My UV Kit: DaveO

[DaveO]

Here's my show-and-tell shot of my visible light set up

Taken with my unconverted Pentax K-7 no filter 50 mm Macro Takumar

 

Here's my UV set up, without my black cloth covering everything that I always throw over it "for good luck" and so I can squint at the screen more easily afterwards.

 

In case you are wondering how I attach a Nikon bayonet lens to my Pentax bayonet K-5. There's a great site in the UK called SRB-Griturn which sells adapters from just about everything to everything. They kindly took one of their Nikon lens to Pentax body adapters, removed the glass lens that was there to enable infinity focus and reamed out the lens mount to avoid any chance of vignetting. With the adapter in place my Nikon Rayfact lens (which is identical to the UV-Nikkor except for the engraving on the barrel [which is cleverly hidden round the other side in these photos]) will let me focus on an object about 24 cm wide when set at the infinity focus position so I don't see any immediate problems there. I haven't found many Aussie flowers bigger than that.

 

The funny rubber thingy on the lens is a 52 mm diameter lens hood which has a 52 mm filter thread inside where my UV-IR cut or Baader U filters are mounted. Hang the expense I got one lens hood for each filter, I have the Nikon K3/K2 rings to make a quick release gizmo currently making their way slowly across the Pacific courtesy of eBay.

 

After focusing for the visible light shot using the right angle attachment on the viewfinder I locked everything down (the lens barrel and the focusing track) changed the filter and attached the SB-14 flash in place of the Metz flash, put the viewfinder cover in place, threw the black cloth over everything and pushed the shutter button without changing the focus - just to make sure the lens really is par-focal between Visible and UV. You can judge for yourselves in the images of the flower above linked here - looks pretty well perfect to me: Eremophila metallicorum.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[Andrea B.]

Dave, this is an awesome kit !! Thanks so much for posting some fotos of the new UV-Rayfact. We always enjoy seeing what other UV photographers are using.

 

Congratulations on acquiring this lovely UV-Rayfact. May you use it in good health for many years to come!!

 

The UV-Rayfact is a thing of beauty for sure. You are the first person I know who is using one, so it is good to have confirmation that this lens is indeed an exact copy of the UV-Nikkor and does not have any focus-shift.

 

That is a nice idea - the combination filter/hood.

 

I have recently been using a Hoodman Loupe in place of the black cloth. There seems to be no truly perfect solution for the problem of viewing an LCD in strong sunlight. Some days in desert climates one seems to need both loupe and black cloth. :D

[Nico]

Hi Dave,

many thanks for sharing! The UV-image of E. metallicorum taken with the UV-Rayfact looks indeed great. - I guess that you were not perfectly happy with your pervious 105 mm Quartz lens, since you went ahead and got the Rayfact, which indeed delivers outstanding quality! - As far as I have seen it also costs more than the lenses from Coastal Optics ... Did you also consider those?

 

Best,

Nico

[nfoto]

The original UV-Nikkor 105 mm f/4.5 and the UV-105 aka Rayfact are identical except for the engraving on the lens barrel. Congratulations on acquiring a true UV work horse, Dave.

[DaveO]

Hi Andrea,

I also got a Hoodman loupe and alternate between that and the black cloth although in strong sun it's hard to keep it out of the loupe eyepiece, it's a home made square of black cloth as well not a real one from a view camera with weights along the edges to stop it blowing away.

 

Hi Nico,

I'm too used to the perspective from a 100/105 mm macro lens to be really comfortable with a 60 mm one, so I decided to go the whole hog and go for the UV-Nikkor. I think, even from my limited use of this lens so far, that the most valuable aspect is not having to refocus in UV using Liveview, when the black cloth keeps blowing away, and it's hot etc...

 

Hi Bjorn,

I downloaded an original UV-Nikkor instruction brochure from the web and the distributors, Company Seven in Maryland, have put their name on the hard copy leaflet supplied with the Nikon Rayfact lens but the information pages are "Printed in Japan" with identical specifications to the original lens. I can recommend Company Seven for their excellent courteous service.

I find it interesting that this lens and my Carl Zeiss 100 mm Makro Planar were both designed in the days when the maximum magnification was 1:2, not 1:1 as in most modern macro lenses.

Cheers,

 

Dave

[nfoto]

The 1:2 limit is simply because there are no floating elements in the optics so an integrated helicoid able to do 1:1 would make the lens impractically huge. The 105 UV, like the Micro-Nikkor 105 mm f/4 and f/2.8, is designed for use with the PN-11 extension tube. This item has its own rotating tripod mount and is highly recommended. I have CPU-modified a PN-11 dedicated to my UV-Nikkors so I can keep the package on auto like the naked lens itself.

[DaveO]

I got a PN-11 with the lens from Company Seven, the rotating tripod mount will be very handy.

[Shane]

Nice setup Dave, finally all came together.

[DaveO]

Thanks Shane,

The modified SB-14 that I got from you was the key to being able to get the shots in the field.

Here's what it looks like when a gentle breeze keeps stirring the flowers

It doesn't really work in a gale as the focus point just moves too much.

[colinbm]

Very impressive Dave

As are the flower shots you have posted.

Marry Christmas

Cheers

Col