Yashica Dental Eye for nature shots?

 I've been working on a project to get a bunch of C-41 negatives into proper plastic sleeves instead of being rolled up in the film cans. I think I was so busy in 2009-2010, that I never put the developed negs into sleeves, and stored them rolled in the plastic film cans.  They were locally processed - develop only, no cut,  and scanned to a CD.  At that time, I think that was about $4/roll for that service at Walgreens.   I started trying to accomplish this task a couple of years ago, and set it aside because the negatives were so curly from being stored that way, and I had to weigh the negative sheets down for a month or more to flatten them enough to be stored in a binder.  

I started going through some boxes of prints, etc. the other day, and realized that I really ought to finish this job.  I tried something that I should have done in the first place.  I removed the film roll and placed it in a container of warm water with some photoflo, and then unrolled the film in the water bath and let it sit for several minutes.  As it uncurled, I removed it and hung it up to dry.  I'm quite pleased with the results so far.  There will still be a slight curl, but nothing like before.  

In doing this, I also searched for the CD that matched the number on the roll that was put there by the lab.  I was at least smart enough to do that in 2009.  Of course, the scans are not as good as I can do now with my Epson V700, but they are good enough to see the results and if I wish to do any rescanning in the future, I can do that.

One of the first rolls that I worked with was #68889 - results from a Yashica Dental Eye on Fuji Superia 100.  I thought maybe I had blogged about it, but I did not.  So, here is  what I should have done in 2009 after using the camera.

Yashica Dental Eye

Kyocera produced a series of 35mm SLRs for use by dentists that are basically point and shoot SLRs with a 55mm f/4  (and later, a 100mm for the Dental Eye II) macro lens surrounded by a ring flash.  There is no aperture or shutter control, as the camera automatically calculates the flash output with the distance and magnification.  There is no infinity focus.  The Dental Eye cameras are basically a Yashica FX-3 with a fixed lens and auto exposure.  Back in the late 2000s, the Dental Eye cameras were rendered obsolete by digital systems that could do the same thing, but with instant results.  The same has happened with dental x-rays.  

I received that Dental Eye from a professor that had purchased it years before to do macrophotographs of shells that he was researching.   As with many film cameras in the DSLR onslaught after 2002, they were left in a closet or a drawer, and given away as the owners felt that they no longer had any value.  I obtained quite a few cameras that way. The Dental Eye cameras were very specialized, as the lenses were not removable, and for the specific purpose they were designed for, they worked well enough.  However, why not used them for nature photography?    That was my intent, as I had always been doing macrophotography, but with Nikons and macro lenses, etc.  I gave the Dental Eye a workout in my garden in Ann Arbor, MI, and overall, the results were pretty good.  The farthest focus with this camera is at 1:10 reproduction, with closest at 1:1.  

These are a few frames from the roll of Superia 100 that was scanned by the lab.  

Overall, I'd say the Dental Eye did a pretty good job, but it's easy to overexpose yellows and whites close-up.  The camera makes all the choices for you, so there is that aspect that might appeal to some.  You can find these cameras on eBay, usually in the original case with a manual, at prices from $49 - $150.  I suspect most of them are hardly used.  Of course, you can also try the camera with b&w film, which I don't think I ever did.  

The other thing to take away from this is to store your negatives properly! 

TTArtisans 40mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Canon EOS M5 with TTArtisans 40mm Macro Lens

Back in early May, I purchased a used Canon EOS M5 from KEH, intending it to replace the long-serving Nikon 1 system that I had owned for nearly a decade.  The 24 MP APS-C sensor on the M5 was certainly an improvement, but so was the availability of lenses in the EOS-M mount.  My first lens for the M5 was the TTArtisans 35mm f/1.4, and while a fully manual lens with no electronic contacts, it worked well in A-mode, and the focus peaking feature on the M5 is a great help with manual focus lenses.  It was several months before I purchased the 15-45mm Canon AF zoom for the M5, and reaped the benefits of auto-focus and the nice zoom range with the image stabilized lens.  However, I still prefer to use prime lenses in much of the photography that I do with this nice mirrorless camera (which is probably being abandoned by Canon as it keeps pushing out the R-series mirrorless).  It suits my needs perfectly, and the one thing that I lacked was a lens for macrophotography.  I’m not into getting adapters to put big 35mm SLR lenses on a petite camera body, which negates the mirrorless camera’s advantages.  When I saw that a macro lens was available from TTArtisans, I knew that it was just the lens that I was looking for.  

beautiful circular aperture

All metal construction

sturdy and substantial lens

52mm front filter ring

With an APS-C sensor, the 40mm is roughly equivalent to 60mm in 35mm full-frame. Since the lens is capable of 1:1 reproduction without any accessories, that sealed the deal for me.  I ordered it from Adorama in NYC, and it was $99 before tax and free shipping. How a lens like this is only $100 baffles me, but if I didn’t like it I could always return it.  One reason these lenses are inexpensive is that they are fully manual with no electronic connections, motors, or "modern" conveniences.  The other reason, I presume, is that they are made in China. The third reason, is that they are available in a number of mirrorless camera system mounts.  

The lens arrived from Adorama in a padded envelope, and is packaged very well in the box from TTArtisans.  The lens barrel is all metal, no plastic, giving it a heft that surprised me.  The focus ring turns smoothly and very precisely - there is no play in the focus, and the aperture click stops from f/2.8-16 feel perfect when handling.  The sort of precise feel that’s missing from modern lenses, in my opinion - because of electronic aperture control.  The lens, when fully extended, is 11.5 cm long, and when at infinity, it is 7 cm in length.  The filter ring is 52mm in diameter.  The working distance at 1:1 magnification is 4 cm.  The all-metal body weighs 388 grams. Compare that to the plastic-bodied 15-45 Canon zoom, which weighs 137 grams! I should note that the TTArtisans 35mm f/1.4 lens weighs 200 grams.  This is a well-constructed, precise lens that will definitely impress you with its build.  Of course, the other half of the equation is - the optics.  I’ve had the lens for about a week, and I’m totally impressed with it.  

Fully extended lens at 1:1

In terms of handling, it’s a great match for the M5 body. Focusing and aperture adjustment are easily performed, and the results from the lens so far are very pleasing.  The maximum aperture of f/2.8 is pretty much what one expects from a true macro lens, and while the minimum aperture is f/16, it matches well with the APS-C sensor size.  Beyond f/16, we would see diffraction starting to make images less sharp.  The aperture is perfectly circular, making for a pleasing bokeh when wide open.  

from the TTArtisan site - 8 elements in 7 groups

As a 40mm lens on the M5, it’s going to also be good for portraits, still-lifes, and of course, it excels as a macro lens.  For really close-up work, you’ll need lots of light if you wish some semblance of depth of field.  Raising the ISO will help in that regard, as I have yet to try external flashes with my M5, but LED light panels can do a pretty good job for many subjects. In my experience, nothing pumps as much light as a burst from a flash unit, so I’ll need to experiment to see what I can do in those situations.  

field of view at 1:1

zoomed and crop of the previous image - loads of detail

Overall, I find no faults with this well-built, affordable lens.  TTArtisans sells it in all popular mirrorless mounts, including Fuji-X, M4/3, Nikon Z, and Sony.  For me, it’s easily carried around on the EOS M5, and is a lot of fun to take outdoors, where subjects abound and it only requires that you look. The TTArtisans 40mm macro lens will open new doors in your photography if you have never shot true macro before!

I really like the results from the EOS M5

I'm a long-time Nikon user, and you might wonder why I didn't switch to a Nikon Z-system mirrorless body.  Price, for one.  I paid less than $400 for the Canon EOS M5. Second, I just don't need a camera for video.  All the newer bodies seem to put video first and foremost in the features, and still photography is almost a second thought.  While the EOS M5 does do good video, it's definitely just part of the features.  In the end, it's a matter of the most bang for the buck, and the EOS M5 got my bucks. 

The Olympus Macro Stand + bellows

Back in early October I picked up an Olympus macro photography stand with the matching bellows for an Olympus OM-series camera. It's quite similar (but better-constructed) than the Minolta macro set-up that I used to own. I rarely use film for macro-photography anymore, but at a price of $25, I could not pass up the Olympus macro stand. As you can see in the photograph, I have it it set up with my OM-1 and a 50mm 3.5 Olympus macro lens. By itself, the lens does 1/2 size (1:2) maximum magnification. With a typical set of extension tubes, one can go a little larger than 1:1 (life size). With a bellows, you can go several times life size, if you want to shoot small objects, or magnify parts of larger subjects. The problem with a bellows and extension tubes, is that the working distance (the distance from the front of the lens to the subject) is very small -- from a few inches to fractions of an inch, depending on the extension. In addition, there is significant light falloff, shallow depth of field (DOF) and movement is magnified. So, the easy way to avoid some of the drawbacks is to use the camera like a microscope, by keeping the assembly locked down to a solid rail as you can see here. Typically, one would use a ringlight or a couple of small flashes near the subject for great DOF at f/16 or f/22 and to avoid camera shake. However, you can also use fiber-optic lights, and other high-intensity LED lights to get proper lighting at these close distances. The other thing to note is that there are two remote-release cables. One is for the lens (to activate the aperture prior to making the exposure, and the other operates the camera shutter. That is typical for bellows, as the lens is not linked to any actuating mechanism on the camera body.

I took a few shots with the OM-1, and here is the side of the thorax of a Canada darner dragonfly. I would imagine that if you had an OM-series adapter for your DSLR or Olympus Pen (digital), it would be a great way to shoot small things. Macrophotography is one of the great things about shooting digital!

Fruits of Labor

"Why do we photograph?" Is a good question. It calls into play a lot of reasons, some of which involve the documentary nature of photography. To convey an event through our eyes. To share what we see, how we felt, what we did, so that we won't forget, so that others won't forget, and so on. It's not necessary to defend why we do it. We just do, and sometimes events unfold that justify whatever reasons we had for hoisting that camera.
For a number of years, from 1984-2002, I spent a week or so at the Huron Mountain Club, NW of Marquette, MI, doing entomological research. A number of papers were published on the insects that I worked on, and I'm quite happy with what I did there. I also carried a camera with me out in the field just about every day. In the 1980s it was a Pentax MG, and in the 1990s and 2000s, I used Nikons and several medium-format cameras. Some of the images I took later on were related to my research, but many were not, as I knew that my time there was coming to an end, and I wanted to document some of the beauty of a place that very few people outside of Huron Mountain Club members and researchers (working under the auspices of the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation) get to see.
Some of my images were placed online on my Flickr account to share. Last year, I was contacted by History Works, Inc. to use some of my images for a book documenting the history of the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation and the research that has taken place there. I was happy to donate a number of images, and finally, today, I received a copy of the book in the mail. Having one of my photos grace the cover was proof to me that all the shots I took of Ives Lake were worth the effort. I was never content to just get one shot, to document that I was there. As anyone knows that photographs seriously, you go back to some spots to shoot repeatedly because there is always the chance to get a better image than you did before, to capture something a bit different. So it was with this image. One thing I did notice when providing images for the author -- my photography greatly improved after 2000, when I began taking it seriously and thinking about what and how I was shooting. Those later images comprise most of my photos in the book.

I have over 15 photographs in the book and it's really great to see them in printed form-- a better venue than sitting closed up in the file cabinet inside sheet after sheet of slide pages.

Super Macro for less than $100.

I've been doing macrophotography for quite a while. From 35mm to medium format, and in between, digital. The beauty of macro is that one can photograph almost anything and make it look interesting. The downside of macro is that for most people, it means more money for adapters, lenses, cameras, etc. I won't deny that I have some expensive macro equipment. My Nikon 70-180 Micro-Nikkor is a lens that Nikon doesn't offer anymore, and you can't find one used. I have used it for years and love the results. However, I am not telling you to go and buy the latest macro gear for your DSLR. Instead, we are doing this on the cheap.

I recently bought a factory-refurbished Fuji Finepix S700 online from eCost.com for about $90. I used to own a Fuji S7000 EVF camera and loved it. When I bought a Nikon D70s, I sold the Fuji. I'd been keeping my eye on the S700 for a while, because it is compact, and best of all, besides the 10x optical zoom, the 46mm filter ring in front of the lens offers a way add filters and adapters. That is something that the retractable lens P&S cameras do not have, and after I opened up the S700 box, I knew my Canon Powershot A570 was going to Adrienne.

So, how does one get super macro from the S700? First of all, most P&S cameras that have a "Macro" feature are not really shooting macro. They are allowing you to focus very closely at the shortest possible focal length. That's a trick of wide-angle lenses being able to close-focus. True macro is defined as being able to achieve a 1:1 reproduction ratio. If the object is 5mm long, then the resulting image on the sensor (or film) is the same size. Now, with the small sensors of point and shoot cameras, that's obviously an issue.

So, how do you get true macro from the S700? Simple. First, you need a 46mm to 52mm step-up ring. That allows you to use any 52mm diameter filter on the front of the S700. Very useful if you want to do fun things.

Second, you buy a 52mm reversing ring -- really just an adapter with male threads on both sides.

Third, you screw any 50mm (called a normal lens) manual focus lens on the front of the S700 using the reversing ring (if it has a different diameter than 52mm, find an appropriate adapter).


Here is the S700, the 46-52mm adapter, the reversing ring, and a Vivitar 50mm 1.7 lens.

Set the S700 to maximum optical zoom, and make sure that the 50mm lens is set to its widest aperture (fully open). Do not use the "macro" setting on the camera. Be prepared to go wow.


A yellowjacket at full magnification.

If you use a macro setup like this one, which utilizes a steady base and good lighting, you'll get much better results. Be careful of that exposed rear element of the 50mm lens.



what the camera saw....

If you reduce the zoom, you will get some vignetting from the attached 50mm, but you'll also get crisper results.

At maximum magnification, the field of view is about 5mm wide! You can go crazy with exploring the tiny world in your backyard.

These are the fruiting bodies of lichen in my backyard. The beauty of this outfit is the compactness and versatility that you get from the S700, and the inexpensive nature of the gear that gives you some pretty good results.