Macro Monday

It's a holiday today, so I had some leisure time. While testing out the new Minolta Beercan , I took a shot of a purple daisy. I was very surprised to see little blue and yellow star shaped florets. I thought I might brush off the Pentax bellows I bought a few months ago and see of I could get a better image.
This is the original picture that inspired the macro work.

After attaching the bellows and I changed the lenses a few times. I tried a Fujitar 50mm, but could not get a good focus. Next came the Takumar 135. I could focus but the DOF was so narrow it was pointless. Finally I tried a Helios 58mm. The Helios lens would focus consistently. This lens usually disappoints me and this was the first time I have used this lens and enjoyed it!

The other problem was the wind, the flower kept moving, and I had to wait for a lull to get a good photo. I ended up shooting with the bellows extended to about "8X" at f6 and 1/50s.

I've got to say I was very disappointed with the process as it was very very fiddly. The images didn't look very nice either. - Oh well, off to photoshop to see how they develop.

First some sharpening... then cropping...

more cropping...

and still more...

Much better than I had hoped! The Helios have certainly proven themselves. While not a perfect image, I can see a lot of detail.