm
I would love a macro lens… maybe one day when I have the time and money I’ll get one. Look forward to seeing your pics with it. 🙂
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January 10, 2018 at 1:10 pm
You don’t need to fork out a huge of money on a macro lens this is a set of bellows that goes between the camera and a normal lens, you can also get extension tubes that achieve the same sort of thing for not much outlay.
As soon as I have any reasonable results you will be able to see them here
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January 10, 2018 at 1:41 pm
Actually this year I’ll just be happy if I can actually take more photos!
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January 10, 2018 at 2:07 pm
I hear ya. Make the time if you can. 🙂
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