Using a Close-Up Lens

A close-up lens is a lens that lets you fill the frame with a very small subject. It does so by magnifying the tiny subject so you can easily get the super-macro photography. Think of it as a high-performance magnifying glass.
If you have a lens or camera with a large minimum focusing distance even in macro mode, your close-up (macro) photography will be limited. Getting close enough to the subject to fill the frame puts the subject out of focus.
The solution? A close-up lens added to your camera or housing. A close-up lens for a camera looks a bit like a filter or a lens protector-it screws on the end of the lens. A close-up lens for your housing mounts on the front port the same way a wide-angle conversion lens mounts on the housing.
Once you've attached a close-up lens, you'll find that it does magnify your subject. It also reduces the depth of field, which makes it harder to get a precise focus on your subject. There's an advantage to a reduced depth of field, though: items in front of and behind the subject are thrown out of focus, producing an attractive blur that calls attention to the in-focus subject.

If you add a close-up lens to a housed camera with a zoom lens, you can use the zoom for different amounts of magnification. When you zoom in, you can fill the frame with a small subject, yet maintain a reasonable distance so you don't scare the subject away. When you zoom out, you can get more of the surroundings into the picture.
The picture on the left was shot with a close-up lens and the zoom lens zoomed all the way out to wide-angle. The result is still a magnified subject (two anemonefish), but it gets more of the surroundings into the picture. You could, of course, move closer to fill the frame, but you'd probably scare the fish away. The picture on the right was shot with a close-up lens and the zoom lens zoomed all the way in to telephoto. The result fills the frame with a single anemonefish and captures its expression. The telephoto setting lets you stay far enough away when you shoot that you don't scare the fish away.

Most digital cameras have a built-in macro mode function that lets you get closer to your subject than you would without the function. The quality of the macro mode varies from camera to camera, though. For example, the SEA&SEA 3000G, 5000G, 8000G, and 1G cameras have a macro mode that let you get within a half inch (one centimeter) of your subject for impressive magnification. Other cameras may not allow you to get any closer than two to four inches (five to ten centimeters). This is fine for relatively large subjects, but won't get good results for small subjects an inch in size or smaller. Adding a close-up lens will significantly magnify the tiny subject so you can get right on your subject in the frame.
A close-up lens also helps you capture timid subjects like gobies and tidepool gunnels that dart away if you get too close-it magnifies even at a distance.
You can use a close-up lens's reduced depth-of-field for artistic effect by blurring foreground and background while leaving your subject in focus.

You'll find that a close-up lens goes far beyond the capabilities of a built-in macro function to open up a whole new world of macro photography.

Click here for product information about a close-up lens for the DX-860G housing.

*If you mount the close-up lens on your housing on land before you get in the water, there may be bubbles trapped behind it once you're in the water. Make sure all bubbles are out before shooting by loosening the lens or lightly shaking it once in the water. Look closely at the lens to see if there are any bubbles behind it before you shoot.