Malte´s Photography

As for sure you have seen lately, I ordered the NEW 7Artisans 60mm f2.8 Macro MK II lens. In an in-depth comparison I made a review of the new MK II lens and compared it to the MK I version wich I had bought last year. 7Artisans 60mm f2.8 Macro comparison MK I / MK II

One of the big differences has been, that the 7Artisans 60mm f2.8 Macro MK II has got less clearance between the front lens and the object to image. Of course if you are targeting a flower that is no issue. You can easily get close enough for a 1:1 magnification. The story is much more difficult if you try to take pictures of an animal or even worse of insects. These got a long escape distance. If you get to close to them they just try to disappear. Having this fact in mind I took the new 7Artisans 60mm f2.8 Macro MK II on my Fujifilm X-X-PRO2 into the garden. The sun was painting the flowers, bushes and trees into a warm light. First I tried to shoot a bee that has been on the search for the sweet nectar. It has been no issue to get close to the bee as you can see in the next pictures with a magnification of 1:1.

So for a bee the close distance to the vented lens hood was no issue. Now you might say that is easy as a bee is a very relaxed insect and just focused on the search for nectar. Right, let’s find a more challenging target.
We all have been trying to kill mosquitoes. They are already much quicker and highly alerted even reacting on a change of light to escape. See the results.

In this attempt I got carefully closer to the mosquito and achieved also my 1:1 magnified picture. Well at least we can say now you can hunt mosquitoes with the new 7Artisans Macro lens.
This went also very easy and I started to search for the Mount Everest of shy insects in my garden to hunt for a close up picture. I found it. A classical fly and even a small one. We all have tried to catch flies and we know how difficult it is. Flies are reacting already on a light air stream to take off. What makes them so difficult to catch is the fact that they can start like a helicopter in all directions. So my challenge has been having the patience to get close and closer without alerting this shy insect. Would the close distance of the new lens to the fly, needed for the highest magnification, be reachable? Please enjoy my next pictures.

Mission accomplished!

The closer focusing distance of the new 7Artisans 60mm f2.8 Macro MK II lens is still sufficient to image flys with a magnification of 1:1 without to scare away the insect by getting to close to the escape distance.