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typesetting lenses for macro


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<p>Long long ago I found a set of lenses for a Compugraphic typesetting machine, a number of small lenses on a rotating wheel. I took the lenses out and put them in a box and forgot about them for about 25 years or more, and stumbled on some of them today while looking for something else. It occurred to me that they might be pretty decent flat field macro lenses, and that they might fit in a microscope adapter I had converted last year from Konica to Nikon mount. Sure enough, they are and they do. They have no focus and no aperture adjustment, but they turn out to be pretty decent macro lenses with a good working distance. The lenses were labeled with various powers, from about 1.5 to 7.2. In my microscope adapter 1:1 macro is somewhere around 3. The 7.2 is very powerful. This one is a crop from one of the medium ones, aimed at a ladybug, handheld with flash, taken with a Nikon D3200. It's the dead of winter here, so there isn't much wildlife to try it on.</p>

<p>I just figured to bring this up because those lenses seem to be fairly plentiful, and they turn out to be quite decent if you have something to mount them in. </p><div>00d93D-555157684.JPG.3cbe2d75645749d1c0fd5f1b1a014557.JPG</div>

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<p>By the way, that shot above was hand held, and one could probably get it a little sharper with proper stabilization. The wonderful 85/2.8 PC Micro Nikkor is probably sharper with enough extension tubes, with the advantage of an aperture control, when on a focusing rail, but it's too heavy to hand hold. <br>

Here's the rig used, by the way: A d3200, with a Nikon SB15 flash on an articulated shoe that also includes a PC cord so the flash can be hand held or tilted as needed. A cheap bubble pack item from long ago that has proved to be hugely useful and versatile. The macro rail is the bottom half of a Minolta bellows, and the microscope adapter was for Konica, with a Nikon flange machined to fit. The lenses fit right in. </p>

<div>00d973-555172384.jpg.0ea21c89ed3c395d2fff05e2f1aac958.jpg</div>

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<p>Indeed, I probably chose the wrong word. The flash makes motion blur a non issue, but focus is pretty difficult handheld. It's easier to chase bugs with this light rig than with a bellows or a big macro lens on tubes, but focus is still a challenge. With the relatively short lens in the adapter as shown, the built in flash manages without a shadow, making it pretty handy for impromptu bug hunting.</p>
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