newbie macro filters?

TheHogMother

TheHogMother

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Name
Judith
Edit My Images
Yes
- Completely new - and getting myself confused :nuts:

I have only had my camera a week lol - I have been playing with some close ups today and want to get closer

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I managed to take these with my Canon OS 500D with its standard 18-55mm lens.

I don't have the cash for a new lens right now and wanted advice on filters I could look at as a stop gap x

Thanks
 
Therw are 2 ways to go about it the first is, close up filters, these come in a variety of strengths and simply screw to the front of your existing lens, the downside to these is as they are relativly cheap image quality does suffer

Then you have extention tubes which fit between the lens and the camera body, there is no glass here so image quality is pretty much the same as what ever lens you are using, again these are cheap, but render you to manual focus only.
The more expensive extenion tubes, such as the ones made by kenko do offer the added support of auto focus though
 
You want extension tubes to allow you to focus in closer. You can get cheap manual focus ones for next to nothing, or you could stump up for the Polaroid or (more expensive) Kenko ones.

Depends on your budget I guess. Manual are a lot cheaper, but you lose autofocus and (I think) aperture control.
 
You could also look at the raynox 150 or 250 on amazon, they get some great results
 
I also used cheap close up filters on my 350D kit lens and you can get some excellent results with them but, as with all macro shots, the DOF can be extremely small depending which filter you have on your lens.

The +10 is the strongest and will give you the ability to get really close but is also the most difficult to work with.

Here are a few pics taken on my 350D with the close up lenses fitted:


Taken with a +4 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
11042.jpg


Taken with a +10 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
11191.jpg


Taken with a +4 dioptre close up lens fitted to a 17-85mm IS USM lens.
1254.jpg


Taken with a +10 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
1068.jpg

​

So as you can see it's well worth trying a set of cheap lenses to see how you get on.

In fact I used mine for about a year before getting a set of Auto extension tubes.

Good luck but remember that the DOF is very small - in fact you will certainly find, as I still do, that you will almost certainly scrap more than you keep.

.
 
petersmart said:
I also used cheap close up filters on my 350D kit lens and you can get some excellent results with them but, as with all macro shots, the DOF can be extremely small depending which filter you have on your lens.

The +10 is the strongest and will give you the ability to get really close but is also the most difficult to work with.

Here are a few pics taken on my 350D with the close up lenses fitted:


Taken with a +4 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
11042.jpg


Taken with a +10 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
11191.jpg


Taken with a +4 dioptre close up lens fitted to a 17-85mm IS USM lens.
1254.jpg


Taken with a +10 Dioptre close up lens on the 18-55mm kit lens.
1068.jpg

​

So as you can see it's well worth trying a set of cheap lenses to see how you get on.

In fact I used mine for about a year before getting a set of Auto extension tubes.

Good luck but remember that the DOF is very small - in fact you will certainly find, as I still do, that you will almost certainly scrap more than you keep.

.
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Thank you that was very helpful esp with the photos and kit used info x

I think a set of lenses if definitely the way for me to go to start with

:clap:
 
Agreed, the Raynox 250 is very good, but also look up using a reversing ring, only a couple of quid from ebay, to try it out without spending at all you can just take the lens off, turn the lens round and handhold it there and try it put, you'll have to play about a bit to get focus though!

Have a look on YouTube, there will be a few vids there
 
Wow this has helped me too, I didnt the results with the filters would be so good.
 
Jasonward330 said:
Wow this has helped me too, I didnt the results with the filters would be so good.
Click to expand...

The image quality will suffer a bit with the filters, but will also depend upon how good a lens you attach them too,I have an old manual focus hoya 125mm f2.8 prime, with the filters on this the image quality is very good, however on the end of my 50mm 1.8 at higher magnifications there is a noticeable degradation in quality
 
Thedodo said:
The image quality will suffer a bit with the filters, but will also depend upon how good a lens you attach them too,I have an old manual focus hoya 125mm f2.8 prime, with the filters on this the image quality is very good, however on the end of my 50mm 1.8 at higher magnifications there is a noticeable degradation in quality
Click to expand...

For me I am still just starting out with a new hobby so I have only got the standard Nikon Kit 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens and a 55-200mm f4-5.6 so I am just looking to experiment at the moment, is it worth using one of these filters on a longer zoom lens?
 
I find it best on a longer focal length, but I'm only comaparing my 50mm to my 125mm, I also have a set of extension tubes, again these work a lot better on my longer lens, the are almost useless on my 17-85mm and not to great on my 50mm either, sp with that in mimd I wpuld recommend gettimg a set with the correct sized thread for you long zoom
 
Jasonward330 said:
For me I am still just starting out with a new hobby so I have only got the standard Nikon Kit 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens and a 55-200mm f4-5.6 so I am just looking to experiment at the moment, is it worth using one of these filters on a longer zoom lens?
Click to expand...

No they are not very good on longer lenses, although a +1 Dioptre can be used, but the other ones just introduce too many distortions, due to the fact that they are very big - in those cases a set of extension rings is a much better purchase because, although more expensive, they will fit on any lens whereas the filters will only suit one lens depending on the filter size.

.
 
Thedodo said:
I find it best on a longer focal length, but I'm only comaparing my 50mm to my 125mm, I also have a set of extension tubes, again these work a lot better on my longer lens, the are almost useless on my 17-85mm and not to great on my 50mm either, sp with that in mimd I wpuld recommend gettimg a set with the correct sized thread for you long zoom
Click to expand...

In that case I am not sure what you are doing wrong since I have used extension tubes on many types of lenses, including kit lenses, a 50mm f1.8, the 100mm macro lens and my 70-300mm L IS USM lens and they all produce good macro shots.

.
 
petersmart said:
In that case I am not sure what you are doing wrong since I have used extension tubes on many types of lenses, including kit lenses, a 50mm f1.8, the 100mm macro lens and my 70-300mm L IS USM lens and they all produce good macro shots.

.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying that they don't work i just prefer the results I get using them on longer lengths
 
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