NiSi Close Up Lens Kit
When I first got serious about nature photography years ago, my great passion was macro photography. During my search for subjects that are often difficult to see with the naked eye, capturing them has taken a lot of time and pleasure.
My arsenal of macro lenses and tools has expanded considerably over the years. Without a doubt, my favorite lens is the Pentax FA* 200/4.0 macro. An almost mythical lens of which only 700 are said to have been produced. Fantastic bokeh and sublime sharpness, and its 200mms allow me to stay relatively far from my often shy subjects.
It was already an icon at the time and nowadays they occasionally sell for several thousand euros. You will therefore not be surprised that this is by far my favorite macro tool.
The NiSi Close Up Lens Kit
NiSi recently launched a so-called Close Up Lens. It is a super easy to use tool that enables the photographer to take pictures with a regular telephoto (zoom) that you could also take with a macro lens. You screw it on the front of your lens and this allows you to focus closer. This resulted in less depth of field and your subject appears larger on your sensor.
Recently I got the chance to work with it and I like to share my experiences here
First impression
This conversion lens with 77mm thread comes in a sturdy and compact case. There are also two adapter rings in the door so that, in addition to lenses with a 77mm screw thread, it can also be used directly on your lenses with a 72 or 67mm screw thread.
The technical side: the NiSi Close Up Lens is made up of double optically correcting lens parts with an apochromatic design. It is coated to display optimal resolution without purple/green edges (errors due to chromatic aberration). The final result is influenced by the lens you use yourself and the advice is to use it on lenses with APO or ED glass.
If you use it on a lens that many photographers own, the 70-200m lens, the magnification at 200mm is almost 1 to 1. The working distance, very important not to disturb butterflies or to avoid cast shadows on your subject, for example. is 22 to 30 centimeters.
You do get a nice soft bokeh when using this lens with an open aperture, but an aperture of f8 to f16 is recommended for some sharpness in your image.
The features at a glance:
- With the supplied adapter rings suitable for 77-72-67mm screw thread
- Double optical corrective lens parts
- apochromatic design
- Multi nano-coating for sharpness and color retention
- Almost no chromatic aberration
In practice
I have now tested the lens on two different combinations; a Full Frame camera, the Pentax K-1 with a 70-200/2.8 zoom lens.
In addition, the somewhat more exotic combination has been used; a Pentax 645Z medium format camera with a 300mm prime lens. On medium format, an enlargement of 1:1 always seems a bit smaller than on full frame because there is more space around your subject. So you need a somewhat stronger magnification to get a frame-filling subject. The 300mm lens helps with that.
Before use, you screw the NiSi Close Up Lens onto your existing lens (surprise! ;-)) and I immediately set the camera to manual focus. Of course your autofocus will continue to work if you wish, but I prefer to work manually to be able to make micro adjustments to, for example, the eye.
Before use, test what your working distance is. You lose your focus on infinity and of course you can't get too close. Do not do this on a shy subject, but in a place where you can move undisturbed.
After you know at what distance you can work, you determine your composition and you can get to work.
Working Distance & Aperture
After you have made a nice composition and the subject has been focused, you determine the atmosphere and sharpness in your photo.
As mentioned before, for optimal sharpness it is important to stop down considerably. Working with an open aperture is of course also possible, your image will then quickly become very nice and soft with a beautiful bokeh.
As you can see from the two images above, the magnification of this handy lens is fine. With regular lenses and somewhat longer focal lengths, nice close-up images can be made that at first glance are not inferior to regular macro lenses.
Macro lenses are often the sharpest lenses in their range for every manufacturer and this NiSi Close Up Lens in combination with your existing lens obviously cannot compete with that. Nevertheless, the performance is impressive. Below you see two cut-outs of the original in full size.
With this product, NiSi has put a nice alternative on the market for the novice macro photographer. Would you like to gain experience with macro photography in a relatively inexpensive way? Then this is a great product to get started with. The suggested retail price of €150 is very reasonable for a lens of this quality.
Below you can see a number of examples that I have made with this combination. Let's be honest, they look pretty nice for a non-dedicated macro combination, don't they?!
I will not use it as my favorite macro lens myself, but it has now been given a permanent place in my photo bag. It happens quite often that the real macro lens stays at home. This tool then enables me to make a good quality close-up.
Because the NiSi Close Up Kit has an excellent price-quality ratio, I have no hesitation in recommending it. You can order from me if you wish Online store, but you can of course also try it out at one of my workshops
