Hi, thanks, much appreciated
The gearbox and motor were a bit of a surprise find. Probably been there a few decades judging by the amount of rust!
Russell, yep the D40 - and I'm pretty much married to Nikon at this point...!
ooheadsoo, all of those shots are hand-held. I'm pushing it (hah) with many of them, and there are a good number of throwaways, but what I've found is that for the extreme closeups you can often find some way to brace the camera when needed. In some cases the edge of the hood is even resting on a rock... I wouldn't necessarily recommend my procedures to anyone but it's OK for me at the moment. In fact, it's even a good workout sometimes...
One reason I'm not using a tripod is that I can't get close enough to things on the ground with my regular tripod. So far, the small tripods I've looked at are built for light weight, not sturdiness. Another is that this lens on the D40 is now my "walkaround" digital kit and the tripod is kinda heavy... But yes, if I found a good short tripod that would get low to the ground I would get one. For now though, the 60mm is for walkaround and I take the tripod for outings with the 200mm lens.
