Tips for macro with Diopters/close up lenses

Zoanut · Jun 17, 2013

I just received my diopter kit from amazon ($26 shipped, includes a wide angle, +1, +2, +4, +10 and "macro" lens + cleaning kit and storage containers).

I am using a Canon G5...Yes its old, yes its slow. But it takes great pics for most things and "good" enough for macro. Here is what i was able to do with the diopters and 20 minutes (after 45 minutes of figuring them out):

The DOF is very thin, but thats ok with me. However the pics lack the sharpness i like. Is that a trait of diopters or is there something i can do to work around that? Any tips in general to make this setup work better than it is?

This is what most of my pics look like without the diopters...for a comparison. You can see the camera can make sharp "macro" pics, im not sure if I can bring that back with the new diopters in the mix.

Zoanut · Jun 17, 2013

Quick not: The pics with diopters are not cropped. The pics on the bottom, without diopters were cropped.

Zoanut · Jun 20, 2013

Im figuring it out. The biggest difference so far was cleaning the cameras lens and the diopter glass, that stuff was very dusty from the factory. Once cleaned up it started to come out better. If anyone needs advice on what diopters to try/buy let me know, ive learned a lot over the last few days playing with them!

Jgomez324 · Jul 2, 2013

Nice thanks for the info....

Xingu · Jul 2, 2013

Diopters are a good, low cost, introduction to macro photography and can provide excellent results. The thing to keep in mind is that most diopters are made from lower quality glass and everything you add in front of the lens will affect the image quality. You may not get that crisp, sharp focus that you are looking for. They sure are fun to play with though!