D70s lense and Macro lens

[ado_civon]

I am curious if 67mm Macro Lense additions are any good?

I'm thinking to get +1, +2, +4 and +10.

I'd like to know if they are any good?

I'm mainly concerned about the quality...... I'd really like a close-up of things but without loosing any image quality.

If these things are good enough for approx $50 all up let me know please.

Thank you very much.

[digitor]

An important law of optics is that generally, image quality is proportional to price.

Canon make a close-up lens, the 500D, which is a doublet and has far fewer optical aberrations - it can be had off Ebay for about $185 in a 77mm last time I looked, but results are still not as good as a macro lens.

Cheers

[rooboy]

I'd really like a close-up of things but without loosing any image quality.

In that case you'd be better off with extension tubes or a reversing ring, as these have no glass and therefore don't interfere with the optical quality of the lens. Have a search through posts by Yi-P, he uses a reversed 50/1.8 as a very cheap macro with some beautiful results

[ado_civon]

where can i get a reverse and how much is it? I'd need to use it with the 18-70mm DX that comes with the d70s...

thank you for your posts

[the foto fanatic]

I think a reverse is best used with a prime lens, not a zoom.

I would recommend extension tubes. I think a set of 3 tubes (non-Nikon) would probably be around $125.

The thing about these is they do not have any effect on the optical quality of your lens (as a close-up filter would), however they do reduce the amount of light and the kit zoom is already quite slow at max zoom.

You would probably need a tripod and preferably also a flash that can be used off-camera to have deccent versatility.

[radar]

What they all say above is quite right, but you can still get some pretty good results with close-up filters, in the right conditions.

Look at this thread:

http://www.dslrusers.net/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0

NJ won 1st prize in his competition. He use a D50 and a close up filter. Not sure which lens he was using, but the kit lens would suit.

I have recently used a 70-300mmED lens with a Nikon 6T close-up filter. As a way to get started in macro photography, it is a pretty good way to go and you aren't spending lots of money for something you may not like doing in the end. Later on, you can look at extension tubes or a dedicated macro lens.

I have used a reversal ring with a 50mm. The ring was bought on ebay for about $25. However the close-up filters are easier to use.

Cheers,

André

[Yi-P]

where can i get a reverse and how much is it?

I bought my reverse ring at the local shop for AU$40. You can get it off your local camera dealer or just on eBay.

The geniune model from Nikon is the BR-2A, which fits ALL lenses with 52mm filter.

There are other sizes of reversal rings on eBay from the 3rd party manufacturers, I have no experience with them, so I cant compare the build quality between them. But the Nikon BR2A is made completely of metal mounts.

I'd need to use it with the 18-70mm DX that comes with the d70s...

No, I do not recommend you to use the 18-70 on a reversal setup. Even tho if you are allowed to put it on reverse with the ring setup, putting a zoom lense and more of a DX type zoom is disaster to the final image.

The basic setup and mostly used I have is the BR2A + Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens. The 50/1.8 cost under AU$200 and you can get it off for roughly $150 I think. REAL SHARP lens, no need to say more.
As for now, I cannot find any other alternative that is cheaper and as good as this setup. You can use 1 lens for 2 purposes, how sweet is this. Plus, any other 52mm filter sized prime (no zoom) lenses can be used as macro with the ring!

In short here are some decisions for you:

Reverse ring: cheap and sharp. does not lose light on setup. loses focusing and metering (all manual exposure is fun and very challenging for beginners)

Close-Up Filters: cheap and easy to use. does not lose light. loss of sharpness, quality and some distortion may occur.

Extension rings: relatively cheap. easy to focus and meter. loss of light through the tubes makes exposure longer and require tougher light setup.

Dedicated Macro lens: ALL (yes ALL) of the ++posivites above. At expense of your wallet's weight or potential bashing from wife


There are some shots from the past I took with the reversal ring. The gallery at my sig bellow. The "Water Drops" were one of most famous of them all.

I hope this cleared up some of your questions. But have made you harder to choose which setup from?

[gstark]

The basic setup and mostly used I have is the BR2A + Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens. The 50/1.8 cost under AU$200 and you can get it off for roughly $150 I think.

Current new cost, including shippng from HK, is Au$180.

[ado_civon]

Firstly, thank you very much for your comments.

radar - very nice photo by the way.

I hope that for information purposes i can post link to ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Extension-Tubes-Macro-for-Nikon-D2Hs-D70-F100-F80-MF_W0QQitemZ180021991360QQihZ008QQcategoryZ3343QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Will that be okay to start with?

I assume i can mount my 18-70mm 67mm lense on this so will all the automatic functions still work? (considering i'm still learning)

Thank you very much agian. Never have i got more useful responses in a forum before. Thanks.