Hi dennislim, hope you don't mind me posting reply here.
hmm... suggest you take a look at azone's website. it teaches most of the tricks that you'll need to know:
http://azone.clubsnap.org/insectguide/page01.html
2. use full zoom to achieve the best magnification. if you use a +4, your camera can only be ~25cm from the subject (whatever the focal length used under normal shooting mode. however if you use macro mode on the camera, a close-up allows you to get even closer).
3. you need to calculate using the formula, magnification effect (I don't know the exact name) = focal length / distance from subject (this applies whether or not you use macro mode, close-up filter, teleconverter or just the camera)
To achieve greater magnification, either increase focal length or decrease distance. If you're using 210mm focal length and a +4 close-up, focussing 250mm from subject, the degree of magnification is 210/250 or 0.84.
If you use a 350mm focal length, focussing at 1m away from the subject, the degree of magnification is only 350/1000 or 0.35, less than what you can achieve in the earlier example. To achieve a similar effect similar to a 210mm with +4, you'll need a 840mm focal length lens capable of focussing 1m from the subject.
dennislim wrote on 27-05-2003 09:10 PM:
hmmm ...
1) can i correctly say that ... when people take macro, they want a small subject (insects) to look as big as possible ? is that the term for macro ?
2) so when i take using say +4 close up, i just disable the macro mode in the camera and take the shot right ?
3) using teleconverter to take the subject from a further distace
and
using a close up lens to take the subject from a closer distance ...
will it be the same ?