I am kind of pleased with my photos of bees. They aren't close to publication standard, but there's a fair level of detail visible, for photos of insects on the move taken in passing as I went up to the compost heap. I took them with my Nex3, which is starting to nudge into the 'older camera' category, and a 50mm Pentax-M lens that is positively venerable, having been manufactured in the pre-digital 80's for some long-vanished SLR, and crudely married to the Nex3 with a cunning converter ring thing.
I continue to be a bit in love with my manual-focus lenses - I have a selection of ancient Pentax PK-compatible fit lenses, that attach to my Sony Nex3 with a converter ring.
I really like that you can so easily tell the camera *exactly* what you want in focus - no attempting to persuade an autofocus that thinks it should get a say in the composition what to include, just precise adjustment via the focus ring - and shoot. My father in law was around here the other day with his new superzoom camera (Panasonic) which is undeniably an awesome bit of kit - amazingly light, and with a built-in lens that you could use to take photos through the window of a house on the other side of a large field - but as soon as I was allowed to play with it, I started to get a little frustrated with the autofocus mechanism. Next time I buy a camera, I think I probably want one with manual focus at least as an option.
