Anybody use Macro Diopters on medium zoom?

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Hoag

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SW Ontario - Just outside of the GTHA
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I have been struggling lately to find a solution to shooting macro. I don't shoot a lot of macro. To be honest, I shoot very little macro, so I don't want to spend a lot of money on a macro set-up for my Sony A6000 & Nauticam housing.

I had looked at the Sony 30mm macro lens, but the feedback I was getting is that it was OK for fish portraits, but not practical for anything close up.

I had considered the Sony 50mm macro lens, but the port for that requires both an adapter and a port which would drive up the cost by the time I was done to a point where it was not really practical given how little I expect to use it.

Then yesterday, somebody proposed what might be an interesting solution. They suggested using a "medium zoom" such as my kit lens (16-50mm) and a macro diopter on the port. That way, I already own the lens, and all I would need to acquire are the port (which I planned on anyhow) and a diopter.

Does anybody have any experience doing this? If so, how did it work out?

Thanks.
 
I don't have a Sony but do have an Oly with 14-42 kit lens and +5 and +10 diopters. Works fine. My wife has the highly regarded 60mm macro. When she nails a photo it is sharper, but with all the variables of shooting UW I do about as well as she does. The kit lens (I have to use it at full telephoto) with the +10 is about the same as the 60mm with the +5.The bare 60mm does focus farther away, sometimes an advantage, sometimes a disadvantage (more water in between).

The big advantage is the ability to flip the diopter out of the way and use the range of the kit lens when needed. If you go full macro, you are stuck on full macro for the dive. A diopter 'flip' is REALLY nice.
 
I don't have a Sony but do have an Oly with 14-42 kit lens and +5 and +10 diopters. Works fine. My wife has the highly regarded 60mm macro. When she nails a photo it is sharper, but with all the variables of shooting UW I do about as well as she does. The kit lens (I have to use it at full telephoto) with the +10 is about the same as the 60mm with the +5.The bare 60mm does focus farther away, sometimes an advantage, sometimes a disadvantage (more water in between).

The big advantage is the ability to flip the diopter out of the way and use the range of the kit lens when needed. If you go full macro, you are stuck on full macro for the dive. A diopter 'flip' is REALLY nice.
Thanks. If I only got one, would you recommend getting the +10 diopter then?
 
Depends.....When I started I thought the +5 was a handful to deal with. Got used to it. Picked up the +10 for a Philippine muck trip (small mostly still critters like nudis). Wow, was that a transition! Where's the critter? How do I focus this thing? After about 5 dives I was OK with it and by 10 it was getting fairly routine. I can now handle it in NW water and a drysuit.
So, if you targets are quite small, say generally less than 2-4 inches, maybe. Larger than that, I'd go +5.
You have more range with your lens, and to not 'look down the barrel' using a diopter you have to use them at near full tele. I can back mine off a bit before I start seeing the edges of the diopter but can't even guess how you lens would work. If you have a shop where you could demo the setup that could be valuable.
 
My setup is the same lens as fmerkel, Oly 14-42. I use a SubSee +10 and a Dyron +7, sometimes I'll stack them.
While I could purchase a 60mm and have it fit in the housing, at this time I don't want to limit my photo options on a particular dive.

I would get the SubSee +10 if I had to choose one. I purchased the +7 because of economics at the time and picked up the +10 recently for a song on Wet Pixel.
 
OK. Once again, thanks. The only macro I will typically do are things like Christmas Tree Worms, Feather Dusters & (hopefully) a Grouper at a cleaning station.

The specific diopter that was recommended was the Nauticam CMC-1, but from what I understand, any diopter with a 67mm thread should fit.
 
Exactly. 67mm seems to be a standard...thank goodness for a standard.
Some are a bit lighter and compact than others if that's a consideration for weight or balance. The Subsee +10 is considerably heavier than the +5.
 
I was in the same boat as you initially...wanting to shoot macro but not pay for the Sony 90mm lens and it's associated port. The guys at the shop I was working with suggested adding the Nauticam CMC-2 with the 67mm diopter flip holder to my kit lens (16-50mm) and port. The CMC-2 has a little less magnification than the CMC-1, which I was told would be better for someone just starting out with diopter shooting. While I haven't had this setup underwater yet, I did do some surface shooting with the CMC-2 and 16-50mm set at 50mm zoom, and the pictures I took looked awesome! You have to get really close and it takes a bit to get the focus right (AF is tough, so manual worked much better), but it should work out great for the small non-skittish critters.
 
If you do the math and know the lens you will see that the native magnification of the lens is 0.21 to 1. That means for an APS-C sensor that is 24 mm wide you can fill the frame with something that is about 120 mm wide. If you add a +10 diopter to it you will get to 4 times more magnification so know you have something that is 30 mm wide full frame. Not exactly macro but getting close. A decent macro lens will give you 24 mm full frame and with a diopter something like 15 easily.

In any case, try it out. For reference the +5 diopter will be almost as strong.

Bill
 
I have a nikon d60 with nikon 16-85mm lens in an aquatica housing. I add a +4 diopter to shoot macro 1/1 or smaller subjects. For all other subjects i just use my 16-85mm zoom with a dome port. Easier to travel with a dipoter than a full macro setup. To see samples my website is reefscenics
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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