A200 18-70 lens

[R71565]

I sometimes use the camera to photo small pieces of electronics including circuit boards and existing wiring. I have found that the 18-70 lens does not give enough detail and clarity, because I can not get in close with that lens.

I notice that I can buy screw on macro lenses. In order to solve my problem,  I was looking on ebay at an offer of +1, +2, +4 and +10 diopters lenses by Fox which I hope are good enough for my note taking type of close up photos.

Could you please comment on how close and far these macro lens will allow the 18-70 lens to get to the subject.

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Hi R71565 and welcome.

You are right to say that a screw-on close-up lens is very much cheaper that a macro lens and very much more convenient than using extension tubes.

Characteristics will vary with the lens you use and these leses seem to work best on longer lenses. I am not sure what magnification you are looking for. A true macro lens will give 1:1 reproduction - the image is the same size on the sensor as it is in real life - but you seldom need such high magnification. I have always carried a +1, +2, and a +4 for emergency use.

The +10 will probably give you close to 1:1 but the image quality will almost certainly suffer chromatic aberration and edge distortion. This will be apparent for you when photographing flat items like circuit boards, stamps etc. So if you need 1:1 magnification I would look at extention tubes or a pukka macro lens. I find +4 good for general close-up use and the image quality is OK. On rare occasions I have resorted to screwing all 3 lenses on at the same time to get really close but to preserve picture quality, this is not recommended. I prefer to use +2 or +4 and then get further magnification by cropping the image produced as most cameras have plenty of pixels and you don't need to use all of them!

The distortions can be drastically reduced by buying the more expensive close-up lenses with double-element construction. This construction can eliminate the disadvantages of a single-element lens.

Have a look at this article from EOS magazine which is quite comprehensive.

http://www.eos-magazine.com/EOS%20Collection/shop/Resources/A383%20%20Close%20focus%20%28CU%29.pdf

Good Luck!