Yes macro means close focus. Macro lenses list specific magnification because macro doesn’t mean 1x and never has.
If you really wanted it to mean something, it could mean that any lens that allows a digital camera (and it'll depend on pixel-count) to go beyond the resolution of the human eye. Macro could mean the beginning of that kind of resolution. Micro could mean arbitrarily, 10x the resolution of the human eye or more.
Many many moons ago macro lenses typically had a 0.5x max magnification. Often there would be an extension tube you can add onto the lens to take it up to 1x. The downside besides needing to have the tube was that with the extension tube you could only go between 0.5x and 1x when it was attached. Now it is more common to find lenses that go to 1x on their own.
The definition for that word is labeled “nonstandard.” I had to explain to a friend of mine years ago that “nonstandard” is how intellectuals say “you sound like a blithering idiot and that’s not a real word.”
False.
Again, incorrect. 1X or 1:1 magnification LITERALLY means the image projected is life-size, 1-to-1 ratio. Irrespective of recording medium, if you’re shooting a penny at 1:1 then the image projected by the lens is exactly the same size as the penny.
No. You would be relying on the original definition that defined what macro photography was/is.
I suggest you read his sentence, then your last paragraph again. Carefully.
Used to be a mind-boggling five...stories...tall!!! “Fast” cars could go way faster than a horse, by another 5 or 10 miles an hour. Things change, fellas.
I defined the meaning of the term that is so meaningless.
Read slowly and carefully. Try sketching the examples he gave the words aren’t clear to you.
If someone is shooting 1X and doesn’t know their sensor size, if that is the threshold for “meaningless,” then that person should probably just go drool in the corner and leave photography to functional adults.
Ok, the corner is over there. Have fun.
1X has a meaning: a life sized projection. At least that isn’t arbitrary. A supercomputer used to fill a building and do less than a current laptop can. Technology has changing definitions. And when the amazing tech of the day was lucky to get 0.5X some clever marketing exec said “let’s just call it macro!”
Be as condescending as you like. Someone claimed that something that has a meaning is rendered without meaning based on a sensor’s size. If you know the size of your sensor it takes about three seconds and maybe a ruler if your spatial perception is poor to figure out if it will fill your frame. If it is too big, back off an inch or two.
How did I get it wrong? Yes , you Are correct, that is what it means. And it means a different sized object fills the frame with different sensor sizes, just like I said.
Isn’t it arbitrary though?
If anyone on this whole planet would know the size of their sensor it’s someone who purchased a macro lens for the purpose of shooting macro images. So sensor size, quite the opposite of making 1X magnification mean nothing, would be first a foremost on a macro shooter’s mind.
