Here is another look at what the Lumix 200 did with earrings

(Download)

You don't really need a DSLR or a macro lens. Here is a sample of a set of earrings I photographed with a Panasonic Lumix FZ200.

(Download)

I used one in the late 50s for a short time doing weddings with it. Frankly, I didn't like it all that much. (Heavy, noisy, cumbersome to handle) I went back to my Rolleiflex 2.8E. Also, I did a job a for a pig breeder shooting the interior of his new pens. Big, big mistake. The smell soaked into the Blad's covering and I never did get it off. I couldn't use it for a wedding after that, but, as I said, I didn't like it that much anyway. Just me I guess.

Right. Should have mentioned that. Another method of obtaining separation (if your camera does not have the button) is to meter as I described, then switch to manual (which sets the exposure and focus), change the exposure if necessary (Black nose, white flower), then choose another focus point

Once upon a time, cameras did not have built-in meters. Photographers used what was called a hand-held meter. You could point it to any position within the area of the picture you wanted to take, basing that decision on how you wanted to expose your picture. The same is true with in-camera spot metering. Point the camera's spot meter at any point within the area you want to take a picture of. Lock it in by half-pressing the shutter release button. (You don't need to use the separate time-consuming "exposure lock".) Re-frame the picture, if you want to, by moving the camera. In other words, simply use your camera meter as a hand-held meter. It's worked for me for many, many years.

I have a Lumix FZ1000. 20.1 MP sensor. Leica lens. It weighs 1 pound, 14.7 ounces with battery and is definitely not a "pocket" camera. Not much difference in size, weight and sensor size than the Pentax DSLR I had. But it's a "bridge" camera with one lens --25mm to 400mm. 8x10 prints from both cameras look the same to me.

I do. We lived at the edge of a small town named Onarga in Central Illinois and the farmer across the state highway from us ran a gas station. The pumps were older than the one in the pictures. They consisted of a glass container atop the pump and held the gasoline hand-pumped from the below-ground storage tank. Gravity took care of filling the auto tanks. He also built a row of "cabins for tourists." This would have been in the early 1930s.

What is an E-Z pass and how can you be fined for not having one if it is not recognized?

What is an E-Z pass, and how in the world can you be fined for not having one?

Very interesting photos, and basically well done. For next time, you might consider doing a white balance and cut your exposures down a bit where necessary to avoid the washouts in some of the pics.

Wunderbar!

Any kind of diffused light set at 45-degrees on both sides of the picture being copied.

Thanks for offering a great reply that backs up my contention that real estate photography should not falsify the size of rooms. Frankly, I am surprised that most responders here see nothing wrong with doing so. The realtor I worked with back in the 1970s had learned that it was not to his advantage to show a house to prospective buyers that pictures of in his advertisements would indicate rooms larger than they were. Buyers of houses do not appreciate being fooled.

And that last sentence is what I was preparing to address: "The reason you need wide angle is because you can make a room look larger and more appealing to potential buyers". Doesn't anyone care about authenticity?
What do you tell a potential buyer who has seen your wide angle picture and then inspects in person, only to find rooms much smaller than indicated by the picture? He may have wasted an entire day, and time is money.I took hundreds of real estate pictures on film back in the 1970s and never used a lens wider than 24mm in order to present a fairly true idea of the size of the rooms. Even then, it was cheating just a bit. As to "volume anamorphosis" I never heard of it, so didn't worry about it, and never had a real estate agent ask about it. My advice: keep your camera level, use plenty of lights (you can do wonders 'painting' with floods) and don't try to make the inside of a trailer home look like Chicago Stadium.

Thanks, Mark.