I picked up a cheap set of macro lenses for the GF1.
There are four of them, and they're simply screwed on to the
front of an existing lens. Here are some attempts at the same close
subject (a Finnish handmade iron mouse on top of an infra-red remote
controller) with different magnifications. The snout of the mouse is
about 3mm wide at the tip.
Without enhancement (45mm focal length, equivalent to 90mm on a 35mm
SLR):
+1 dioptre:
+2 dioptre (I think I must have pulled back a bit for this one):
+4 dioptre:
+10 dioptre:
As the magnification increases, depth of field drops off sharply.
As you'll guess from the numbers, the lenses can be stacked together
(strongest at the front, as the +10 bulges significantly out of its
frame). So here I've combined them all for +17 dioptre on 45mm:
And, just for excessiveness, +17 dioptre in front of 200mm (400mm
equivalent in 35mm terms):
This would obviously benefit from a tripod, not so much because of
camera shake, but because of the knife-thin depth of field; I found
myself leaning forward and back to get to a range where the autofocus
could manage to lock on.
Now, clearly this isn't the usual extension tube approach to macro
photography, which would increase the distance between lens and camera
body; image quality relies on the optics of the magnifiers. On the
other hand, it's vastly cheaper than a tube that would pass through
the control channels for lens electronics; it comes in a slim wallet
that fits in my camera bag; and it's not tied to this specific camera
and lens system, but will work with anything with a 52mm front.
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