Thanks for your kind and informative responses so far, all. Well, today's update= not good! I manipulated Minolta lens aperture from open all the way to f/22. When nearly open, I was having a lot of trouble with light control and there's just a VERY small area of the ant that may be in focus. When l...

Thanks, guys. Taking a closer look at the Minolta lens, f/2-22, so I had it at either f/16 or f/22 which, as mentioned, is most likely the cause of the softness. Ok, will retry while adjusting the stop, probably focusing on an inanimate object tomorrow. Quick question on focus stacking: is it possib...

Hi Rik, First off, thanks for your fast response. While waiting for a response, I decided to investigate a bit further and I sort of realized that the microscope objective may be key. I actually have two telephotos I'd like to use, a Zeiss jenna 135mm and a SMC Tak 200 mm. As for softness, I'm not s...

I currently use the Pentax K-x DSLR with an M42 200mm SMC Tak and a reversed Minolta MD 50mm 1:2 lens on front of the 200mm. This is what I had available and close at hand, but no cost because I already had them. Initial indoor shooting quickly showed that I was going to have to use flash, so I brou...