Photographing Butterflies with a 30 Year Old Lens
I photographed this grey hairstreak (Strymon melinus) with my Canon 7D and an adapted Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lens over the past weekend. I used a diffused 580 EX Speedlite to provide fill light.
As expected for a 30+ year old lens, the focus is manual; but this is not an issue for macro work as autofocus is often useless for very small subjects. The other major issue with this lens is the manual aperture; this means I had to stop down the lens before focusing. This resulted in a darker viewfinder while I was focusing which was not too great an problem given a sufficient level of ambient light. Overall, I was very pleased with the sharpness of this lens; this 100% crop gives an idea of the sharpness:
I have been considering buying a focus confirmation chip for this lens – this would aid in focusing with the stopped down aperture – but that’s just a thought at the moment. For now I will continue enjoying this little gem of a lens – any thoughts or experience with this lens?
One last image – this American snout (Libytheana carinenta) was too neat to leave out.
Very creative way to get some marvelous shots!
Excellent photographes, I really liked them very much. Wonderful video clips especially that of dung beetle. I congratulate you for this scientific and fascinating work on six legged animals.
I also have similar type of interest. I have prepared a documentary on Insect pest management of vegetable crops. and having similar video clips of insect pests of various crops.
Congrates again
With regards
Dr.S.S.Sharma
Professor of Entomology
Deptt of Entomology
CCS Haryana Agricultural University
HISAR (INDIA)
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