Painting with Lenses

[Bjørn Rørslett]

No problem, Akira. I'm on very good standing with the techs. Several I have known personally for many years.

[Michael Erlewine]

The photos I posted were made with 45P and the PN-11 which gives a really high magnification hence the extremely narrow depth of field.

Picked up a Nikon 45 P f/2.8 from Japan. With the PN-11, as you mentioned, it is too much magnification. Using shorter extension gives you a much better context-view. However, mounting it directly on the camera makes for hard focusing with the teeny-weeny focus barrel. I found it best to mount the lenes directly on the camera and the camera on a good focus rail. The camera was the Nikon D810 at ISO 64, but with various extensions, all stacked. In addition, a 2-layer stack with the Zeiss Otus 55mm, just for comparison.

I tried it on the PB-4 Bellows, but it is too much extension. I will try it on my forthcoming technical camera with a bag bellows when all the parts arrive.

I did not shoot a single frame, as wide open the results did not interest me for the work I do.

I tried the PN-11, the PK-12, and the PK-11a.

What do I think? Well, things are OK, but not sure why I would use this lens over many others. Time will tell.

Is this kind of post helpful at all?

[Akira]

The PN-11 whose extension of 52.5mm offers the magnification factor past 1:1 to a 45mm lens.  Reversing the lens might offer better image quality.  I'm not sure if the difference is noticeable, though.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The 45P is a Tessar design and not really suited for close-up photography. If one really wants to push that kind of lens into doing close-ups, getting suboptimal results shouldn't come as a surprise and adequate stopping down is mandatory. On the other hand, playing with it at wider apertures and/or combined with overly long extension might yield visually interesting expressions.

Michael, you have been doing these kind of close-ups with the Zeiss Otus 55 mm f/1.4 for a long time - why change to another lens? The Otus is as we all know by now a superb quality optic.

[Michael Erlewine]

Michael, you have been doing these kind of close-ups with the Zeiss Otus 55 mm f/1.4 for a long time - why change to another lens? The Otus is as we all know by now a superb quality optic.

What you say makes great sense. If I were only that sensible. What happens is that it would seem that I have to "see for myself" every last lens that is interesting, even if it is not all THAT interesting. That, coupled with the fact that we are in a Michigan winter, which means it is mostly too cold to take equipment outside or very far, so here I am, in a tiny studio, waiting for spring... and monkeying with lenses. It must be like Scrooge McDuck counting his money bin, but I don't have that much money, so I am playing endless musical chairs with the lenses I have, selling off this or that lens to try this or that other lens. It may not make sense, but it should at least be understandable to most of our readers. And yes, I have come back around the circle and am staring at the Otus-type lenses, and have the new 28mm on order.

Aside from the sheer photography, I am (not surprisingly) a gear-head. I am also waiting for parts to arrive to complete my technical camera, being a Rollei bellows tilt, shift, and swing system, at which time I will tilt, shift, and swing my way toward spring. At least the Sun is finally moving northward!

[Michael Erlewine]

The Otus is as we all know by now a superb quality optic.

OK. Here is a stacked image with the D810 and the Zeiss 55mm APO, just to keep my foot in the door, while I search for new lenses. This is a fairly large sized image.

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

That last one is awesome Michael!

OK, another "gear head" then, now I understand you much better ;-)

[Fons Baerken]

Df lensbaby velvet 56/1.6

[Thomas G]

Df, Nikkor 50-135/3.5 @ 50mm, macro function turned on, distance 60cm (closest), f/3.5, t/125s
The pronounced effect is especially available wide open and on short distances in the macro settings.
Using a 5 T or such expands the capabilities but makes the vignette more prominent.


lens dance by lumofisk, on Flickr

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Thomas, a nice Lychnis (coronaria?).

I often use the 50-135 Nikkor with 5T or 6T but then usually not combined with the zoom's "macro" setting.

[John Geerts]

It feels like painting using the 105/1.8 on the Df   

[Thomas G]

Thomas, a nice Lychnis (coronaria?).
I often use the 50-135 Nikkor with 5T or 6T but then usually not combined with the zoom's "macro" setting.

Bjørn, I knew them as 'Pechnelken', some googling told me that they are indeed Lychnis coronaria,
more precisely that is a 'Kronen Lichtnelke' in German.

German Wikipedia says that since 1995 they are listet under the genus Silene as 'Silene coronaria'.

[Airy]

The Voigtländer 58/1.4 is less common (am I the only user here ?). Wide open and at close range, its otherwise outstanding sharpness drops seriously. That was maybe the price to pay for it getting to 1:4 magnification without close-up lens.

However, it is to me a "little 50/1.2", in that it exhibits a dual personality : very sharp and clean from f/2.8, dreamy at 1.4. And the bokeh is among the best. In the attached "painting" (heavily cropped", you won't therefore see brushstrokes, because the aerograph was at work :

[Michael Erlewine]

The Voigtländer 58/1.4 is less common (am I the only user here ?).

No, I have one, but have not used it for awhile.

[John Geerts]

And is the 200mm F/4 Micro Nikkor already mentioned?


Here with D800E  at F/8