Tiny Speedwell Flower

[Andrea B.]

I've encouraged this little wild Speedwell (Veronica serpylifolia) to grow in my garden around the brick path. The flower is about 1/4" across. With the Coastal Optics 60/4.0 on my D810, I was able to capture the additional detail of a small reddish insect (larva?) inside the flower - shown in the unresized crop made from the first photo.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

A nice demonstration of the resolving power of the Coastal 60 APO lens.

I assume this image also indicates the known hot-spot issue at close range has been solved by a special lens hood?

[Andrea B.]

Well yes and no.

The front 'cone' solution works most of the time. But I can still get the hotspot sometimes if strong light is at a certain angle to the front of the lens. Usually this would produce a flare or maybe some veiling depending on aperture, right? But with the CO60, you just get the hotspot.

I'm probably going to move to rear extension.

If this lens weren't so darned sharp, I would probably give up on it. But when it works, it works spectacularly well.

There is an interesting analysis by Jim Kasson about the CO60. It is really an f/8 at f/11 and an f5.6 at f/8. I'll go dig out the link.