A praying mantis and the Vivitar Series 1 90mm Macro
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2025 9:10 am
This was hanging on to the frame of the front door last night, and it was still there this morning.
It looks like it's missing an antenna, but I looked again. The other antenna is still there. These are such bizarre-looking insects with their triangular heads.
I shot this with the aforementioned Vivitar Series 1 90mm Macro on a Sony NEX-7. I did not use the "Macro adapter," because I didn't need to get that close.
A couple of thoughts:
I shot this with the aforementioned Vivitar Series 1 90mm Macro on a Sony NEX-7. I did not use the "Macro adapter," because I didn't need to get that close.
A couple of thoughts:
- This lens is heavy.
- I enlarged the view, which of course magnifies camera shake.
- When shooting very close, you have to stop down the lens to f/5.6 or smaller. This is a 90mm lens, so depth of field is shallow, even at smaller apertures. This meant that I had to increase the ISO to 800 to minimize camera shake.
- Take a lot of photos, because of the narrow depth of field.
- 90mm gives you more working distance between you and your subject. This is important for insects, I think.
- Love this lens. A great lens in the 1970s and still a great lens today.