Common orange lichen + springtails, Heesch, Netherlands

Just a little test shot of a Xanthoria parietina colony found on a tree in our garden. The scene actually has 2 springtails in it. They are in plain sight, so not obscured, and they share the same color. Comment below which color they are and you win a personalized christmas greeting!

As for it being a test shot, this is my first tryout with a new lens, the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra-Macro APO. This high ISO shot doesn't really do the lens justice, so I'll share a bit about the idea of this lens...

It's a 100mm 2:1 macro lens with infinity focus. This means you can focus on infinity (landscape, night sky), up to 2:1 macro, and anything in between. So also a 1:1 macro, or a 0.5:1 macro for larger, more skittish insects.

Compared to the lens I use for extreme macro stacking (Laowa 2.5:1-5:1), this lens covers the range before it. Besides the difference in magnification, this 2:1 lens has a number of hugely important differences:

- As said, it can focus at any point. The other lens is in focus at exactly one distance, which is as close as to almost touch the subject. With this lens I can take more distance, and also focus at any point, albeit manually.

- Due to the extra distance, its easier to illuminate the subject, which is very difficult with the other lens.

- This lens has aperture coupling. This means the aperture only closes when you take the shot, not when composing. This leads to a much brighter viewfinder, although still relatively so.

It's built like a tank, all metal. Finally, it is optically an excellent lens, designed for modern high resolution sensors and free of chromatic abberation. It's nicknamed the "CA dreamer" for that reason.

In this weird year, from a single macro lens that I've used for 7 years, all of a sudden I have 3 macro lenses. Here's how I see the role they play, their purpose:

Nikon 105mm 1:1. My trusty field lens. Although it is optically somewhat outdated (12 years old), I still love it for its ease of use, it having auto focus. I expect it to continue to be my go-to for "productivity" sessions. With that I mean doing a short hike and trying to photograph as many subjects as you come across, in reasonable quality.

- Laowa 100mm 2:1. This new lens. An extra lens for in the field, probably for static macro subjects such as lichen, mosses, or insects sitting really still. Except for a few creatures like springtails, consider that 2:1 really is a high magnification that covers most needs. It's not intuitive, but the switch from 1:1 to 2:1 literally opens a new world, whilst from 2:1 to 5:1 is far less dramatic.

Besides this being a great potential field lens for select subjects, 2:1 is also useful on the automated stack rail. For several subjects it would be enough magnification, in which case this lens is optically superior to the 5:1, whilst providing more distance to illuminate the subject.

- Laowa 2.5:1 x 5:1. Although it's a tiny lens that would be easy to bring along in the field, I suspect I will mostly keep this one for indoor stacking. I rarely need 5:1 in the field, more importantly it is too painful to use. The working distance is too short, and the lack of aperture coupling means you see next to nothing in the viewfinder exactly at a magnification where you need this the most.

Anyway, although I normally try to be gear-neutral, this 2:1 lens is incredible, if you can live with manual focus. It is widely regarded to be one of the best, if not the best macro lens available. Relatively speaking, its price is an absolute steal. If you're on an interchangeable lens system, love macro and have the funds, life's too short to not have this lens.