Hope you like them... sorry for 2nd and 3rd photos: tine points are a little out of focusing.

First a classic vintage flexible Waterman's #2 Canada:



Another vintage semi-flex Alco nib:



For last an early Parker Duofold XF nib:

Camera? Lens? Accessories??
Good looking images there, but what did you use to take them? For me that is part of the fun.

cheers,
Sean

I'm also curious what you have for your setup.
Also I like the lighting you used. How did you light the shot, did you use natural light from a window?

Those are some very crisp looking macro shots.

You have a very thin depth of field with macro shots like these.
When you have the nibs at an angle like you do on the 2nd and 3rd shot, your main focus is on the center of the nib, anthing that is in front or behind that plane will not be as sharp.

You are right, Sean, here's what I've used:

Panasonic Lumix FZ8 camera (12x optical zoom; 7mp) with Macro lens Raynox DCR-250,
fitted on a 4-way Macro Focusing Rail Slider. The rail permit to take some shots in several points of focusing, with precision, adjusting the distance from camera to subject. Then these photos are treated on computer with a specific image processing software for creating extended depth of field images; I use the open source sftw package "CombineZM".
That's all.

Edited for superbleu question: natural light, external location. You are right with the thin dept of field: the above mentioned procedure make the miracle!

I have been thinking of getting the Raynox lens, I'm stuck between getting the 150 and the 250, can't make up my mind so I haven't bought either yet, will probably end up getting both. Have you compared the 150 and 250?

Do you have any more info on the Focusing rail slider? That sounds very interesting.

Wow, Giampaolo! Great macro shots.

I want those pens!

CombineZM... I had no idea that thing existed. I will definitely try it. I suppose the rail really comes in handy for using that program.

I would like to get a rail but the high price rails are so much more expensive that the low price rails that I figure there must be a huge quality difference.

Had heard of combine, but forgot about it. It is a great program which is being downloaded as I type this.

Cheers,
Sean

I've not compared 150 ad 250, I've directly purchased the 250 because I've seen wonderful shots with that, and because it has 8 diopter magnification. I'm satified also because I can't see any image distortion or vignetting. Here are some informations:
Raynox website

There are a lot of quality focusing rails (I know Manfrotto brand), some very expansive like this:
Reallyrightstuff
some cheap like this:
Diymacrorail
but I've found a well made rail on ebay for $60 (shipping included) from Hong Kong, take a look to "buyitjnow" seller, I have to say it works very well. Using macro rail obviously camera has not to be moved, but a little deviation can be filtered by the software.

Thanks for the links.,
My only hesitation with the 250 is that I have read that the DOF with that lens is razor thin. But I have seen some fantastic shots with it, including yours.

RRS makes some great looking gear but more than a little out of my price range.

I might just have to get that ebay rail. Currently, I use a few rubberbands to attach a pen to a glass, then I just slide the glass around.

Forget to thanks Pep, but I know you have more awesome fp than those...

I have a Canada nib too, and a great Aikin Lambert