The world's widest 1:1 macro lens

[Akira]

For the true super-wideangle closeups, you might need collimated lenses like these...

http://www.koheisha.net/microwidelenz/musinomekameratorituke/musikameratorituke.html

[Bjørn Rørslett]

As long as the recording sensor size is small enough, you can always use very short actual focal lengths and thereby gain an improved depth of field. Within limits, though, as there is no magic wizardry involved. The influence of the aperture for depth of field is linear whilst magnification influences planar, ie. to the second power. Only when focal length falls below 2 mm will it start to have some impact on the actual depth of field. However, such short focal lengths cannot cover anything except a likewise tiny sensor.

The site you linked to, Akira, was in Japanese thus I missed the most of the text, but the illustrations indicate that some kind of relay system is used. This has the useful property of moving the taking lens well away from the camera thus facilitating close-ups in nature. Highly practical for video projects.

[Akira]

Bjørn, yes, they all use relay lenses.  The relay lenses they use are high quality ones for microscopes, similar to your contraption using 19mm Macro Nikkor.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Is there any web site one can download sample photos taken by their products? Would be interesting to know more details.

In recent BBC nature productions on the world of small animals, relay lenses obviously were used frequently. They "improved" the results by shooting with bluescreen backgrounds so partly sharp footage of elephants or lions could be mixed into the video sream. Yet overall a pretty impressive TV series.

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Here: http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1457710-1-1-2.html

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Yes, that is the 'Venus' 15 mm f/4 lens the discussion started with.

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

You wanted images of that japanese company Koheisha (I know them since many years).

Here some examples:





They use a 2.5x microscope objective as a relay lens




Here is a link to a fullsize D600 shot:

http://www.koheisha.net/microwidelenz/TypeSC_ResolutionTest01/D600Fullsize01.html

(c) Koheisha.net

[Erik Lund]

Here: http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1457710-1-1-2.html

The site is loading very very slowly her in Europe!

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Not for me and Germany still is part of Europe ....
(why is your time 10h ahead Eric??)

[Erik Lund]

It is loading very very slowly in Copenhagen Denmark then.
My timestamps is correct when I see them but report it in Beta Issues if you see something else

[Frank Fremerey]

Here: http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1457710-1-1-2.html

to me as a layman in this field the pictures are just what I like to achieve. Esp the spider series and the twowering musroom
pretty much show the pictorial field I like to explore.

[Akira]

Is there any web site one can download sample photos taken by their products? Would be interesting to know more details.

Bjørn, sorry that I totally missed your inquiry.  I would have forwarded you to the very samples Klaus posted.

[Jan Anne]

Here's a video review


Found on http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-tidbits-294/

[Michael Erlewine]

I now have the Venus/LAOWA 15mm Macro lens, but it arrived toward the end of the growing season and I have not had quite enough time to play with it enough.

The 15mm is much better than the 60mm Venus Macro that I returned, but still this is a very finicky lens that one has to master. But with great care, I believe I can do some very interesting work with it. Of course, it is no Otus, but I am moving more and more toward lenses with a unique (perhaps one-trick) use, but that one-trick is the one I am often after.

This shot is with the Nikon D810 and the Venus 15mm to give a sense of what might be possible.

[Jakov Minić]

Michael it looks like it's very sharp.
You didn't post a stacked image I suppose?
I am really curious of this lens