You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I fancy a little more magnification on my 35mm macro lens. I see that tubes are fairly inexpensive, but they achieve better magnification by allowing you to focus closer, don't they? Focusing is already stupidly close on the dedicated macro lens so I don't think that would be useful. Plus, one reason I want more magnification is so I can get closer to insects without them flying off. Another reason is so I can be focused further away and get more depth of field.
The other option then is a teleconverter but they are £££ and some people complain about the quality of them esp with macro use.
With a teleconverter you'll lose a stop or two which will make your lens s-l-o-w. You'll also degrade some of the image quality.
The olympus teleconvertors are expensive and I think you may also lose the autofocus(?).
And the Olympus ones are very expensive.
A cheap option - also retaining AF would be Close-up filters. Lose a bit of IQ but they are cheap and cheerful and if you're not blowing them up - who is to know?
Hmm.. do close-up filters magnify, or just decrease focusing distance?
The other option is a tube with one of my zoom lenses, but from what I can gather that doesn't give much more magnification than my macro - but then again it WOULD allow snapping at the same mag but from further away. wouldn't be as good quality tho.
telecon on macro can work pretty well, i've had some success. Soligor 2x costs me some contrast in combi with sigma 50mm macro, but the sharpness of the lens is so good that with TC is still fine.
some discussion here:
TCs can even give reasonable results on zooms if you stop down and do your best to nail tripod/long lens technique:
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5263/5837120611_748ee5d99a.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffwarnock/5837120611/ ]partial lunar eclipse 150611[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/geoffwarnock/ ]Geoff Warnock[/url], on Flickr
Or for your macro you can always go for a more 'extreme' lens:
[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3073/5843106241_c65aefeabf.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffwarnock/5843106241/ ]stained glass[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/geoffwarnock/ ]Geoff Warnock[/url], on Flickr
btw afaik close-up filters do indeed reduce focusing distance. also ime they are only really sharp near the center (affordable ones at least).
Are you sure you can decrease the focusing distance on your macro lens? You must be virtually touching the lens to the subject as it is.
EDIT: looking at the specs and doing a bit of guessing you're already 2 inches off the subject.
5e yes with my macro I am already so close that I start blocking out even the ambient light in many cases, So I don't want a tube, I don't think. A TC would be good on macro but also fun on my 300mm zoom, just for a laugh like 🙂
nearly all my macro is done hand held with manual focus (i.e. set magnification then move back/forward for focus) and (TTL off camera - nikon) flash - gives you DOF and motion freeze, and no prob with blocking the ambient then.
TC on 300mm will ask for either mega good light or good tripod. if the lens doesn't have a tripod collar you may find that balance is tricky with poor results on sharpness at >300mm.
I've used 2x and 1.4x TCs. The 2x is only marginally better than cropping and only if you have a very sharp lens to use it on. I would have thought a 2x would be a non-starter on a 300mm zoom but the 1.4 might be OK.
Extension tubes on the other hand... should be well worth using on the 300mm.
Good point, the lens doesn't have a collar (which is a shame, I don't think I can get one to retrofit either) and the TC would make it worse.
Maybe I will get the tube then as it's cheap enough to be an incidental purchase 🙂
I can sell you my Olympus (OM) vivitar macro converter.
You'll need an OM to four-thirds adaptor mount but it works real nice.