FZ7 macro: dragonfly head on

This very cooperative dragonfly landed on the edge of the picture window in my livingroom and waited there while I shot a bunch of pictures leaning the rim of the UV filter against the inner pane. The dragon fly was a bit more than 2 inches from the lens. These were shot through the double pane window - good thing it's reasonably clean.

Someone might be interested at comparing settings/depth of field, so here are five somewhat cropped (to remove distractions) pictures and links to the full sized versions for those who care. All ISO 80.
By the way: I use NR low, sharpening low, and contrast low.

1. 1: P mode, auto focus, 1/60 f3.6. Post proc: unsharp mask 100%, 0.7 pixels

full sized (about 2180 x 1090 pixels, 800k):
http://JoeS.smugmug.com/photos/80866908-O.jpg

1. 2: Manual mode, still auto focus, 1/20 f7.1. Same post proc. Note that the clarity is pretty good from face to rear abodomen, but the dappled sunlight on the lawn is more clearly defined ... not a good thing.

full sized: http://JoeS.smugmug.com/photos/80867057-O.jpg

The next three are all M mode and manual focus; all 1/60 at f2.8; that was a bit too bright so PP is levels (raised black) and then sharpen as above EXCEPT the last pic was not sharpened, you'll see why not. This series really shows that you CAN manually focus, and that f2.8 really looks different than f7.1

1. 3: M, manual focus best effort - focused on the wings' lines

full sized: http://JoeS.smugmug.com/photos/80867300-O.jpg

1. 4: M, manual focus - nudged focus a bit closer (toward the 0.17 ft minimum). Now the face is in better focus, the wings at the body are slightly blurred by clear further from body where they touched the window.

full sized: http://JoeS.smugmug.com/photos/80867657-O.jpg

1. 5: M, manual focus - nudged the focus a bit farther, beyond the best focus. This is not worth sharpening, the face and wings are not sharp, but look at the rear legs and abdomen (below the head) - that's where focus point is.

full sized: http://JoeS.smugmug.com/photos/80867847-O.jpg

I hope these are interesting to someone (besides me).
-- Joe S.

Joseph - Nice to have him sit there for you to experiment on !!
IMO #3 & 4 are really sharp and worthy of an enlargement!!

Appreciate being able to compare depth of field / bokeh differences in f2.8 vs 7.1 a clear winner emerges !!

thanks for posting and sharing
richard

Minor correction: I wrote that the 1st pic was shot in P mode because the exif said "normal program" but of course to focus that close it must have been macro (the flower symbol) mode. Same as P but auto focusses closer.

Thanks for looking and posting. I'm glad to know someone found this interesting.

Re: "worthy of an enlargement" ... somehow I don't think I'm going to make a 5 x 10" pint of a dragonfly and hang it in my house, my wife might object! That gave me a chuckle. Thanks.

very nice, sharp macros. congratulations!