The other day I thought I'd try a little macro experiment with my new Pentax dSLR. Many years ago I bought a M42 reversing ring for just such antics on my Praktica film SLR, and I'd just bought a pentax k -> M42 adapter, so sticking these two onto the camera body along with a 49/52mm adapter enable the standard lens to be reversed. You can of course buy a k-mount reversing ring, but the three seperate gadgets have other uses too!

The lens used is the standard 18-55mm kit lens, set at the 18mm position which gives greatest magnification

Spotted a gnat on the bathroom wall I thought would make a good subject. The lights were dim, tripods/flashes etc were in the other room and being lazy I popped up the internal flash, even though I knew it would probably be useless, flash is usually way too powerful at such close range.

However, things worked out quite well! The flash was blocked by the lens so the gnat was in shadow from the direct blast. The reflected light off the walls was just about right.

To control depth of field and get a bright enough image in the viewfinder to focus, adjust the aperture manually by holding one finger on the lever sticking out of the lens. This takes a bit of practice to get the right exposure!