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