Hey Rich, thanks for the commentary here! I have no doubt that Canon is transitioning to mirrorless on the highest level, but they need premium optics to really entice the pros. This is clear, and it’s coming. Making a new sensor will forever be expensive, and it does make sense to some degree to “modify” existing equipment to bridge gaps. We’ll never know for sure what they do to create market segmentation.

I used the Lumix GX9 as a “pro” camera for over a year. It worked. It was a huge success, and I sold images in galleries and elsewhere, not to mention licensing. Small, consumer-oriented cameras can make great work, so long as a great photographer is behind that camera. I think this has always been true. 🙂

Really glad that I helped you connect the MP-E 65 and the Lifesize Converter EF! There are many listings for that adapter on eBay since it is out of production. I even tried it on my 24-105L and it behaved well. A jack of all trades, as it were, but it gave be better results than any other way to “get there” in terms of magnification other than microscope objectives… which I have successfully handheld at 20x for a number of images. I don’t wish that challenge on my worst enemies.

The achromatic lenses from Canon or others? Not entirely sold on them. They do provide better resolution, to a point, on regular macro lenses… but they really don’t help much on the MP-E where it would be most needed in extremes.

Haven’t tried the STF-8, but macro twin-lites have always felt like moose antlers at extreme distances. Harder to control than a ring flash when time is short, they are more suited to controlled studio scenarios with static subjects. For that it might excel, but I haven’t tested it as I have many other options in my arsenal… dating back many years! There is only so much time to test new things for the fun of it. 🙂

If they sell your data now, and your password is easy to crack, they could gain access to your account. As there are numerous reports that the hacked information is for sale even now, you’d want to stop that leak by any means necessary. A mandatory password reset was issued to stop the hemorrhaging. Not sure if it helped, though!

While I understand Steve Brazill’s and your comments on the RP not being a professional camera – I’ve run into people using 6D’s and and Canon APS consumer level cameras who are professionals. They generally don’t have the requirements for the robust bodies like the 1Dx or Nikon D5.

Onto your favorite subject – Macro. You totally surprised me with the life size converter / MP-E-65 combination. I have them both! Although the 50mm f2.5 Canon is dated it is still a nice little lens. I believe the life size converter is out of production with Canon. I found a used one from KEH. I’m going to have to try the life size converter with the 100mm f2.8 macro and the 180mm F3.5 macro now.

Now for a few questions.

Have you used the Canon 250D or 500D achromatic close-up lenses? I find them to be useful at times. They are kind of expensive though.

When you use the MP-E-65 on your Panasonic bodies what adapter do you use?

Have you looked at the Olympus STF-8 Macro flash system? It has two small flashes that can be position around the lens and the flash levels independently controlled. I bought one recently but haven’t tried it yet. Spring is coming on soon here in Seattle though. There are some tiny wild flowers that I want better photos of. Olympus has a focus bracketing feature that I have only started to get sorted out that should help. I believe Canon incorporated this into the RP.