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Male Azure Damselfly with Caddis Fly Prey


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Visited Langdyke Countryside Trust's Swaddywell Pit Reserve near Peterborough UK yesterday to experiment photographing small and medium sized insects frequenting the middle of the pond foliage … i.e. at subject to image plane distances of 3m to 5m … and with as high magnifications as possible. Initially used my Leica SL 601 but as the light dropped, switched to Sony A7SII which has a better low light imaging capability, e.g. ISO 10000 is a usable setting.  Spotted the Male Azure Damselfly eating its Caddis Fly supper at 19.00hrs by scanning / observing 'middle of the pond' foliage using Pentax close focus binoculars (see image No 2 for the binocular) 

Technical details: Cloudy / hazy low Sun at 19.00hrs …  Sony  A7SII with Novoflex Leica R to Sony E adapter; c.1972 vintage Leitz Telyt R 560mm f6.8 set to f8  … plus 'stacked' Leitz R APO 2x and 1.4x extenders; Leitz R bellows; Jobu gimbal fitted to Berlebach heavy duty wooden tripod.  Settings: ISO 10000 (TEN thousand) ,  1/160sec  effective aperture f22 (2.8 x 8 =22) … but, allowing for approx 0.77 magnification, actual effective aperture is f39.6  … which is too small because it's into diffraction territory … but It’s a learning exercise.
 
Camera's 5 second self-timer was used to reduce 'wobble' … which was noticed when pressing the shutter. Camera's IS was 'ON' but was inadvertently set to incorrect focal length … the Sony images were all bit rushed. 
 
Everything considered, I'm reasonably happy with result which was processed with PS Elements.
 
cont'd 
 

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Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

To illustrate whole apparatus i.e. Sony  A7SII with Novoflex Leica R to Sony E adapter; 'stacked' Leitz R APO 2x and 1.4x extenders; Leitz R bellows; c.1972 vintage Leitz Telyt R 560mm f6.8 … plus Jobu gimbal fitted to Berlebach heavy duty wooden tripod.  Pentax close focus binocular perched on top of the gimbal (just for this photo)  There is an Arca plate screwed onto the Leitz 560mm Telyt thus enabling 'sliding' in the Jobu gimbal saddle to achieve balance at the centre of gravity.  This might appear to be a rather OTT piece of apparatus but it's very cost effective compared to using e.g. a modern APO AF telephoto lens . The 560/6.8 Telyt R is a proven good performer; it's an achromatic doublet lens i.e. just two elements and works well with the stacked Leitz APO extenders. Magnification for the Azure Damselfly image is approx 33/43* = 0.77magnification … but apparatus is capable of higher reproduction ratios … not yet fully tested. I should have used the lens at its set maximum aperture i.e. f6.8 … which would result in an effective aperture of 6.8 x 2.8(1 + 0.77) =  f33.7  … which is still into diffraction territory … but even at set aperture f8 and effective aperture f39 the image appears to be acceptable with no noticeable diffraction effects.

The lens' 'push button' trombone focus is too far away from the camera for easy use thus the lens is roughly focused via its push button … and then fine focused via the bellows … using the camera's live view image magnification facility. 

* Damselfly is 33mm long; image frame diagonal is 43mm … thus magnification = 33/43 = 0.77 = approx 3/4 life size on the sensor 

cont'd  

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

To illustrate use of Leitz R bellows and stacked Leitz R 1.4x and 2x APO extenders … with vintage Leitz Telyt R 560/6.8 lens 

The tape around the Novoflex lens adapter enables use of a tripod adapter when used with other lenses 

Best wishes

dunk 

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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Forgot to mention the Male Azure Damselfly was approx 4.5m from the camera image plane … i.e. it was on the floating leaves in the centre of the pond. 

Lens' resultant focal length is 560mm x 2 x 1.4 = 1568mm

The image is not cropped … image field of view is 'as seen' in the finder. 

dunk 

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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22 hours ago, dkCambridgeshire said:

Visited Langdyke Countryside Trust's Swaddywell Pit Reserve near Peterborough UK yesterday to experiment photographing small and medium sized insects frequenting the middle of the pond foliage … i.e. at subject to image plane distances of 3m to 5m … and with as high magnifications as possible. Initially used my Leica SL 601 but as the light dropped, switched to Sony A7SII which has a better low light imaging capability, e.g. ISO 10000 is a usable setting.  Spotted the Male Azure Damselfly eating its Caddis Fly supper at 19.00hrs by scanning / observing 'middle of the pond' foliage using Pentax close focus binoculars (see image No 2 for the binocular) 

Technical details: Cloudy / hazy low Sun at 19.00hrs …  Sony  A7SII with Novoflex Leica R to Sony E adapter; c.1972 vintage Leitz Telyt R 560mm f6.8 set to f8  … plus 'stacked' Leitz R APO 2x and 1.4x extenders; Leitz R bellows; Jobu gimbal fitted to Berlebach heavy duty wooden tripod.  Settings: ISO 10000 (TEN thousand) ,  1/160sec  effective aperture f22 (2.8 x 8 =22) … but, allowing for approx 0.77 magnification, actual effective aperture is f39.6  … which is too small because it's into diffraction territory … but It’s a learning exercise.
 
Camera's 5 second self-timer was used to reduce 'wobble' … which was noticed when pressing the shutter. Camera's IS was 'ON' but was inadvertently set to incorrect focal length … the Sony images were all bit rushed. 
 
Everything considered, I'm reasonably happy with result which was processed with PS Elements.
 
cont'd 
 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

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I’m sorry, you are a wonderful hyohrahet especially com are to me. But, I must tell you that I have much better photographs with a cheap Pan/Leica  connected with an adapter to a Leica scope, probably at one tenth the cost . If you need an example, I’ll post one .  Your set up and result is wonderful .  🕺

 

Edited by albert
Too many spelling errors.
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… and, until last year, also used a Leitz 800mm f 6.3 Telyt S … sold it to fund dental implant treatments … but it was also far too bulky / heavy for transport to local nature reserves … or anywhere else. But wish I still had it. 

dunk 

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  • 3 months later...
On 8/3/2019 at 1:17 AM, dkCambridgeshire said:

Visited Langdyke Countryside Trust's Swaddywell Pit Reserve near Peterborough UK yesterday to experiment photographing small and medium sized insects frequenting the middle of the pond foliage … i.e. at subject to image plane distances of 3m to 5m … and with as high magnifications as possible. Initially used my Leica SL 601 but as the light dropped, switched to Sony A7SII which has a better low light imaging capability, e.g. ISO 10000 is a usable setting.  Spotted the Male Azure Damselfly eating its Caddis Fly supper at 19.00hrs by scanning / observing 'middle of the pond' foliage using Pentax close focus binoculars (see image No 2 for the binocular) 

Technical details: Cloudy / hazy low Sun at 19.00hrs …  Sony  A7SII with Novoflex Leica R to Sony E adapter; c.1972 vintage Leitz Telyt R 560mm f6.8 set to f8  … plus 'stacked' Leitz R APO 2x and 1.4x extenders; Leitz R bellows; Jobu gimbal fitted to Berlebach heavy duty wooden tripod.  Settings: ISO 10000 (TEN thousand) ,  1/160sec  effective aperture f22 (2.8 x 8 =22) … but, allowing for approx 0.77 magnification, actual effective aperture is f39.6  … which is too small because it's into diffraction territory … but It’s a learning exercise.
 
Camera's 5 second self-timer was used to reduce 'wobble' … which was noticed when pressing the shutter. Camera's IS was 'ON' but was inadvertently set to incorrect focal length … the Sony images were all bit rushed. 
 
Everything considered, I'm reasonably happy with result which was processed with PS Elements.
 
cont'd 
 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Since posting this image I have been advised by entomologist Dr Stuart Ball  (who co-authored 'Britain's Hoverflies, A Field Guide' …. and is also Past President of Peterborough Photographic Society) that this specimen is not an Azure Damselfly … it is a Female Blue Tailed Damselfly … and my own further research suggests it is likely the female form violacea 

dunk

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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