I have always been into Macro - not the 'scientific documentation'
sort to make shiny, coloury
pictures of insects, but to rather try and see different scenes, and
actually try to compose,
in the vast spaces of the micro world. I say vast, because composing
here is the same as composing
for landscape (imagine a desert, or a rocky mountain): If you just
point and shoot, you get the
same kind of boring images everybody's made before, similar to a
tourist pointing and snapping
away at a pretty (to his eyes, at the time) landscape.
Everybody has made these kinds of images, i.e. have a look at one of
my poor 'boring' insect Macro
images made a couple of years ago (non-olympus, digital):
http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs19/f/2007/268/d/a/Like_a_camel_by_philosomatographer.jpg
("ooh, shiny")
Over time, I'v tried to evolve in to what are hopefully more
interesting and moody images, from
a lighting and composition perspective, such as the following (both
also with modern
non-olympus equipment):
"A Ghost unseen"
http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs21/f/2007/260/2/5/A_ghost_unseen_by_philosomatographer.jpg
"Poised to soar"
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs28/f/2008/073/1/6/Poised_to_Soar_by_philosomatographer.jpg
In the past, I have been limited to under 2:1 magnification. When Clay
so graciously
sent his equipment to find a new home with me (the day before
yesterday), he unknowingly
opened my eyes to a new world that is far beyond normal vision, by
including the Olympus
OM 20mm f/3.5 Macro lens.
My setup is now rather interesting: I am focusing 100% on black and
white (I have never shot a roll of
colour film in my OM camera) and 100% printing in the darkroom (I have
never scanned a single
frame of 35mm film). I am now free to learn to use this scientific
lens to try and make images
in "my style".
There are not many posts or reviews on this lens on the world wide
web, which leads me to suspect
that it's not at all common. This is a tiny, very difficult-to-use
lens, with phenomenal
resolving power. It has no auto diaphragm, and with a magnification
range of 4x to 12x+, and a slow-ish
aperture of f/3.5.
Hand-holding this lens is incredibly tricky, but with auto flash
freezing the motion (I love the OM-2n!)
it's do-able, and I've developed a bit of a steady Macro hand the past
few years.
I have not had much time yet, but yesterday I produced both of these
images while testing the
setup over lunchtime in the garden at our office. Both shot on FP4+,
printed in the darkroom
on 5x7in RC paper, and prints scanned on Epson V700.
4mm image field, taken at f/16, where diffraction seriously hammers
this lens:
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs48/f/2009/230/d/9/Luminous_Babies_by_philosomatographer.jpg
3mm image field, close-up of a small white feather, taken at f/11
which is *much* sharper than f/16, the
details in the in-focus areas (feather hooks) are impressive:
http://fc09.deviantart.com/fs49/f/2009/230/3/4/Feather_Slice_by_philosomatographer.jpg
I hand-held this lens by putting it on a 65-116 auto tube, and using a
T32 flash firing into
a soft box. Very compact setup, I must say. I am most impressed how,
with the right focusing screens,
you can focus this lens even stopped down to f/11, without modeling
lights, at such high magnifications.
I'm going to have fun with this lens. Thanks Clay!
Dawid
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