Grass Going to Seed

Catchy title, right? OK, what if I tell you: there's also a dead bug!

Random grass seeds; bug just right of center

I am testing a new macro lens today; this grass seed seemed like a good subject. I actually collected it last night, and it had dried out and partially ejected the seeds. That actually made it more interesting.

The lens in use here is a machine vision lens, designed for extreme sharpness to allow computer vision applications to analyze factory products automatically. These types of lenses are extremely expensive new, but are often very cheap on the used market because very few people are standing in line for the used ones. I suppose if you are shipping $23 million in high-grade bolts, a few thousand dollars for the lens is no big deal.

This is very good news for folks like me; I can buy these kinds of lenses for anywhere from $30 to $300 each. Even the $30 ones are pretty good; this one is a ‘better’ grade, and set me back $200. Given that a decent macro lens for a camera costs in the range of $800-2000, these little babies are a steal: much sharper, but you have to work out how to use them.

This lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach M-Componon Makro f/4 80mm. It has no shutter of its own, so I screwed it into a Copal shutter, and attached that to a lens board. (just like an old-time bellows camera)

Yes, my setup has a bellows.

It took a few hours to get it all going, but the results are fantastic. If you haven’t found the bug yet, here is a close-up at full size.

I have been looking for a way to do macro photography without spending a ton of money, and this looks like the perfect way to go. Camera is a Phase One digital back IQ3 100, and I took the 25 images used to make this image using the StackShot stage.

I don’t have a photo of the setup I used; I took it apart to make some changes already. But I will eventually post a photo of the final setup when it’s operational.