Feedback on Saga +25 Diopter

Does anyone have & has used the Saga +25 diopter? I'm tempted to buy it, but would love to get some feedback on it before making the purchase.

For reference, I use a Nikon D7000 in an Aquatica housing. When doing macro I use a 60mm lens & have both +5 & +10 diopters. I'm interested in the Saga +25 diopter for my trip to Indonesia in September because I want to take pictures of Costasiella kuroshimae (aka Shaun) where it takes up my entire screen. I want the grain of sand nudibranch to look huge.

It sounds as if you're already pretty experienced at ultra-macro photography. But before you buy such a powerful diopter, it might be worth reviewing the Wetpixel video on the subject.

Both Alex and Adam express the view that many people buy diopters that are too strong when they really only need less powerful closeup lenses.

I'm headed for Raja Ampat during the off season in August and plan to take only +2.3 and +6 diopters with me. But then again, I'm not after a particularly small subject like yours!

I would also add that the 60mm macro lens focuses very close already, If you look at the Nauticam port charts for example it shows that with the CMC-1, which a diopter in +12 to +15 range, the lens focuses between 4 and 73mm so at maximum magnification the port glass is only 4mm from the subject. Even then it only achieves 1.4x.  Here is the port chart:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X1uYeBYEo3aa7k0G4fWQA9pGjgSPW95G/view

I know you don't have Nauticam diopters or housings but they all operate on the same principle, that is they allow the lens to focus closer, they don't magnify the image.

I expect even with your +10 diopter which is close a CMC-2 in power and the 60mm you are limited by how close you can get to your subject rather than any limitation in your optics.  That is to stay you can't practically achieve the theoretical maximum magnification of the current setup as getting in close enough to do that and light the subject is too difficult.  To get more magnification than you currently have I'm afraid the only real option is a 105mm macro lens.  You will get around 2.5x out of that lens with a +15 range diopter and 53mm working distance at maximum magnification.  If you go that way I would start with the +10 diopter you have before buying anything stronger.

Thank you both for the feedback!

While I have a 105mm lens, I don't particularly like it & find it hard to work with. So I didn't really consider just how close I'd have to get with the 60mm lens & if I'd even be able to work a strobe into that distance. I also would be paying almost $400 for a lens that I would use for a very limited purpose. I think I'll stick with the +5 & +10 diopters for now. They're quite versatile.

2 hours ago, aeweems12 said:

Thank you both for the feedback!

 

While I have a 105mm lens, I don't particularly like it & find it hard to work with. So I didn't really consider just how close I'd have to get with the 60mm lens & if I'd even be able to work a strobe into that distance. I also would be paying almost $400 for a lens that I would use for a very limited purpose. I think I'll stick with the +5 & +10 diopters for now. They're quite versatile.

You could always try stacking the diopters, the +10 and  +5 together make a +15 diopter, you might squeeze a little more magnification out, though depending on the exact diopters you have  image quality might suffer a little.  I'd also suggest if you find the 105mm difficult, then adding diopters is not going to be any easier.

On 6/30/2023 at 9:04 PM, aeweems12 said:

Thank you both for the feedback!

 

While I have a 105mm lens, I don't particularly like it & find it hard to work with. So I didn't really consider just how close I'd have to get with the 60mm lens & if I'd even be able to work a strobe into that distance. I also would be paying almost $400 for a lens that I would use for a very limited purpose. I think I'll stick with the +5 & +10 diopters for now. They're quite versatile.

Why don't you like the 105? Is it because of slow focus speed? The D850 focuses using the 105mm almost as fast as my older Nikon focused with the 60.