Four flies and a spider

[GardenersHelper]

These were captured hand-held a week ago at a local nature reserve with a small sensor Panasonic FZ330 bridge camera and Raynox 150 close-up lens with a Venus Optics KX800 twin flash. All used an aperture of f/8, equivalent to f/45 on full frame. All used a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec apart from the last one, where I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/320 sec to try to get a bit more ambient light on to the background.

The raw files were batch processed in DXO PhotoLab , Silkypix and Lightroom, with image-specific adjustments in Lightroom. These versions are downsized by Flickr from the 1300 pixel high versions in this album at Flickr.

#1

1464 04 2019_03_25 P1590341_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

1464 06 2019_03_25 P1590345_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

1464 31 2019_03_25 P1590444_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

1464 36 2019_03_25 P1590521_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

1464 41 2019_03_25 P1590537_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#6

1464 50 2019_03_25 P1590601_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#7

1464 55 2019_03_25 P1590629_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#8

1464 56 2019_03_25 P1590636_PLab SP7 LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

 

[RyanB]

Awesome set as per usual.

 

[Tintin124]

Very nice Nick .. my favourite are #2/4/8

Think you could get away with rotating #8 and mirroring it and call it Y

 

[GilesKS]

The spider is Tetragnatha, probably T. montana (not certain on that). #6 is Yellow Dung Fly.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Awesome set as per usual.

Thanks Ryan.

Very nice Nick .. my favourite are #2/4/8

Think you could get away with rotating #8 and mirroring it and call it Y

Thanks Bryn.

I'm not sure I understood exactly about #8. Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?


Y 800h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

The spider is Tetragnatha, probably T. montana (not certain on that). #6 is Yellow Dung Fly.

Thanks for the identifications Giles. That is very helpful. (I never identify species because I only know a few at a high level - as it happens Tetragnatha and Dung Fly are two of them - and nothing more detailed than that. Even when I mention high level IDs I can get them wrong, so I generally say nothing about IDs. All of which makes identifications very welcome, so thanks again.)

 

[Tintin124]

That's even better than my idea... that's fricking amazing nick

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Lovely set- I really must dust off my macro gear

Les

 

[lightshipman]

Lovely set yet again, amazing detail you get

 

[GardenersHelper]

Lovely set-

Thanks Les.

I really must dust off my macro gear

Les

Good idea. The little animals are starting to appear now (here at least). Our first flush of flowers are already going over.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Lovely set yet again, amazing detail you get

Thanks Andrew. I think some careful post processing helps bring out some detail.

 

[lightshipman]

I have also been following your blog as I am thinking of investing in a G9. I have had a fairly in depth demo in my local camera shop, ( Cameraland, in Cardiff), it’s just plucking up the courage to change systems.

 

[GardenersHelper]

I have also been following your blog as I am thinking of investing in a G9. I have had a fairly in depth demo in my local camera shop, ( Cameraland, in Cardiff), it’s just plucking up the courage to change systems.

You are very invested in Nikon Andrew and it looks like (I am not familiar with Nikon kit) you have a really good set of kit. I am very concerned in case you are taking my use of a G9 into account. I only use it for one thing, and a rather specialised thing at that.

I'm wondering what are you hoping to gain from a move to micro four thirds? And whether you are prepared for what you might lose? (e.g. perhaps 1.5 stops of dynamic range at base ISO, see below, phase detect focusing, optical viewfinder). Have you got feedback from people who have made the same move? (e.g. asking that question in the Micro Four Thirds Talk forum at dpreview)

And I'm sure you are well aware of this, but for other folk who may not be, my insect etc photos are not captured with a G9, but with a small sensor bridge camera, and the way I go about it (using very small apertures) I get the same image quality for insects etc from small sensor, micro four thirds and APS-C cameras. That being the case I wouldn't want anyone to think about changing cameras on account of anything that I do with insects etc.

Here is something about dynamic range, D750 vs G9. I have seen debates amongst the "experts" at dpreview as to exactly how meaningful these figures are, but they are the best source I know of for getting some sort of idea. This is a screenshot from the Photons to photos web site. Here is a link to the live graph so you can add other cameras etc.