A few words on the HS10 and macro lenses

[greenbaron]

Hi all,

after having experimented some with the HS10 and different macrolenses, Here's a few findings.

First I was playing with the 55mm +4 diopter lens that I already had, and fitted it on the HS10 with a step-down ring. Because of this, the distance between the macrolens and the camera's own lens increased. I noticed some softness in the images taken with this combination, and suspected the distance between the lenses was too big.

Now I have a 58mm +4 diopter lens from B+W, and things haven't changed. I'll show what happens.

#1 taken at 10x zoom

#2 taken at 20x zoom

#3 taken at 30x zoom

You can clearly see how corner softness increases with the zoom.

[greenbaron]

The Raynox DCR-250 8 diopter supermacrolens keeps better sharpness, and gets you some closer too

Comparing the lenses:

#1 with the +4 lens (distance lens-subject about 20-25 cm). with ball point pen tip for size indication

#2 with the +8 lens (distance lens-subject about 9-12 cm)

#3 stacking the two (distance lens-subject about 6-7 cm) with softness caused by the +4 lens

I'll post my macros and -findings in this thread from now on.

Happy shooting! GB

[andytree]

Thank you for posting these, GB! Your experience is so helpful!

[DonalDuc]

Raynox 150/250 is no (single) lens - it's an apochromat (more lenses) - therefor better quality.

[Cresho]

damn, the color artifacts are just awful. Anybody have something that can perform better? I'm looking into buying a macro lens. I haven't done my research yet.

[greenbaron]

@ Andytree - Thanks; thats what we're here for

@ DonalDuc - I guess so; but the softness with the 'standard' +4 lens is unique to the HS0 I think; my panasonic FZ50 doesn't 'suffer' from it, and I haven't heard of this issue with other bridge cams. So I presume (correct me if i'm wrong) it's got something to do with the lens system of the HS10

Happy shooting! GB

[greenbaron]

Okay, so I had a few good things happen to me today (no I didn't won the lottery ). But I feel like I just hit the jackpot

REmeber my little hairy roommate? It's haircut looks like mine when I'm just out of bed
So far, I haven't been able to get a brilliant shot of it, even though it isn't very camera-shy. The 1st image that I got with the raynox DCR-250 supermacro (the #1 image in this post) had the focal plane missed by just a millimeter. The eyes must be in focus, or the photo doesn't work.

Today, the little one came flying by, and touched down on my wall, where I could reach it fairly easy. And the one shot that I took made me a happier men; without doubt my best fauna macro ever

The upside-down image is the original, resized & sharpened only. There's stil room for improvement framing-wise, but in terms of the rest it's the kind of result I'm looking for.

The other two are edits, with the last being a 100% crop with some sharpening.

Happy shooting everyone! GB