I am having some fun putting to use an OLD lens with new, digital technology.

I recently purchased a special adapter that allows one to use a Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8 lens (built in 1974) on a newish, digital camera.  For those who already are unhappy when I swing a long lens in their direction, I can now get right up close enough to bump the lens hood to your nose and show off all of your most favorable traits in 1:1 glory.

The shots below are straight out of the camera – nothing has been cropped or zoomed or modified.

Winston is a difficult target.  He’s not game to have me right up in his face.  I had to wait until he was paying attention to Brenda (holding some food) to get him to hold still long enough to take this photo.. and still I missed perfect focus on his eyeball by a bit.

In fact this lens can be pretty darned useless unless you’re taking shots of perfectly still objects, with no breeze and no camera shake.  Even then, stopped down at f/11, there still is a great deal of luck involved.

I had to brave some of these shots.. and only then get the bee in focus when he had his back to me.  They do not like me trying to take photos of their faces!

Here’s a perfectly still sliced orange.. taken with just the 60mm lens.

Here’s the same orange.. I also have what is called the “Macro-Adapter-R” which connects to the lens and allows you to get even closer.  This thing is nearly useless handheld.. you really need to have it mounted somewhere and take photos of things that are also positioned to not move, or hitting focus is almost impossible.

Amazing how just about everything, up really close, is kind of unpleasant.

Good shot showing what a narrow depth of field we’re dealing with.. I nailed focus on his rear leg; the field of focus drops off pretty quickly to the point that his head is a blur.