I see that in the negative ratings here the people simply misunderstood what these are for. They are to move your camera in CLOSER to the subject and simulate a macro lens. What they do is essentially act as a magnifying glass. And like one, you need to move it in and out till you find the appropriate distance for it to work properly. This is not a tele-converter.
I find they work quite well. I have had macro lenses in which the subject takes up the sensor, a 1:1 ratio. These however allow for the subject to assault the sensor. Instead of life size these make for race of super giant monster sized. Ultra macro can be achieved with the small expenditure of fifteen bucks.
I find there is no outstanding vignetting or aberrations. At the highest magnifications there is an extremely shallow depth of field, so be sure you are prepared to work with that if you plan on working in those types of magnification.
Overall a great product, and with macro lenses starting at $500, I encourage you to sacrifice just a little of that macro lens fund to just give these a try and see if you can't go spend that extra money saved up on a hot date, camera geek. Digital Concepts 1 2 4 10 Close-Up Macro Filter Set with Pouch (58mm)
These are a great buy. You can't beat the price for added flexibility. They attach easily and do their job (magnifying the image) really well.
Couple of things to mention- one is that of course, once these are attached to the lens one has to use manual focus. That could be a problem for folks trying to shoot things that move quickly. Additionally, the DOF narrows significantly with the stronger magnifications. This could be a problem if you're shooting insects. Neither of these issues have to do with this manufacturer nor the vendor, but rather limitations of the product itself.
For me though, these diopters work extremely well for my purposes (artistic, abstract photography and flower macros.) I find the functionality to be excellent. My only complaint, and considering what I got for the price, it's a small complaint, is about the packaging. Personally, I would prefer a case with non-scratch surfaces, but the folding, wallet design is a good one. All in all, an excellent product and a great value for the money.
I use these to take picture of jewelry for an auction company and in a studio setting and they turn out wonderful. It is a little harder especially with +10 to shoot insects in nature as the DOF is so small you could focus on the grasshopper's body and the legs will be out of focus. Be sure to set a decent aperture.
It takes a lot of time to get a good picture but it is possible. No trouble with the other magnifications. (+1 +2 +4) I generally use the Canon 50mm f1.4 with this lens and it works well. perhaps a lens with a real zoom would work better. Cheap and worth it.
Some time ago, I had a 52mm +10 closeup I'd purchased from a local Wolf Camera. Was a great little filter to experiment with. I sold the camera and lenses/filters I had when I upgraded to a D80 w/ Nikon 18-200 lens, and never did find a 72mm +10 filter until I saw this set on Amazon. But I was hesitant due to the price. I paid $30 for the one 52mm +10 filter, and here are 4 filters, including a +10, for less than $15 total? Recently sold the 18-200mm lens, and got a couple Sigma lenses (18-50 and 70-300), and finally caved and added the 58mm versions of these filters. I figured as cheap as they were, even if they were pure crap, it wouldn't be a big loss.
What I've found is the +10 in this set produces far less distortion at the edges than the one I got from Wolf. However, the image is very hazy. It's easily fixable with some contrast boost, so it's only a minor annoyance (and the reason I went with 4 instead of 5 stars).
The best way to use these filters is to put them on your longest lens for maximum effect, set your lens to manual focus @ infinity, and get close to whatever your taking a picture of. REAL close. With the 70-300 @ 300mm and the +10 filter I can get within ~2 inches of my subject. Auto-focus will not work, don't even try. Instead, keep the lens at infinity, and physically move your lens closer or farther from the subject to bring it into focus. The depth of field is practically non-existent at this magnification, so make your movements very slow, and very shallow. Your pictures will also greatly benefit from a lot of light, ideally you'll use a ring flash, or set a slave flash to fire when you snap your shot. On-board flash may cause more problems than it's worth, and will likely produce a shadow from your lens. A hot-show flash will help some, but you really want the light pointing at your subject, and that's just too difficult when it's sitting back next to your face.
I will talk about the product and not the seller I purchased from.
Yes, this is a "macro" filter attachment that will allow you to get closer to your subject.
You can use auto focus but you will limit yourself to the amount of magnification that you can use to get as close to the subject as possible. Manual focus will allow you to get super close. I mean so close that is you are using a built in flash you will get a shadow from the camera lens. (thats how close you will be able to get)
These work great. They do drastically change depth of field so take that into account when you are first trying them out.
I am having an issue using some of my filters with it. The threads dont match up very well so I cant use my UV or polarizer because I dont want to cross-thread them. Also, I had to spend a lot of time when these arrived. They were dirty and two of them had some weird black goo on them.
Overall for the money, (I changed this)if you are looking for this item, you might want to pay a little more for better glass.
Update to my original review. This is cheap cheap cheap glass! While changing my 10X it fell 2 inches onto my cameras remote that was sitting on my bed. The glass is chipping, and continuing to chip. I cant use it anymore because I do not want to spread glass chips into my lens. Shop around and you might want to think about going with another manufacturer. - Macro - 58mm Filter - Close Up Lens - Filters'
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