Macro Lens

nelson

nelson

Member
Has anyone found a good Macro Lens or diopters for the HVX? I need extreme close-ups. I'm focusing on subjects that are from 1 - 5 mm.

Thanks,

Kent
 
I some times use a 50mm 1:1 F/2.8 macro Nikon with my M2 adapter.

or I use a +10 maCRO with a 85mm to 72mm step down ring...




both have goten me "good stuff" eye ball filling frame...finger prints, inside flower pestals...




VP
 
I'm keen to read the responses to this too!
I don't have a 35mm adapter and don't plan on needing one until the second half of 2007, so in the meantime I'm kitting up with everything I need to make the HVX stock lens do what I need it to.
In terms of macro, I'm expecting the Century 2.6 diopter to arrive in a few days, but I have no experience with what to expect from it. I seem to remember somewhere that these diopters are stackable which leads me to suspect I might need more than one to achieve some of the extreme close up shots I have planned. At the price, I'm really praying I can get by with just this one.

M.
 
Malcolm Wright said:
I'm keen to read the responses to this too!
I don't have a 35mm adapter and don't plan on needing one until the second half of 2007, so in the meantime I'm kitting up with everything I need to make the HVX stock lens do what I need it to.
In terms of macro, I'm expecting the Century 2.6 diopter to arrive in a few days, but I have no experience with what to expect from it. I seem to remember somewhere that these diopters are stackable which leads me to suspect I might need more than one to achieve some of the extreme close up shots I have planned. At the price, I'm really praying I can get by with just this one.

M.
Click to expand...

For the sharpest images use achromatic diopters (made by Century/Schneider, Nikon, Canon and Sigma) as these are far better corrected than simple single element diopters and will produce much sharper images. The diopter need NOT be the same size as the lens to which it is fixed (82mm thread). It can be smaller and attached via a step down ring of the proper size. The only question is HOW MUCH SMALLER before it will start to vignette. In the past I used a 62mm achromat diopter (+1.5 Nikon 5T) on a Canon XL1 16x auto zoom lens with success and NO vignetting whatsoever - even at the lens' widest setting - since the lens + diopter is magnifying the central portion of the image only. The Nikon achromatic diopters (62mm 5T and 6T) are of superb quality (good enough for critical still photography use) and considerably less expensive than the Century, plus a lot lighter in weight. They will not likely vignette with the HVX -- especially in the case of the 6T that has a +3 magnification. In cases of extreme magnification I'd think that Nikon's 52mm thread 3T and 4T would work on the HVX as well, especially stacked with a larger diameter diopter attached to the lens first. By combining (stacking) quality achromatic diopters on the lens, almost any degree of magnification - short of microscopic work - should be achievable.
 
John,

thanks for posting your experiences with the Nikon 6T. I have one of those in my Canon Dslr kit and it works well with many of my lenses. Is there an 82-62 step down ring made?
 
I don't know whether there is a 82mm-62mm step down ring commercially available. I have not seen one. It would be nice not to have to mount the achromatic diopter any further from the camera lens than is absolutely necessary, but realistically all one needs are two step down rings threaded together to get from 82mm to 62mm = such as 82mm-72mm AND 72mm-62mm. These are readily available at BHphoto, on ebay, and elsewhere. A custom step down ring could be fabricated by www.skgrimes.com (among others) but that would be somewhat more costly than just buying two step down rings. Of course one could always buy the Canon achromatic diopter lens that is 72mm thread and use a single step down to mount it. The Canon is probably more expensive than the Nikon achromatic diopters -- keep that in mind. Hope this helps.
 
Malcolm Wright said:
Great info there on the Nikon diopters...
I'll get in touch with ZGC and cancel the Century diopter order.

M.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Might as well save $$$ where you can!! I think you will be very happy with the Nikon achromatic diopters.
 
I use the century acromatic diopters +4 and +3 (i think, i dont have them here at the moment). They have a 58 mm filtersize and I have a stepdown ring for this. I can couple them and have a +7 diopter that is still of good quality, the pictures are amazing, only the working distance can be a problem, objects must be very close to the camera. For this i use a teleconvertor on top of the diopter. If you want more info send me a mail.
 
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