Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

It is a cheaper alternative to a dedicated macro lens and much smaller, easily hide away in the pocket. IQ is pretty impressive too. Only complaint is the rear cover for lens is troublesome to put on, you need to unscrew the lens from the adaptor first.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Gives a lovely macro effect and is a great improvement even on my kit lens. If you're not a professional why not just buy this cheap add on rather than a proper exxy lens? I love that it's really easy to pop on and off my lens without having the hassle to switch lenses...!

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

I have to say, I was quite skeptical about this little thing until I saw the results online from another photographer. After seeing that, I decided to give it a shot since it is very affordable, and I'm hooked on it now. With many "macro filters" you end up with horrific chromatic aberrations and soft photos, but this thing is razor sharp with VERY little CA! Excellent little product. My only wish is that they would make a larger one that would fit on my Zeiss 24-70.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Excellent for macro (+4.8 diopters). Usable with existents zooms.
Fast added.
Good quality.
Good usage with 100mm standard zoom 25-300mm.
Used togheter with dcr-250 (+8 diopters).

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

i use the dcr-150 on my tamron 90mm macro lens. it increases the magnification of insects and flowers. it has not reduced sharpness or color as long as i am able to get the focus, exposure, and steady the camera correctly. if your attaching it to a high quality lens you will get high quality results. you will need to experiment with it to become proficient. i try to use a good tripod and diffused off-camera flash for best results for me. if you have a very steady hand, hand held will work. narrow depth-of-field, but hey it's for macro shots, so to be expected. i tried it on a 100-300mm and found it extremely challenging to get focus of moving subjects at 300mm. i would recommend it on a macro lens 100mm or less. only negative is the lens cap. it's hard to get off in a hurry. i leave it barely on to remedy that.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

i bought this to use it in conjunction with my new 55-300 lens, i cant believe how magnified is the image at 300mm, you can almost take portraits to insects.
Also, the results are very very sharp and basicly i cant find any drawback using this filter atached to my lens in respect to image quality.

Everything perfect? not really, the lens caps are really anoying and due to the little DOF is hard to focus (but i knew this from the beggining).

Overall, excelent purchase, buy one yourself

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Macro photography has many paths to achieve acceptable results. Extension tubes, reversing lenses, a dedicated macro lens and or course a close-up lens like the DCR-150. One of the negative aspects of close-up lenses is that they normally come for just one size. The DCR-150 comes with an adapter that lets me use it many lens sizes and it works great (see notes below). This has enabled me to test with various lenses, an 18-55mm Kit lens, an 1.4f 50mm prime, an 2.8f 28-75mm Tamron zoom and a 70-300mm Tamron super zoom all on a Pentaz K-r camera body. Before the DCR-150 of all my lenses the 18-55mm Kit lens and the 70-300mm Tamron had the best macro performance out of the box (not real macro lenses). If I inverted the 50mm prime I could get an impressive macro resolution but this setup is less than ideal (even if the results are very good). So I tried the DCR-150 with all my lenses and the results were VERY surprising: Pentax 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 II kit lens results: Very impressive results, I would say this was close to 50% more magnification. Could focus to like 6 inches from the subject now. Pentax 1.4f 50mm prime results: I got better magnification than before but nothing to talk about, the kit lens was better. Tamron 2.8f 28-75mm results: Worst result from my testing. Not better than my Pentax 1.4f 50mm prime in magnification with the added problem of totally dark corners. The kit lens did much better. I was surprised as this is a full frame lens. Tamron 70-300mm results: The lens has a dedicated macro mode from 180-300 mm, it also has a focusing distance of 1 meter in this mode. When I put the DCR-150 on this lens I was TOTALLY blown away. I could focus as close as 18 inches and the magnification was better than ANYTHING I had used before (better than the inverted 50mm prime). Unfortunately this lens is not very sharp at 300mm but at 180mm it can be quite decent at f8 - f13. At 180mm it was still WAY better than any of my other options. In EVERY case the minimum focus distance was reduced for all my lenses (this is what a close-up lens is supposed to do). Beware of lenses that already have a VERY small focusing distance (think like an inch) as they will not play nice with this (or any) close-up lens. What about the images? In all the lenses (minus the Tamron 2.8f 28-75mm with the dark edges, hated that) the DCR-150 did not degrade the image in any way I could detect. There is some lost in brightness but this is actually common in macro photography, even for dedicated macro lenses. The Tamron 70-300mm did have some visible vignetting at 300mm. Now before you get too exited let me explain a FEW issues you need to be aware off. From f8 to f13 (where I like to shoot macros) there is VERY LITTLE depth of field at these small focusing distances. Also, the closer you are to your subject the less depth of field you will have and the harder it will be to focus. In all of my testing I had to use a tripod, manual focus and use the camera live view to get the right focus. Even then it was not always easy to focus. There was a point that the smallest movement would take the picture out of focus. In this regard if I was shooting hand held less magnification would not be a bad thing. For hand held shoots I would consider the Pentax 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 II kit lens as a better option than the Tamron 70-300mm to carry around. There is just so much you can do hand held. This is not an issue with the DCR-150 itself, you could have this same issue with a dedicated macro lens too. So I conclude that the DCR-150 is a great, inexpensive and versatile close-up lens. Just keep in mind that your experience with it can be totally different depending on what lenses you have available to you.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

This Raynox macro conversion lens works great w/ my 105mm macro lens. It is lightweight, easy to connect & so far I have seen no vignetting.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Used on a 18-55mm, and 55-300mm zoom. Good results with the short zoom at 55mm, much higher magnification with ~200mm but harder to foucs (you typically need to move the whole camera). Very good results - however DOF gets worse as you get closer.Lens holder works ok - but looks like it can fall off easily when you hit it even slightly (may consider 2 sets of stepdown adaptors as an alternative). [...] The lens cap is annoying: Very hard to get it off the lens if attached to the adaptor. Overall a good compromise to take a long for the occasional macro shot, good results (not as good a real macro however).

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Very sharp optics. Easy to use. Good magnification. Can get even closer when you attach it on a lens then reverse mount the whole thing, see the result: [@]

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Used with 4/3 mount 40-150mm lens. Gives major magnification; easy-to-carry; easy to snap on.
But working distance greatly reduced, and needs some practice to consistently achieve focus. This can be tricky for fast-moving insects.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

I was borrowing a Minolta DSLR until I could afford getting my own system by the big two. I wanted something that would allow me to take macro photos of my tarantula collection (some as small as an eraser on a standard #2 pencil), but I didn't want to buy an extender or new lens because I knew I wasn't going to stick with Minolta/Sony and the money would ultimately be wasted.

I heard good things about this macro lens and thought I'd give it a shot until I could buy my own DSLR.

The photos are quite clear (the limiting factor for me is definitely the optical quality of the kit lens I'm using the product with). I shared the photo with friends that had seen my previous attempts and the response I got was "wow, nice lens!" The MAJOR drawback to this lens is depth of field. The depth of field is EXTREMELY shallow and the blur that it you get from it is nothing near as nice as the bokeh you would expect from a nice macro lens (it's kinda neat, but at the same time really messes with your eyes and can be annoying.)

Nothing will truly give you the quality of a good macro lens, but at 1/10-1/25th the cost, this piece will hold you over. I would recommend this to someone who wants to dip their toes into macro photography without investing much up front. I would NOT recommend this to someone that needs to take professional grade photos (but if you were, you probably wouldn't be reading these reviews anyway).

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

This is a very sharp, 3 element positive diopter lens, that enables close focusing. It is remarkably sharp and well corrected, and a GREAT value!

It might be wise to obtain step or down rings to snugly fit your lens.

Since the diameter is 43mm, do NOT attempt to use on a lens of larger diameter.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Adapter fits where lens cap would clip in. The lens on this model PowerShot does NOT have a screw thread, so the Raynox clip-in adapter is the only way to use additional filters or close-up lenses. Vignettes at wide-angle settings and precludes use of bayonet hood.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

To small parts, or bugs...

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

I have not had opportunity to use the macro lens much at this point, but I am very pleased with the ease of purchase [...]. I've spent a little time learning how to use the macro lens and am pleased with the construction and ease of use.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

Macro photography, cheap , easy to work with

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

I use this lens with my Cannon S5is and it is amazing. I get clean clear crisp macro shots. I love it.

Comments about Raynox DCR-150 1.5x Macro Lens:

I use this on a canon s5, and WOW, this lens makes a HUGE difference. A must have for anyone who enjoys taking macro photos. Allows you to be about 6inches from subject and just zoom in using aperture priority or manual modes. Excellent lens!