Customer Reviews

Bower FPC52 Digital High-Definition 52mm Polarizer Filter

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not too bad for a cheap set of filters. I'd like to shake the hand of the genius who thought to include the lens cap since the standard Nikon cap goes too deep when affixed, and could potentially scratch the filters.

The resolution on these is actually better than I expected.

Unfortunately, they don't work on my 55-200mm VR lens, but I didn't expect them to (bummer. I wanted that VR to really help). However, they do work great on my non-VR 18-55mm kit lens. Keep in mind, if stacked, they will cause some serious vignetting at the 18mm end --it's to be expected at the wide-angle, and if you really want to, crop it out, but I find it clears at around 20-25mm.

All-in-all, I'd say this is a good product for the price, and if nothing else, this series of filters is a good alternative to dumping a mountain of money on one of the upper-end macro lenses out there for people who just want to play around with macro photography.

I enjoy taking higher resolution closeups of things I create. The three lenses and lense cap were what I hoped for without spending a high amount.
I've been able to take pictures without a tripod under natural lighing outdoors or under florscent lights indoors.

Cheap and wonderful. I use these with a Nikon D40 SKR and they are great. Honest.

This product is great, it's not exactly what I expected, but that was my fault for not understanding. It does what it says that it does. I have taken many pictures with these. They don't work when my camera is on auto-focus, but that is fine. Great Item! Thanks!

Don't let the low price fool you, this is a well made close-up lens set. I'm glad I purchased them.

This review is for the Bower FC37 (37mm) +1, +2 & +4 macro lens kit with a 45mm to 37mm Bower adapter tube that I use on a Sony DSC-S75 digital 3.3 mega pixel camera.

See the picture posted above of a nickel which was taken using the +4, +2 and +1 in combination (+7 total). The original picture size is 2048 x 1536 pixels, the maximum size on my camera.

The camera was set at .1 meter focus (the closest setting) with maximum telephoto zoom. The depth of field is very shallow so several pictures were taken at various distances to get one perfectly in focus.

I screw on the highest power lens first (i.e., closest to the camera lens) and the next highest power into that one to avoid vignetting.

This lens kit and adapter tube adds considerable macro capability to the camera for a minimal price. I would not buy a non-interchangeable lens camera without threads for an adapter tube and macro lenses.

I've had a lot of fun using these macro filters. I bought them specifically for the Canon EF 50mm f1.8, which is why I got the 52mm size. The kit is nice and compact, and the filters come in a nice little holder which easily fits in your camera bag or a pocket. The filters screw onto the front of your lens, and you can easily stack them to increase the magnification they provide. I have managed to take some great shots of flowers and insects, and they are also useful for taking product shots in a macro studio at home.

However, some things to keep in mind:
- light and depth of field: you need a high shutter speed to keep things sharp in macro photography. That means you need a lot of light to reach the camera sensor. The easiest way to do this without affecting image quality is to open up the aperture (the 50mm lens I use with these opens all the way up to 1.8). However, that will cause your depth-of-field to be extremely shallow. If you close your aperture to increase the depth-of-field, that causes the shutter speed to increase, leading to shaky pictures. How to deal with this? My approach has been two-fold: 1) use a tripod. This will remove the shake caused by you hand holding the camera. 2) Use a flash. This will provide enough light to allow a higher shutter speed to capture the moving subject. I recommend using an off-camera flash for this.
- filter size. The 52mm size fits the 50mm lens I use for macro shots, but that can be limiting. Specifically, I have two other lenses which have 58mm and 67mm filter sizes. So, if you are planning to buy macro filters you might consider buying the largest size you'll need, and then using a step-down adapter to fit them on your lenses with a smaller filter size.

Overall, these are a great tool for photography, and are a fantastic deal when compared to a stand-alone macro lens.

I use the lens cap and cap keeper all the time. This alone is worth the purchase price. The closeup lens kit produces OK photos, but the photos must be cropped as there is distortion at the edges. That's OK using a 12 megapixel DSLR camera, because there is plenty of detail still left when the distorted part of the photo is removed using Photoshop or an equivalent program.