TG-6 Extra macro lens beneficial?

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chiggins

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As a beginner, I can't complain about microscope mode on the TG-6, but I'm wondering if I add on an additional wet macro lens to get even closer shots. Would the camera still be able to fully zoom through a low to mid power macro lens? I was thinking of either the Bluewater +7 Macro Lens or Inon UCL165M67 (+6) but want to see if its even beneficial. Any thoughts on this these or other recommendations?
 
Microscope mode is 7x at 1cm. I don't think you will be able to light anything very much closer.
Bill
 
Bill, thanks for that info. I had not given much thought to the lighting aspect when that close until now. That might have had something to do with some disappointing shots from my last trip. I'll have to see if I can find the original image file now, but I can think of several shots of a sheep nudibranch. It looked in focus but lacked depth and definition of the appendages (if that makes any sense.) I cant remember how I had the strobe strobe positioned or whether the diffuser was on. I was using a single strobe, the basic YS-03. I was thinking that the camera just needed a bump for some additional magnification which got me shopping for wet macro lenses.
 
+7 is way more magnification than any standard lens plus single wet diopter can achieve. Getting light onto a small nudibranch 1 cm from the lens is very challenging.

Bill
 
Getting close requires patience and skills. Some creatures are not moving which helps.
Others may be moving so when in super macro getting the focal length and remaining in focus is difficult.
In this photo I was trying to get through the clear eye lens. I got it. Getting close to lion fish can be fun as well.|

LION FISH EYES.JPG
 
This crab was easier to get close to but being very close has it's limitations.

HERMIT CRAB 2 .JPG
 
Using TG-5, I use a FantaSea UCL-09F supermacro 12x and worked with another diver using a similar 15x lens. You must adjust the focal point away from the camera the distance of the lens. Do this easily in ACC settings, set to TCON for Telephoto. That will give you the advantage of your add-on wet lens. I now have a TG-6. NOTE; TCON is automatically turned OFF in Microscope mode. Must use Macro (fish) mode and manual optical zoom.
 
In a Backscatter review of the TG-6 they suggest using the Bluewater +7 diopter. I really did not find the logic of this. I even so it was a mistake of their part maybe copy-pasting from another review of a different camera. Diopters do not magnify by themselves, they do it by allowing the camera focus closer. If TG-6 in supermacro AF (no need anymore to have the camera ein Microscope mode) can focus at 1 cm, there is no room to focus closer or gain "theoretically" any significant advantage for a few mm closer.
 
I was diving with a photographer who does underwater shoots for a living.. He is using a camera that does not have the macro that the TG6 has and uses a Diopter. He does not think it would really help much.
 
Microscope mode is 7x at 1cm. I don't think you will be able to light anything very much closer.
Bill


This 7x is misleading without adding that it is 35mm equivalent. I do not understand why Olympus uses this way ti indicate magnification. Normally magnification of a lens is relative to sensor size. Tg-6's is 6,7mm wide so a 7x magnification would fill the whole width with a subject 1mm wide, and that's not case.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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