threads at all. Some of them are designed for a single magnification
range only, like 1:1. Anything outside of that range is not usable.
Forget about going to infinity. Most lack some of the sophisticated
coatings we find in newer lenses, and so on. One expert claims
they are mostly museum pieces. Not anymore!
These exotic lenses are fast and very sharp. And they are
expensive and rare. Perhaps they are expensive because they are
rare and mostly purchased to display in museums or whatever. I
can’t say. I don’t see many folks using them to make photos with
that I have come across. Of course Bjørn Rørslett knows about
these lenses and has written about them, or at least most of them.
Another huge resource has been Klaus D. Schmitt (kds315), who
has collected and archived the exotic macro lenses for years.
Schmitt has helped me find these exotic Nikkors, shown me how to
use them, and even built special mounts and helicoids for my work.
Schmitt knows these lenses.
Impressionism and Surrealism
So what is it that I think I am doing? I am using very fast lenses that
are sharp wide open to stack focus. Although these lenses have a
razor-thin DOF, I am stacking that thin DOF to create a very sharp
image of whatever size I want and allowing the rest of the photo to
be well out-of-focus. I find the contrast of the very sharp stacked
portions against the more dreamy bokeh of the background to
scratch some itch I have always had inside of me, call it the realist
meets the impressionist.
The sharply focused areas of the photo are featured against the
broad pastel-like dreaminess of the background and I guess the
subtext message the photo sends is something like:
“This crystal-clear reality we live in and believe exists is but an
island of awareness suspended in a larger dream we are having, a
dream painted in broad strokes and colors which has no past and
no future, a product of our own mindstream.” Sorry, I had to do that.
I know this is somewhat abstract, but that is the kind of
impressionism/surrealism I am trying (perhaps not yet successfully)
to project.