Close-up and Macro Photography
by Chuon-Szen Ong

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If you are thinking about trying out macro photography for the very first time, I would strongly advise to start by using existing equipment, especially if lenses with some macro capabilities are already in your inventory, and move on to possibly getting one of the close-up attachment lenses.

In some cases you will be able to achieve up to full 1:1 life-size capabilities straight away with just one close-up lens attachment. These close-up attachment lenses work in the principle of placing a magnifying lens element in front of the camera lens to increase the size of the image projection. If a higher level of magnification is required, a second or third close-up lens attachment can be stacked one on top of the other. This is about the least expensive option to get your feet wet in macro photography and should you decide that close-up work is not quite your cup of tea, this initial outlay would be much more bearable compared to spending hundreds of dollars on specialized lenses. There will however be an obvious compromise in the image quality if you compare this sort of a set-up with a true macro lens.

There are a total of 7 different close-up attachment lenses from Nikon. These are the No. 0, No. 1, No. 2, 3T, 4T, 5T and 6T close-up attachments. They have different magnification values (also known as "diopters") and fit two different thread sizes, namely the 52mm (No. 0, No. 1, No. 2, 3T & 4T) and 62mm (5T & 6T) sizes.