Backscatter +10 close-up or +15 macromate

[vixtor]

Hello,
I was looking at ways to film with a little bit of zoom underwater, in order to magnify some smaller subjects and I found two options from Backscatter:

FLIP FILTERS 55mm +10 Close-Up Lens for GoPro 3, 3+, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

FLIP FILTERS 55mm +10 Close-Up Lens for GoPro 3, 3+, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11: The Flip +10 Close-Up works great for shooting subjects sized from soccer balls down to golf balls that are roughly 8-12 inches from the camera. Our staff favorite macro configuration is a FLIP5 with both a +15...

www.backscatter.com

+15 MacroMate Mini Underwater Macro Lens for GoPro HERO 3, 3+, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

+15 MacroMate Mini Underwater Macro Lens for GoPro HERO 3, 3+, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11: Stunning underwater macro footage. The design team at Backscatter spent more than a year perfecting the ultimate macro lens for GoPro. Watch the video below to see razor-sharp macro images and open a new...

www.backscatter.com

The MacroMate seems to film amazing macro for very small critters, but as I understand, it requires you to get very close (like 10-15cm) and keep it fixed on a tripod for good results. This could work for unaware actors like nudibranches, sea anemones and snails, but anything else will be scared already at this distance.

From this point of view, the +10 Close-up Lens sounds better - you don't need to get as close, and it will not zoom that much, but just a little bit (if I understand correctly - as my experience with photo and zoom lenses is close to zero). So the smaller fish will be bigger in the frame, and you will get more details, while not scaring them away by getting too close. But for some reason, there aren't any posts here about the +10 Close-up lens and I wonder what is the reason? Isn't it good enough, isn't it meant to be used underwater, is it a bad idea for some reason I don't get right now?

Thanks,
Victor

 

[S7ewie]

I'm debating the same thing at the moment. Love my GoPro but the footage is blurry for close up stuff so I'm looking at getting these.

To my understanding, you can get both with the double flip housing and use them individually or together if needed? So I think I might do that to have total freedom but your theory sounds about right.

 

[Hatul]

I have my Macromate on GoPro 9 and have used it successfully filming nudibranchs and sea anemones and starfish handheld with no tripod.

 

[vixtor]

I have received the +10 lens. Above water, it behaves as expected - it can focus at ~20cm (i was able to film a fly taking off and the wings are pretty clear). From this point of view, it is what I hoped it to be (focus at a larger distance than the Macromate, for shy creatures which are able to hide). As soon as the weather will get better, I will test it underwater as well.

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

So...one of the reasons I did not get a macromate was the requirement that the GoPro be pre-set to a narrow field of view (fov). Which, is fine for those who can easily swap between narrow and wide angle. Swapping is easily done out of the water using the GoPro's touch screen but potentially much harder underwater.

I went with a different, though custom system that uses 58mm stacked diopters and flip filter attachment. It doesn't require flipping back and forth between wide angle and narrow. It's worked pretty well so far and far cheaper than GoPro's macromate.

 

[Captain Flipper]

Sure Squintsalot, what is the custom system you are using? It sounds like it might be a better set up than the Backscatter system.

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

Sure Squintsalot, what is the custom system you are using? It sounds like it might be a better set up than the Backscatter system.

After 2 months of waiting for the correct parts, which never came, I had to cobble together something fast, before my trip to the Red Sea.

I knew that stacking a couple of cheap camera diopters worked reasonably well for my purposes. I paid about $12 on ebay for a full set of of 58mm diopters consisting of a +10, +4, +2, and +1. I also knew (through extensive testing) that stacking the +10 and the +4 provided the best, most efficient magnification without too much loss of resolution and vignetting.

Originally, I'd glued a threaded adapter to the GoPro underwater housing and just screwed the diopters on when underwater. Sure, that worked, but threading them on and off underwater was a pain in the ass. On the last day of my trip to the Philippines, the diopter stack fell out of my pocket during a dive, never to be seen again. I knew that the ideal set-up was a firmly attached hinged system that swung onto and off the GoPro lens as needed.

My cheapo, last minute solution was to use a make-up case to hold the diopters and glue the contraption to the housing. Because the plastic hinge was super crappy, I had to finagle a clasp to hold it in place in front of the lens:

When unclasped, the lens swings down and out of the way:

Finding the correct makeup case was actually a bigger deal than I thought it would be, but it only cost $6 and my dignity at Walgreens. Waterproof caulk/adhesive was used to glue the unit to the housing, which worked great. That crappy plastic hinge eventually broke, when handing the camera on to the zodiac on my last dive of my liveaboard week.

The large diopter completely covers the GoPro and UW housing lens eliminating the need to switch the view angle frome wide to narrow within the GoPro itself. This, I think, is actually a pretty big deal.

My last build will use the correct metal filter/diopter holder with a legit, well tensioned hinge....very expensive at $22!

 

[zd2023]

This is genius. Do you have links to the parts you're going to use for your masterpiece?