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Softness of cheap close-up filters

Started 6 months ago | Discussions thread
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panafred
panafred Regular Member • Posts: 101
Softness of cheap close-up filters

Warning: this is about low end macro.

Not being busy,  I decided to document, for myself,   The focusing distance and image quality of a set of close-up filters (+1, +2,+4,+10 Neewer brand from Amazon) at a few focal lengths where they seemed to work best.

I set the camera (cheap Lumix FZ80) up in manual focus with focus-peaking turned on, placed it on a test bench beside a ruler, and placed a box with some text on the side, in front of it.  I moved the box until focus peaking showed on the camera screen, and took a shot.  I repeated this with the diferent filters and focal lengths, and recorded the working distances.

I expected softness in the outcomes, and indeed there was.   Some combinations were useful however - for example +2, and +4 diopters at 90mm were fairly sharp (and gave 90 to 100mm of working distance)

The thing I didn't expect was the +10.  I expected it to be soft, but it was so soft, that the focus peaking would not triggereven at best focus.   I guess that proves how useless it is.

I will keep the +2 and +4 in my bag in case I want to take a macro shot while just carrying the cheap camera (which I often do because it is small and light).

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