Customer Reviews

Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for 55mm Digital Camera Lenses -

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this lens to go with 35mm adapter and it works great. I also took some macro shot videos with this and it came out very clear. Very happy with this product.

If you are building a Depth Of Field adapter for your HV20/30/40 you want one of these. It cuts the zoom-in on the gg screen to basically nothing, and removes the barreling. This is all good if you are nuts enough to go hand held. They sent me the right one first time - no problems. YAY!

This lens is a great addition to any compact camera that has a fairly wide depth of field and accepts 55mm filters. It is not as good for SLR cameras with a naturally shorter depth of field, visibility becomes a few millimeters for them. For SLR users, I recommend Opteka 55mm Close-Up Set (+1, +2, and +4) with 10x Macro Lens. The diopters ("close up filters") will work on any lens type, and if you really want to try an Opteka macro lens, there is one included in the kit (although, slightly lower quality).

The lens has female 55mm threads and so does the camera. I found an adapter ring at thecamerahunter.com. Once installed on the camera it provided a clear image at approx 4".

Bottom line:
- Produces sharp close-up images.
- Dark outer ring means cropping.
- Easy and convenient to use.
- Sturdy.
- Good lens for a beginner or for shooting quickly & casually.
- Not a real, "professional" macro lens
- Cheap


For a year now, I've used my Opteka close-up lens with a 6 mp Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 camera. I like to take this camera along everywhere b/c it is light and adequate for casual use, and the Opteka lens seemed like an appropriate (cheap) match. I use the Opteka lens with the Panasonic lens adaptor (required) and a Bower 52-55 mm step-up ring. I leave the step-up ring on the lens even when it's off-camera.

Since I'm usually taking quick, casual shots in the field I just use auto-focus (which definitely has drawbacks), often with other automatic settings. TBH, I'm simply too lazy to fuss with settings much when I'm just taking a walk. That's also why I didn't choose the set of 4 rings.

With those caveats: This is a great little lens for a beginner to get some satisfying close-up shots. I was amazed when I was able to photograph details of insect faces and eyes, including sharp images of hairs, spikes, eyes, etc. Flowers also come out really well; you can capture the individual grains of pollen with no trouble. The quality of the lens itself seems to be generally good; the "working" section of the lens (the center) produces sharp, clear, undistorted images.

The lens is sturdy. I have used it heavily (some might say abused it). Sometimes I start out with the lens on my camera & if I see a not-so-close-up subject I take it off & put it into my pocket until I'm ready for it again - and although I have a soft pocket, I lost the lens cover & haven't replaced it yet. Still, no scratches or other damage have appeared.

On the down side, there is always a dark ring on the outside of my pictures so they have to be cropped. Occasionally the dark ring actually works well with an image, so I don't mind too much. Also, the images are of high enough quality that the cropping doesn't noticeably affect the resolution anyway, even with a 6 mP camera.

The lens doesn't work too well with the zoom and the autofocus together so I don't usually use the zoom and I try to get very close to my subjects instead. Pictures taken from more than a few inches away often (but definitely not always) come out blurry for that reason, but that's my choice.

If you want more flexibility & exceptional results you have to work for them. If you're shooting quickly and casually, you have to live with the limitations. However, I'd watch for that outer distortion even if I were using my good camera & working carefully with this lens. The distortion is extreme the way I use it, and I'd be surprised if it disappeared completely even when the lens was being used correctly.

Great little macro for the DIY DOF adapter. Does its job like it should. Theyre GRRREEEAAAAT!

I was frustrated for so long for not being able to take close up shots the way I wanted to because I was limited to the SONY lens that came with my A300 (I didn't have enough money at the time). Then, my dad was buying stuff for his camera and I asked him what he would recommend. Opteka was a brand someone had recommended for him. I am very satisfied with this product. I haven't taken too many pictures yet. I just took some test shots to see how close I could get. I was able to blow up a leaf that was half an inch wide to the size of a 3872 x 2592 JPEG image without a loss of detail. In all truthfulness, I'm surprised I'm able to get high quality at such a low price.

Lense converters are generally very problematic. They will never be a substitute for interchangeable lenses. That being said, I found this converter to be a surprisingly good way to extend my video camera's macro capability. Furthermore I found the the price to be very inexpensive.

But do bear in mind that as with any lense converter, they depend upon many aspects of both the converter as well as the original lense for good results. Therefore what works well with one camera might not work so well with another.

One good rule of thumb. Whatever converter you buy should be larger than the thread sizes of your camera. Vignetting is an almost universal problem with converters. If you get a larger converter than your lens will allow, but use a step-up ring adapter, this greatly reduces this problem.

This was a great add-on to my camera set. I like to take pictures of details on flowers and other wildlife. This helped to increase the detail and accuity of the picture. Great Service, great product, great review!

i built a depth of field adaptor and this item was needed it is perfect for my needs. super duper fast shipping