| Author |
 Replies: 39 / Views: 7,180 |
|
|
|
Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Keep in mind, CaptainFwiffo - there are *very* few true dogs amongst these lenses. They are tools even more specialized than a dedicated macro lens, and the least amongst them will shoot images of staggering quality. With a little judicious postprocessing in some cases, the only way to tell them apart is flat-out pixel peeping.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
4132 Posts |
Yeah, I was looking at Ray's 75mm and 105mm shoot-out thread. I'm not worried about going wrong there. And if I decide that I want to get that extra edge and get that Apo Rodagon D 75mm, I can always do that as an upgrade down the road.
Probably I'm going to have the most trouble with the stand; I'll find one with a permanently insolvable wobbly foot.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
627 Posts |
I haven't seen a nice 75ARD1 on ebay for a while. I bought one back in mid Jan 2012, and snagged up a 2nd as a back-up (I'm the paranoid type) one week later -- both were less than $300 ($238 and $278 to be exact). I have a regular ebay search with email allerts, but they have been pretty sparse. Anyone else noticed that? Nonetheless, as Dave said, there are a lot of good lenses. My favorite "2nd" lens is actually an EL-Nikkor 80mm/5.6 lens I picked up in early Feb 2012 for $15 on ebay! Some steals out there for sure.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
I've got a saved search now too. I see a couple up right now, one has a scratch on the lens, I don't know how severe, and there's another that's in really terrible condition. But thanks to you guys, I feel more comfortable about finding a camera, and a bellows, and a lens... But now I'm a little unsure what I need to be mounting all of this too. I see several threads with setups using microscope stands. What should I search for to find these? Searching for "microscope stand" or "A stand" doesn't seem to get the right kind of thing. If I get a microscope stand, should I look for a lower profile bellows without a focusing rail, or with a removable focusing rail? Would the focusing mechanism in the microscope stand be sufficient? What sort of physical size should I be looking for in a microscope stand or copy stand (particularly in terms of working distance)? |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
The 75ARD1's for sale right now are older style. I have no idea if the quality is the same as the newer ones so I would not recommend risking a lot of money on them.
The Bausch & Lomb A-stands I've been building for folks have just the right distance from mount to stage center to use a Vivitar Bellows without the focusing rail. The rail is not really needed if you have the stand. The Pentax Auto Bellows fits on the A-stand as well, and is only a bit off-center (it's a little taller than the Vivitar) but since it includes the focusing rail it will give even more adjustment range than the Vivitar will. Short stands such as the Triple Track, MacroBel, Nikon Bellows-III, etc are very off-center on the other direction, but you could always add a spacer block to help with this. Nikon PB4 or PB6, Canon Auto, or similar bellows are too tall to go on the A-stand.
Note that most solutions that are not purpose-built for macro photography will force you to do some modifications. I'm very fond of the Nikon macro stand but the clamp must be modified to hold something other than an older Nikon film camera.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Alright, time to stop messing with around. Ray, you've got mail.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Everything is on its way. Huge, incredible thanks to Ray who has hooked me up with equipment and so much education.
The setup will consist of:
Canon EOS Rebel T3i
EOS/M42 adapter
Ashai Pentax Auto Bellows
M42/M39 adapter
Rodenstock 75mm APO-Rodagon D f/4.0
...all mounted on...
Baush & Lomb microscope "A" stand as modified by Ray
I can't wait to get it all together. Big thanks to everyone who responded to the thread and steered me in the right direction!
|
|
Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1298 Posts |
I have been looking for the link that shows the photo(s) of Ray's latest setup. Can anyone supply me the link. Also, I'd be interested in purchasing a Baush & Lomb microscope "A" stand modified by Ray. Would that be possible, Ray? Thanks.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
I was a bit lucky that Ray happened to have a stand on hand when I contacted him, because they're not always available at a good price. Here's a refurbished stand that I found on ebay during my initial research, and the price is good from my understanding. Here's a thread showing one version of his setup, and page 9 of this thread shows a bunch more. Here's a picture of the setup he built for me. That's actually his bellows and camera (a T2i), but I have an identical bellows from ebay.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1298 Posts |
Thanks, CaptainFwiffo. Don't know how I missed that link, as I looked through that thread. I guess I will have to wait and hope Ray sees the previous messages and this one, and has an answer for me?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Send him a PM. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
627 Posts |
Captain, you got a great price on that bellows for around $50! Sweet deal! Can't wait to see your first pics, and your progression over time! It adds immensely to the hobby.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Thanks for sending the pic and links CF! Ham, I got the PM and replied back...Ray
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Wow, the bellows already arrived. That's amazing for a late-night Friday auction shipping from California to Florida via USPS over the weekend.
It looks like it's missing one of the silver, end-stop things, but that's not a big deal; it doesn't seem that easy to drive off the end. I can see now in the auction pictures that it's missing, so I don't think I lost it in the box or something. It's clean, doesn't leak light, the operation is butter-smooth on all three knobs, and the bearings seem to be perfect. Really seems like a fine, precision piece of equipment.
@brg, you were right about the coupler thing being screwed in to protect the threads.
|
| |
Replies: 39 / Views: 7,180 |
First Page
Posted 07/18/2012 11:42 pm
