New toy - getting really REALLY close!

[popoki nui]

BEAUTIFUL! That watch itself is lovely enough, but your photography is just awesome!

~Sherry.

[Donf]

Great pictures - really enjoyed them.

[Rdenney]

Now you've laid down the gauntlet. I have to put this stupid iPhone down and start making some real photos again. I don't have a Zeiss Makro Planar, but I do have my choice of a Canon Compact Macro (with Lifesize converter) and a Micro Nikkor (with 1:1 converter). I think they'll get the job done, but not while wasting away in the camera bag.

Rick "waaaay backed up on watch photography" Denney

[tempocalypse]

UNREAL! Enter one a month and you could win every photo competition.

Hehe you are too kind! But I generally don't do too well in those, I have decent technique but I'm not too great at creative themes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BEAUTIFUL! That watch itself is lovely enough, but your photography is just awesome!

~Sherry.

Thanks a lot Sherry

Great pictures - really enjoyed them.

Thanks Donf!

Now you've laid down the gauntlet. I have to put this stupid iPhone down and start making some real photos again. I don't have a Zeiss Makro Planar, but I do have my choice of a Canon Compact Macro (with Lifesize converter) and a Micro Nikkor (with 1:1 converter). I think they'll get the job done, but not while wasting away in the camera bag.

Rick "waaaay backed up on watch photography" Denney

I'll look forward to it!

Which Nikkor do you have? I used to use the 105mm VR for a while back before I switched to the Nikon mount Zeiss and then the Fuji system from the Nikon system. It was a very good lens.

[bu11itt]

I'd post my comments when looking at those pictures but I don't think they'd pass the forum censors... I'll just say, "hey man nice shot(s)"

[muddy250]

Wonderful pictures! Enjoy that new toy :-)

[Rdenney]

Which Nikkor do you have? I used to use the 105mm VR for a while back before I switched to the Nikon mount Zeiss and then the Fuji system from the Nikon system. It was a very good lens.

An ancient 55mm Micro-Nikkor in the AiS mount. I used to know the optical formulas of all the micros, but that knowledge has been locked in the back room somewhere.

But the Canon lens is better, with floating elements and deep corrections. It's 50mm.

I also have a vintage Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, which was a classic of its day. But the Canon lens is better to the edges. I doubt the Makro Planar resolves better though it may have better contrast.

Rick "but focus has to be perfect" Denney

[tempocalypse]

I'd post my comments when looking at those pictures but I don't think they'd pass the forum censors... I'll just say, "hey man nice shot(s)"

Haha thanks!

Wonderful pictures! Enjoy that new toy :-)

Thanks a lot Muddy250!

An ancient 55mm Micro-Nikkor in the AiS mount. I used to know the optical formulas of all the micros, but that knowledge has been locked in the back room somewhere.

But the Canon lens is better, with floating elements and deep corrections. It's 50mm.

I also have a vintage Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, which was a classic of its day. But the Canon lens is better to the edges. I doubt the Makro Planar resolves better though it may have better contrast.

Rick "but focus has to be perfect" Denney

Yes you're quite right that most of the modern Macros from the big players are excellent optically. The only reason I switched to the 100mm Zeiss was that I had gotten rid of the Nikkor from lack of use. The Zeiss came in handy when I started doing more macros once again but moreover its f/2 aperture and overall look was very suitable as a general purpose lens too. When getting the native 50mm Fuji mount Zeiss, the main consideration was 1:1 and Fuji's own 60/2.8 macro did not achieve that. As a bonus the Zeiss 50/2.8 has a better AF than Fuji's 60/2.8 as well which was surprising (although I don't use AF for macro work).

[Rdenney]

The Zeiss lens was probably made by Kyocera (née Yashica), who was a pioneer in autofocus. That German-Japanese collaboration has been most productive. They still use glasses out of the Schott catalog, too.

The little Canon is perfectly usable as a general-purpose lens--my photographic predilections are such that f/2.5 seems pretty fast to me--but the autofocus is not up to current technology for speed and silence.

What I would really like, though, is a Nikkor PB6 bellows, which has lens tilt, with a bellows-mount macro lens. Tilt would be really useful for watch photography.

Rick "who routinely adapts old Nikon lenses to Canon cameras" Denney

[tempocalypse]

The little Canon is perfectly usable as a general-purpose lens--my photographic predilections are such that f/2.5 seems pretty fast to me--but the autofocus is not up to current technology for speed and silence.

I'll admit I was going through the inevitable bokeh disease that afflict many new photographers I have been cured since

What I would really like, though, is a Nikkor PB6 bellows, which has lens tilt, with a bellows-mount macro lens. Tilt would be really useful for watch photography.

Rick "who routinely adapts old Nikon lenses to Canon cameras" Denney

That does sound appealing but in general I'm downsizing my equipment so a complicated bellows setup is probably not for me. That said the extension tube has exacerbated the DoF issues even beyond 1:1, I'm going to give focus stacking a go for some extreme close ups.