Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro Snap-On Lens

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I love this adapter! It has been a wonderful way to step in to macro photography without the high price of a dedicated macro lens. It is also so much easier than dealing with extension tubes, because you dont have to unscrew anything from your camera. It just pops on and off. It is also much more compact, so easier to store and travel with. The other day I was taking pictures of dandelions, and my daughter told me she saw a zebra swallowtail, which I had been hoping to get a picture of. If I had extension tubes on my camera, I would have had to unscrew everything, screw a new lens on, and scramble to take the picture. With this, I just popped the adapter off and ran to find the butterfly, which I did, and was very happy. :) I am certain I would have missed out with tubes. Another benefit is that it works with pretty much any camera. I have a Nikon D3100 and was having a difficult time figuring out if the connections with many extention tubes would work with my camera. I dont have to worry about that with this. I still have full function with my camera. I can use it with any and all of my lenses for different macro magnifications. When using with my 55-200mm lens, I found that I can get up to 1.6:1 magnification ratio when fully zoomed at 200mm. Of course, the image looses some clarity at that point, which is the case without the adapter on as well. I have noticed that there is high chromatic aberration with high contrast pictures. This is probably the biggest downfall for me. Sometimes the aberration can be quite noticeable and distracting, and difficult to edit out. However, I do not have any experience with other types of macro equipment, so I cannot compare this to others. The DOF field is EXTREMELY thin, especially when pushing it to its limits. If you want to get a wider DOF you will need to learn focus stacking. But again, I think that is the case with macro in general when you get to this power. All in all, I LOVE it. I have been having so much fun taking pictures of flowers, bugs, coins, other random things. It has opened up a whole new world of stuff to take pictures of, right in my own home and yard. :) I have added some pictures to this review. None of these were cropped to appear larger.

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After seeing the awesome things i could do with the Raynox Dcr-150 i decided i NEED to get the 250 version before more people discover these and the price starts to go up, while the depth of field is much narrower than the 150 the magnification gives me near microscopic capabilities with my camera, very well made and versatile, i found i had no problem using this in conjunction with my Aperture Pro Light Ring, the glass is excellent quality and i have seen zero chromatic aberrations with either the 250 or the 150 models!

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I am using this Macro lens on a Nikon Coolpix P610. It does a great job of increasing the macro capability of the camera. It is easy to snap onto the camera with the spring loaded teeth that operate much like the lens cap that comes with the camera. The kit comes as a snap on mount plus the lens, which screws into the mount. The mount and lens can be used on any lens with threads from 52mm to 67mm. The lens works especially well with the zoom capability on the P610 or cameras like it.

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Ive been practicing using this macro lens since last week. Im new to macro photography and only a basic user of my Nikon P900 (meaning that I do pretty much everything via "scene" settings or the ones that come on the top dial. Ive not yet learned how to do manual settings or adjustments of any kind. Its been a challenge getting clear macro photos. Im sure some of that is because I dont know how to manually set the camera, Im not using a tripod, and I specifically got this lens because Im interested in iris photography (as well as other subjects). I started with my animals which means Im dealing with a moving subject. The attached images are a tad blurry but, as a beginner, Im happy with them even though I have room for improvement. I do not blame the lens, and think that eventually, Ill become more skilled at producing the crisp images this lens is capable of.

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This lens is sharp and I am glad I purchased it. Do know that with certain lenses you might get strong vignetting. I purchased a 80-210 Minolta F4 (Beercan) thinking this would be a great lens for this clip on giving me a nice zoom range. Unfortunately the vignetting was so strong it was mostly unusable at anything but 70mm and 210mm. It does work great on my Minolta 135 3.5 lens, see picture attached. EDIT: I want people to be aware that while this does fit a 49mm lens it is SUPER tight. I HIGHLY suggest you buy a step up ring to anything higher than 49 or youll risk breaking the tab which will make this item useless. It does say in the description 52mm to 67mm for a reason.

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For the price, it was an easy 5-star rating. As soon as I got this little wonder, it was out and attached to my Nikkor 50mm 1.8G and I was hunting down sugar ants. Dont panic when you first look through the lens and try to focus though, because this makes for an extremely short focal distance, and the DOF is very thin! Also, dont rely on auto-focus, as it struggles a bit (especially with moving subjects). Instead, find your photo, fine tune as you can manually, then REALLY fine tune by physically moving back and forth ever so slightly and SNAP! It only took a few tries to sort it all out and I got pictures I was quite happy with. THEN... I attached this to my Nikkor 70-300mm VR. At 200mm and 300mm, I was amazed at the details I was catching on these little critters! The DOF is even thinner at this range, so I was closing my aperture as much as possible (f40) and WOW! Thats all I will say. With a little more time getting used to this combo, Ill be grabbing some great macro shots until I work my way into an actual macro lens. And THEN, seeing the results others can get out of combining a macro lens with this jewel... lets just say whole new worlds will be explored! The build of this product was a little better than I expected as well, so its a win all-around.

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There seem to be a lot of macro enthusiasts out there and though it can be expensive to buy dedicated macro lenses, the Raynox is a good way to "test the waters" to see if youll really stay interested after a few days/weeks. Theres a lot to learn about photography in general and macro is definitely another area that can eat up all your time! As with many things there are a lot of good resources online for those who wantto learn. Dedicated macro lenses for DSLRs can generally range from $500 and up (Im talking about 1:1 macro, not zoom lenses that say macro but only do 1:3 or 1:4). The Raynox DCR-250 is a good way to adapt your current lenses to allow for closer focus distance with higher magnification (achieving close to 1:1 or in some cases greater). Note, at these close distances, you will probably need to manually focus (and by manual, this may mean focusing to infinity and slowly moving forwards and backwards until you get a "slice" in focus). Depth of field becomes extremely shallow as well so youll need to use smaller apertures (higher F-stop number) to get more of the small item in focus. Since a small aperture opening means less light, a flash will definitely help as well, thought broad daylight shooting is possible. Installation is as easy as taking off the front/back caps on the lens and clipping it onto a lens that fits. Some smaller lens openings can screw it directly on or use step up/down rings. If you have the macro "bug" but arent sure about shelling out about $1000 for that nice Sigma 150mm macro, try this and see if you keep using it, or if it starts to collect dust. Now thats not to say that this wont be useful once you pick up a dedicated macro lens! Sometimes its nice to travel light and this lets you keep you walkaround lens on and still take macro if you need to.

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I got the Raynox DCR-250 for my Canon PowerShot SX10 camera and I absolutely love it. It is the camera accessory that I use most often. It comes with a snap-on adapter that just simply snaps onto the lens of the SX10, no other adapter needed. If you already have a filter adapter for the SX10, it snaps on just the same. Very easy to add on and take off, plus small enough to just slip into a pocket while not in use. I needed something capable of taking images of things smaller than half a millimeter and this lens added onto my camera allows me to do just that without having to buy expensive macro equipment. In terms of magnification, it gets me roughly 0.66:1 on the sensor at full zoom. Since the sensor in the camera is so tiny, this would correspond to a 3.7:1 magnification on a 35mm equivalent. I have taken pictures with it that show the facets in a flys eye, the colored scales on a butterfly wing, pollen grains on a stamen, spores being released from a moss capsule, and individual cells in microscope slides of plant cross sections placed on a light table. There is a learning curve in how to use it due to two factors: 1) very shallow depth of field, and 2) vignetting at low zoom levels. You have to find the right combination of zoom and distance from the subject to get the best results. You might also need some additional light or set the camera on a tripod to avoid camera shake. I usually take a lot of pictures, varying the distance between camera and subject slightly, and select the best. Not every picture turns out in focus, but the ones that do make truly stunning photographs. Update: Also works well with the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS camera and almost gets up to true 1:1 image representation on the tiny sensor with that camera when making full use of the zoom. I took some pictures of microscope slides against a light box and added an example image to the product page. Based on a few quick tests, it would be possible to make prints at a decent 150 dpi resolution that would show up to 1:125 magnification over the original.

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Im using this item with a Nikon Coolpix P510 point/shoot camera where the lens cannot be swapped like a DLSR. Lense screws into the included body, then body clips onto the front of the camera lense like a lens cap. Pretty secure unless you bump it hard. Im mainly using this to shoot pics of coins in macro mode. The magnification truly does enhance the photo quality as well as allowing for a more distant focus range. See attached. If you shoot macro, this is a great budget way to improve your shots without having to be on top of the subject. Regardless, Im working on piecing together a bellows setup for my stationary macro needs for coins imaging.

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My last Raynox supplementary lens was from decades ago, disappointing. But this is NOT your fathers Raynox. Im stunned by the sharpness and ease of use, although the super macro capability takes some practice, very shallow depth of field and critical focus, all part of the macro world. This is a steal at $58. And, yes, I bought it, retired professional photographer, not a professional reviewer

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