@Klink, follow your dreams! Don't let the doubters bring you down! 😅
Macro with an RF is possible, just awkward. I dabble in it from time to time because I don't like or want to use an SLR, so doing three or four shots in an SLR for macro means the film will sit in there for upwards of a year until I've done enough to develop it - which is even less feasible than the Rube Goldberg arrangements needed for macro on an RF.
I'm not sure what native FED solutions there were, but as long as you get a postwar FED 1 (i.e. one with a standardised flange to film distance), most of the macro and close focus tools made for the early Leicas will work perfectly. This gives you a few options:
My preferred option is the Focoslide - I made a thread about it here:
The Focoslide: not just for photocopies
This is a slow rig, but gives you the most options with regards to lenses and focusing distances. I don't know the exact reproduction sizes off the top of my head, but here's the working distances:
50mm lenses:
30cm to 26cm
OR 42cm to 19.5cm with Elmar & VXZOO mount
OR 90mm to 31.5cm with Summar & ZWTOO-HESUM mount
90mm lenses:
83cm to 53cm
OR 83cm to infinity using a 90mm Elmar with “Universal Repro Elmar” short mount
135mm lenses:
170cm to 94cm
On the other hand, the Visoflex is a more direct option - an LTM Visoflex turns the FED into an SLR when you need it, but it's only really useable from 90mm up with very specific lenses. The Visoflex 2 gives you a more direct linkage between raising the mirror and firing the shutter, but an LTM one is hard to come by.
(This is a Visoflex 1 mounting the 280mm Telyt - note that the button to raise the mirror is on the mirror box and has to be operated seperately. You can get double cable releases, but it's still not a handheld setup unless you have nimble fingers!)
There's also a couple of copy stands and copy-stand-adjacent options which are more useful for flat objects, but can be used for other things at a pinch. The two I own are the
BOOWU and the BELUN; the BOOWU gives you 1:4, 1:6, and 1:9 reproductions, and the BELUN gives you perfect 1:1 reproduction:
Like I said, more useful for flat objects; I've used it to get detailed photographs of things for work in the past. I doubt how useful it'd be for insects, but it
is an option. However, Leica officially suggested the BOOWU for general-purpose close-up and macro work:
I've tried it. It's definitely not as useful as the Focoslide, but it
is amusing.
The one catch with anything other than the Focoslide is that you'll need a Leitz lens to get the best out of it (or even use it at all). If you're going to go down that path, you'll want to adjust your FED's rangefinder to the Leica standard instead of the Soviet one so that you can use the lenses directly on the camera, too. It's an easy enough adjustment to make - all you need is a pair of good screwdrivers, a tape measure, and some patience.
