Zhongyi Mitakon 20mm f/2.0 4.5X Super Macro Lens

The day I saw the news of this lens' availability on this site, I immediately ordered a copy of this macro lens. I've been chasing a decent snowflake photo for years, and I hadn't ever gotten one, and I hoped this lens would help me do it.

Well, the stars finally aligned, and we had decent snowflakes today! Here's my shot!

As it was, it was slowly melting away. I took a few shots of this flake, and noticed it was a little smaller each time. The other tiny flecks on the image are part of my wife's minivan's paint job :) I was looking all over her car for a single flake I could photograph and finally found one.

Snowflake by Ron Yorgason, on Flickr
 
Mar 25, 2011
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Definitely a difficult task. I've seen a few shots of snowflakes, but getting one is beyond my skill level. We have plenty of them around this winter, I am too old to want to go out into the cold weather. Last week it was snowing, this week, warm and lots of rain. Flood warnings abound because of heavy rain that is melting the higher than normal snow levels.

No flooding near me on Mt Spokane though, the streams are overflowing, but I am well above their level.
 
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tpatana said:
Nice. I have the lens too, but I don't have that good pic yet. What was your F? Did you add light?

I was initially planning on using an external flash, but I couldn't find my transmitter at the moment and mounting it on top of my camera didn't do me much good. I ended up with a 1/2 second exposure and f/8 @ ISO 1250
 
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Pookie said:
I don't take images like this but a friend of mine in Tahoe does this often and said this was the best advice given in a concise article about this very topic. Might be a good read for you... My buddy also uses the reversed Helios...

http://chaoticmind75.blogspot.ru/2013/08/my-technique-for-snowflakes-shooting.html

Thanks, I remember coming across that a few years ago, but now is a good time for a refresher.
 
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