Posts Tagged ‘Close-up lens’

Diopter or close-up lenses are a good way to add macro / close-up ability to your current photography gear. They work by screwing or clipping on to the front of your camera's lens, and decrease the minimum focusing distance. This allows you to move your camera closer to the subject, and achieve higher magnification photos.

Livin' on the edge by Fountain_Head on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

These close-up lenses work with all cameras where the lens has a filter thread. So they will work with virtually all interchangeable lens camera lenses, and most bridge and advanced compact cameras that have built-in lenses. With some cameras that have an integrated lens, you may need to purchase an accessory tube that attaches to the lens to provide a filter thread that the close-up lens can then be screwed into.

Diopter close-up lenses are small, thin lenses that you can screw on to the front of a standard lens like a filter. They allow the lens to focus much closer than normal, so you can get macro / close-up photos without a real macro lens.

I Love Rain (Explored #15, Front-Page) by Yogendra174 on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

They have a couple of main advantages:

• Can be used on cameras without interchangeable lenses, such as bridge cameras
• Much cheaper than a macro lens
• Small enough to carry in a pocket
• No light loss (unlike extension tubes)