First Image with new (old) Leitz lens

[Cactuspic]

I recently won an Ebay bid for a used Leitz 42mm Summar which is designed for a macro range of 3x-15x. Having ripped open the package as soon as the postman arrived, I had to take my first image stacks with it to test it out. This single flower of a Crassula 'Morgan's Beauty' was shot with about 240mm of extension. The vertical visual field is about 5/32nds of an inch or 8mm. I calculated this to be approximately 5x lifesize, the same as my Canon MP-E at maximum. This is a stack of 35 slices. I was very pleased with the quality of the lens.:) I did check the individual slices. The rim around the petals are not digital artifacts, the petals were translucent right by the edge in the individual image. :eek: Hope you like the image. Let me know what you think of the sharpness of the lens.


Just for grins, I measured the length of my MP-E at its max extension, which coincidentaly was about 240mm. While I will verify te visual field tommorrow of the MP-E, my preliminary guess is that it has an effective focal length of approximately 40mm at full extension.

Irwin

[LordV]

Looks good - what aperture were you using ?
The MPE_65 gives about a 4.5mm field width at 5:1 by measurement. Can be calculated as sensor width/5= 4.5mm, so I'd guess you are less than 5:1 although the ext calculation would indicate 5:1
Brian V.

[Cactuspic]

Looks good - what aperture were you using ?
The MPE_65 gives about a 4.5mm field width at 5:1 by measurement. Can be calculated as sensor width/5= 4.5mm, so I'd guess you are less than 5:1 although the ext calculation would indicate 5:1
Brian V.

Thanks Brian. :) I have to confess to a metric conversion oops, though. When I recompared my scales, 5/32nds of an inch is very close to 4.0 mm.:oops::oops: Since the actual measurement was a smidge over 5/32, I think my initial calculation was correct.

The aperature part is very strange. There are three marked openings (no clicks) 2, 6 12. The aperature closes smaller than the 12 mark by quite a bit. I will check by time when the morning light comes, but I think that there are unmarked stops of 3, 4, 8 and 16 but that may be me imposing my scale on it. My memory tells me that these may not be using traditional f stop notation.

Best regards.

Irwin

[geoawelch]

Irwin,

How does one adapt the Summar to the Canon? This may be a dumb question.

George

[Cactuspic]

Irwin,

How does one adapt the Summar to the Canon? This may be a dumb question.

George

Hi George,

Your question is not dumb at all. First I was lucky. I have a set of macro lenses for the poloroid system. Along the way, I got and adapter for them that allows them to fit onto tubes and bellows for a pentax screw mount (m-42). On the other end of my pentax screw mount tubes and bellows are adapters to EOS.
'
The adaptors for EOS are easy to get on ebay and relatively cheap. The Tominon adapter is harder to come by but don't worry. There is a cheap workaround. The Summar is a very small lens that whose thread is a slight bit smaller than the m42, but whose outer flange spans the tube. Using Gaffers tape, the lens is easy to secure to the tubes. It is important to use a tape like gaffer's tape and not use duct tape. Gaffer's tape will peal off your equipment like a post-it note and not leave any adhesive behind.

Hope that helps.

Irwin

[bandit 1]

Hiya Irwin,

That a nice shot but it looks ' Softer ' that your usual Stacks, it would be interesting to see a comparison between your usual lens.
Cheers for now

Mark

[Cactuspic]

Hi Mark,

I took a look at the jpeg that I posted and found I made a downsizing error. :x I have increased the pixel content by about 3x. Does this look better? I will be taking something with fine spines shortly so I can see the detail more clearly. Take care.

It think I may try restacking this image. In the past, I have had details mush out in low contrast situations involving smoother surfaces and large stacks.

Irwin

[bandit 1]

Hiya Irwin,

Yep that looks better, I found it hard to tell scrolling from one to the other so I saved both & had a side by side look & the re edited one looks much richer in colour depth much better.

BTW that wasn't a criticism just an observation, enjoining your shots keep em comming.

Cheers for now
Mark

[racketman]

look soft to me but cant wait to see a x15 Springtail shot from 40 stacks!

[Cactuspic]

Thanks RM & Mark. :) I think it is a litlle soft but I am not sure that the even lighting of the overcastr day did not play into the equation. I think I will have to do a several controled of shot comarisons using the new lens. RM, I am looking forward to your 40 slice stack of a Springtail. But why do I think your stack of 40 will freeze the sucker in midjump? :p

Best regards

Irwin