Here's a stack focused portrait of a Crane Fly - click on the image for a larger file: 

I'm continuing to work on gaining higher magnifications for these macro photos, and realized that I need to use a shorter focal length for higher magnification on manageable extension. I stumbled into a Pentax MC K 24mm f3.5 lens online last week, and snapped it up. It is an old lens (it was only produced from 1975-1977) and has limited compatibility with modern cameras (including all DSLRs and even the later film cameras.) But it has a reputation for outstanding sharpness and resolution, so I crossed my fingers and bought it.

Here's my first test of this lens. This crane fly's head was bigger than I expected, and this image is at 6x to 6.5x magnification. It does not take an excessive amount of extension to achieve that with a reverse mounted 24mm lens, and so working with this subject was not difficult. I'm somewhat surprised that for a lens of this era there is very little chromatic aberration -  virtually none.

Initial results from this lens look very promising! In the next few days I hope to work on some higher magnification levels to assess the results.

Made with a Pentax K3, SMC K 24mm f3.5, extension and flash.