The Lens. Part 2.

Last time i promised to get back to describing the lens i use. Below you can read about the lenses i used to use starting my macro adventure few years ago, today its time for the lens im currently using. Its quite old as well, was produced about 30 years ago plus, but i found the occasion to get one in mint condition. That lens is made by Asashi/Pentax and its called Super Macro Takumar @ F4. It gives 50mm focal lenght, and this is dedicated macro lens. There were few versions of macro Takumar's on the market, i know two 50 mm lens giving reproduction scale 1:2 (mine) and 1:1 (quite expensive) and at least one 100mm 1:2 lens. You probably think why i decided to change the lens to more professional. The first thing is that its a DEDICATED lens, produced especially to let the photographer take real close-ups, the second thing is incredible sharpness and great detail reproduction one may take with that lens. To feel the difference you have to try a full-resolution picture - the level of detail is just amazing. I realized that currently many macro photographers use Sigma's 150 and 180 and Tamron 90mm which are also the incredible machines, but old-timer Super Macro Takumar is really close to them if not even better. And costs definitely less that three previously mentioned. Obviously longer focal lenght is better from few perspectives, but if you are well-trained you wont have any issue with 50 mm's. The first and main issue is the small working distance from the subject, especially when you take small insects, adding some extension tubes or macro converters like Raynox. Second thing is the light - having small working distance you dont have much light on the subject, you cannot also enlight it enough with additional equipment like blendes, everything you can do is to try long times or use the reflector attached to the lens. And the last thing is the background. As you probably know to get well-blurred background the best idea is to use long focal lenght like 90, 100, 150 or 180mm and take shots from long distance. When you have 50mm everything you can do is to increase the distance of the subject from the background as much as you can, or use wider aperture like f4 or f5.6 but you have to keep in mind that the depth of field will be quite shallow. You can also attach the extension tube which will make the backround more blurred, even using higher apperture value like f11 to f13. Summarizing, there are few advantages and few disadvantages of using 50mm lens, but if you look for best detail, best sharpness and good color reproduction you should try Takumar or any other well-known dedicated macro lens giving the same focal lenght.

I hope the experience im sharing here will be helpful for anyone and let you start taking good pictures. I appreciate any comment you can add to the entries to ensure anyone is interested in reading and it makes sense to continue writing ;)

And at last, two shots from Takumar.

The Lens

Usually when you watch any good macro pictures, you probably think something like 'the equipment to take such pictures requires huge money'. Thats exactly what i thought starting my macro photography so-called 'carrier'. Everybody who thinks like this is definitely wrong. The truth is that you dont need to pay huge money to take good macros. Let me clarify what i started with. My first lens was Pentax M 50mm at 1.7, very old, fully manual lens with incredible sharpness and color reproduction ability. I was quite lucky having some additional converter with some lens inside which, after that lens is removed, could be an extension tube. I started to work with this equipment and realized, that its fairly enough to take some close-ups on smaller butterflies. Thats where my macro journey has begun. Having such knowledge, i started training in the fields and it was very interesting how, keeping the costs low, i was able to take really good pictures. But days passed by and i started to think about some progress. You always think about progress when you want to develop your skills, its a neverending process. I read here and there about dedicated macro lens and realized that there are many such lens on the market which are quite old but still good. Most of them are for m42 screw, a system used mostly for Russian cameras (but not only for them) many years ago. One of the best known series of m42 Russian lens are Industar's. I bought Industar 61L/Z MC 50mm 2.8 lens and it was like a discovery. This lens gives fantastic bokeh, reproduction scale 1:2 which is enough for the beginner and intermediate macro photographer, and really good sharpness. Its semi-dedicated macro lens, so its easier to take good macro picture with Industar than with Pentax M with extension tubes. Obviously you can still attach extensions to Industar to get better reproduction scale, but for most occasions its not even necessary. The thing i like the most in old lens is manual work. Those lens usually dont have any electronics so you have to use your photography knowledge to operate, but its definitely worth your patience. The experience you can get with such work is priceless. 

Lets stop for a while here, and in next post i will continue describing the lens i use, getting more into great macro lens which is a way better that Pentax and Industar and still not too expensive.

And now, you can focus on two examples which were taken with lens mentioned above. The frog is from Pentax M, the flower is from Industar 61.

best,

Michal

The camera.

Im in the photography since 10 years or even more. I started with standard compact analog camera taking some standard vacation pictures and after few years of practising with the automatics i turned to analog SLR camera to take some experience with more advanced thing. The first SLR was an old Russian Zenith camera which was manualy controlled. It gave me a lot of new experience so i was practising that another few years. Few years later my Zenith has broken so i had to buy another analog camera. The first one was Chinon and the second Ricoh, both compatible with Pentax system. Those cameras were still used usually during vacation to take completely non-professional pictures. Few years later I started to think about DSLR camera being compatible with Pentax. My friend living in States bought me Pentax K10D there and it was a revolution. Flexibility of the digital camera was incredible, i could take hundred of pictures and practising every singe day not worrying about photographic films. That time i started to contribute to some Pentax forum, just to learn how to make good pictures. I found there some beautiful macro pictures i was completely amazed with, so i started to think how to make such pictures and what i really need. I started also practising in the fields and realized it is not that hard to master. Currently im using Pentax K5 DSLR, mostly due to fact that my old K10D is already dead. I didnt want to change the lens system so i decided to stay with Pentax and it was like hitting the spot. Its a great camera, semi-professional, giving the photographer fantastic colors and good flexibility which i get as two most important things. Im still working only on manual settings and Pentax gives me exactly what i need.

And in the end for today, i wanted to show you another two pictures. This time its a very primitive but beautiful species which is Ephemeroptera. The imago lives only one day for males and few days for females. Imago lives only to copulate, the male dies just after the copulation and female can live even few days just to place its eggs into the water. The larvas live underwater, even few years. I hope you will like it.  

Best,

Michal

Young Sympetrum

Hello everybody. Some of you probably saw my pictures im sharing via G+, for those who didnt - lets start here. I created that blog to show you the beauty of Microcosmos - the world of small creatures known as bugs or just insects. I found it interesting about 3 or 4 years ago, watching some photography forum. I found many beautiful pictures there so i started to think if i could take some similar pictures, what equipment i need and such stuff. After some tries, i realized that its not impossible. You can take a camera and just try, you could be surprised how easy it is. Obviously you need some training to learn how to use the light, how to take pictures with good depth of field or reproduction scale, but even having not dedicated macro equipment, you can take pictures which are good enough. I will be writing some details about my pictures to uncover some myths related to macro photography.

As first pictures, i'd like to show you a young Sympetrum i found last weekend near a small lake hidden deep in the woods.It is not fully colored as Sympetrum was really fresh, few minutes after the transformation. I hope you will enjoy my pictures.

Best,

Michal