Which would work better?

[YEKCIM]

I'm beginning to wonder if I need glasses...I never get what I see with this lens. Gotta whip out those readers.....
The flower was on a table so I'm pretty sure it's just me. I'm going to try a higher ISO next time w/ different apertures....

If it was sitting on a table, indoors, with no air movement (fan?) to move the flower, and the camera was tripod mounted, you should be able to use just about any shutter speed you wanted. I thought perhaps the flowers were outdoors and subject to movement due to an occasional slight breeze. Have you tried shooting other macro subjects, like a watch face, coin, paper currency, etc, as a test of focus accuracy?

~Ed

 

[oliviansmom17]

If it was sitting on a table, indoors, with no air movement (fan?) to move the flower, and the camera was tripod mounted, you should be able to use just about any shutter speed you wanted. I thought perhaps the flowers were outdoors and subject to movement due to an occasional slight breeze. Have you tried shooting other macro subjects, like a watch face, coin, paper currency, etc, as a test of focus accuracy?

~Ed

I've tried a few things:

And no fan, indoors, no breezes- not in New England anyway! Brrrr!
...thanks for rooting for me, though!
I've also noticed something odd- when I've taken a pic with a black backgrund, I get a light colored little circle on the lower left. I've had it checked out (at a reputable local camera shop) and no one can detect anything abnormal about the lens. Weird.
Not that I'm pawning off anything on the lens, just OT rambling...

 

[TinksDH]

Looks like the sharpest point is from the lower right hand side to the very bottom of the ring, and from what I can tell it looks pretty sharp. I see you opened up your aperture, which got your shutter speed up. Did you have external lighting on it?

If you're talking about that out-of-focus dot to the lower left of the ring, that looks like a specular highlight. That can occur when there is a singular bright light source and your aperture is very wide.

 

[oliviansmom17]

Looks like the sharpest point is from the lower right hand side to the very bottom of the ring, and from what I can tell it looks pretty sharp. I see you opened up your aperture, which got your shutter speed up. Did you have external lighting on it?


If you're talking about that out-of-focus dot to the lower left of the ring, that looks like a specular highlight. That can occur when there is a singular bright light source and your aperture is very wide.

A large window was to the right of the ring...
And I never noticed that dot before- I guess I just assumed it was light through the diamond and filed it away in my brain without processing it.
The dot I referred to earlier occured when I was in a self-created "lightbox"- I had my back to french doors and surrounded myself with chairs draped with sheets to diffuse the light. There was no reflection or direct light, as far as I could tell. No mirrors or reflective surfaces across from the doors.

I noticed it first in this picture. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it on your monitor- the spot is located in the black area, low and center....

 

[TinksDH]

Yes, I can see it. Hmmmmmm...... It looks like the opposite of a dust bunny on your sensor!