Dazing dragonfly

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hurray! My second hand set of conversion lenses and filters that I bought of the internet has arrived! Trying them out one by one. Here's a sample of what the macro filter does. Unfortunately, it only says "Macro" on the side of the filter, but no make or magnification factor. Any guesses?
This fabulous dragonfly is Sympetrum striolatum. Nearing the end of the dragonfly season, its colors are fading a little. It was a cold day, so these dragonflies were resting a lot on a piece of wood in the nearby playground, making them excelent prey for scavenging photographers ;).

Info: Panasonic DMC-FZ18, focal length 18mm (100mm DSLR equivalent) with macro filter (unknown magnification, sorry!) , ISO 100, F/7.1, 1/125 sec, RAW
PP: Silkypix, EC 0, camera WB, slight addition of contrast and sharpness, NR 20, noise cancellation 8.
Photopaint: selective sharpening on the eye. No cropping.

Let me know what you think!
- Jerry -

[Robert O'Toole]

Jerry,

Not bad for a test. Details in the thorax and legs are good. Eye looks sharp.

Try to use flash next time for better sharpness and it will also help fill shadows.

Center sharpness is ok, the corners are a bit soft but should work ok with most subjects. Looks like about 1X.

To find out the MAG factor, shoot a ruler and count the mm across the frame then divide this by the sensor width. This will give you the magnification factor in camera.

Robert

[Julie Kenward]

Good piece of info to know Robert!

I like the overall image, Jerry, but find myself wishing it wasn't quite as soft around the eye/mouth area. The colors in the image are great and I love the detail you got on the wings.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jerry, looks like you have a lot of fun times ahead with your new toys. Very nicely done, I agree with Jules, it look like the main focus is just behind the head. Keep em coming.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi there! Thanks for the comments. During processing, I also noticed that the focus point was on the thorax rather than on the eye and head. I tried to mitigate the problem by adding selective sharpness to the eye, but as proven here, it didn't fool the experts! I have another picture of this dragonfly with the same problem, but also a detail of the head at the same angle. I will try to put the two together and see what happens. Will post if succesful.
Reg. the magnification: following Roberts math I calculated that the total magnification of this image is nearly 6x, but that includes the magnification of the lens itself. I think the camera sets itself to 2x magnification in conversion mode, to get rid of the vignets that are introduced by the filter. I'm not sure whether magnification is additive or that you should multiply. In the first case, the macrofilter should have a magnification of 4x, otherwise it's 3x.
Kind regards,

- Jerry -