I've been taking rather a lot of dirty pictures in the last few days while I've been struggling to come to terms with the Canon MP-E 65mm. You don't have to have a physics degree to use this lens, but it helps. Fortunately I knew this before I bought it and I didn't expect to unwrap it and coax it into life straight away. The temperamental nature of this lens (and the laws of physics) means that a lot of people are disappointed with it and that's the reason why it's relatively easy to pick up good used copies.
I finally figured out one of the problems I've been having with the lens, so I grabbed the first thing which came to hand and quickly shot this 18 image focus stack. The first thing which came to hand happened to be this strip of micro staples, 3mm high, which had been kicking around on my desk since ... the micro stapler broke 10 years ago. Hence the accumulation of crud. The optical crud is due to me not lighting this properly, and rushing the sequence so that there are some stacking artefacts. I was tempted to call this "The Most Boring Picture Ever", but in spite of all the problems, it feels like a major advance in macroland.
Sony ILCE-6000
Canon MP-E 65mm F2.8 G SSM
f5.6 1/10 ISO 200
18 image focus stack.
