something. Many of them are manufactured in an attempt to bring
macro lenses that have less than a one-to-one reproduction ratio
up to that standard: 1:1. It is no secret that macro shooters prefer a
lens that can reach 1:1, meaning the size of the image on your
sensor is the same as that of the subject itself. Very few fine macro
lenses can do this without help and helping them with add-ons is
really no help at all. I own almost all of these and have tried each of
them. It would be more correct to say that I have tried to try them
and have been fairly disgusted at every turn with the results. So I
have little to nothing positive to say about these add-ons except if
the lens manufacturer had wanted this kind of enhancement they
would have included it. A better way to say it is that I have never
seen any of these devices that improved the quality of a lens.
Invariably they degrade lens quality and it is obvious by just trying it
out.
Lenses are carefully made and balanced to the nth degree just to
make them as good as they are. To add on something else is like
throwing a piece of lead on a scale that is perfectly balanced. It is
suddenly unbalanced. Yes I have bought them because I am the
kind of person who has to see for myself the effect of these things
thinking that perhaps I could fiddle them into being worthwhile, but
in this case it did not happen. My opinion is that you are much
better off using a lens just as it is instead of trying to make it
perform beyond its reach. Sure, you get photos, but something
precious is lost, at least in my experience. I am not going to spend
a lot of time of these, but I will go over the basics just so you know.