Bingo. Twice!

I've been putting low-ball bids on a 30mm macro from Lumix or Olympus. Not surprisingly I've lost.

I've been looking at this as the final prime lenses, and one that frees up two others (a nice 30mm/2.8 Sigma and a Zuiko 35/3.5 4Thirds macro). Swapping a native macro for both the 30 and 35mm could get me a lens that can work wonders at a distance and copy slides too.

Then today I tried out the 20mm Lumix with my 10mm extension tube.

This is a perfect slide-filling setup in 3:2 mode. No doubt it's not edge-to-edge perfect like a true macro, but hey how good are the 1970s-90s images that I am copying anyway? Was the film perfectly flat, did my lenses work to perfection?* And how many will sit large on my wall some day?

So my need for a true macro lens is reduced. The 35mm Zuiko was not a large investment, so it can be the shelf backup while the Sigma takes the more active role. Hm, I need to check that one with the 10mm x-tube as well, I suppose! [adjourns for 5 minutes]

Not bad considering that I am hand-holding camera and slide for an uneven focal plane, and pointing out the window for a very uneven light source. The slide's frame is barely visible along the edges, though some distortion is visible due to that. So three options are available, given a tripod and a good source of backlighting!


*Well, the smc-M40 pancake probably did, and the M24-50 was along much of the time.. so many fine shots are available to copy.