Close Up Filter on Wide Angle Lens

Oceanmonkey123 wrote:

As a Macro/Close Up photographer (Flora and Fungi) I have been looking at options to get a wider field of view in then a dedicated Macro lens offers. I own the Z105MC. I have looked at the Venus Optics 15mm Macro lens but not quite what I want as the focus distance is virtually non exsistent so have wondered about using a Close Up filer on my Nikon Z14-30 lens. As an 82mm filter is well in excess of £100,

The only close-up lens I can recall that comes in 82mm is Hoya, and it's a plain single-element, which will give you quite a bit of chromatic aberration. It's also fairly low power. Remember, 14mm is 71 diopters (1000/14mm) and 30mm is 33 diopters. To get 0.5x magnification, you have to pile about half that in front of the lens, and getting to 15 diopters with closeup lenses would be a pain. It would also have a short working distance, which combined with that honking big 82mm front will be difficult to light.

There are Z extension tubes which cost less than a single element closeup lens but deliver higher image quality. I have a Meike set with an 11mm and 18mm tube that cost me $40 US, about £32. The problem is that the front node is pretty far back in a wide angle zoom and if you add extension, you will quickly run out of working room. Extend too far, and you hit a point where the subject actually has to be inside the lens. (You'd have this same problem with a strong close-up lens: anything you do to try to get high magnification out of a 14-30mm zoom is going to bring the subject almost into contact with the lens.

before I purchase has anyone tried anything like this. Maybe there would be a better lens option if someone can think of !

Duct tape!

(That's only half a joke. My first high magnification macro experiment was done using a technique called "coupling". Since the two lenses I was coupling together had the same filter size, and since I barely had enough money for film, let along the $10 it would have take to improvise a coupling ring, I duct taped the lenses together).

When you put a lens on your camera, and then attach another lens to it face-to-face with a little adapter called a macro coupling ring, you get magnification equal to the ratio of the two focal lengths, and a working distance of approximately the "back focus" (rear element to image sensor distance) of the reversed lens.

The problem is that this is a technique only useful for magnification from 1:1 on up. But you can get high-quality wide-angle setups with decent working distance this way. A reversed 50mm f/1.8 F (not Z) in front of a 24-70 Z has potential.

I'd seriously start with the extension tubes.

I am not looking for life size but generally closer focus than what is standard on this lens. Would there be a better lens option on Nikon Z Full Frame ?

Maybe someone has put together something like this before

All sorts of things.

I have an idea. Let me get back to you in a day or two.