Raynox DCR 250 problems

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kabalman

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I just got a Raynox DCR 250 yesterday and was excited to try out some shots with it. I took it to the garden on a cloudy evening, mounted my Nikon 70-300mm VR lens on the Nikon D3000 and the DCR-250 on the lens. I used a aperture of f/22, tried to focus with the lens on full zoom at 300mm, on a flower at a distance of about 1 metre, but could only see a blurry image on the view finder. No matter how hard I try to focus (both using auto focus and manual focus), I can't find a clear image of the subject on the view finder. By this I mean, if I focus on a yellow flower, I can see a blurry yellow shadow, it doesn't even have the shape of a flower petal. I am beginning to wonder if it is a defective DCR 250 piece, as my Nikon lens has been amazingly good. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? Please help.
 
You have to be a lot closer than 1 metre
Between 10 and 25cm away from the subject is distance you'll need to focus with the raynox.

Then you have to focus by moving the camera backwards or forwards slowly until it's focussed.
 
As squishy says, my technique when I had a 150 was to switch the camera to manual focus and turn the focus ring so its roughly half way on the scale. Using the viewfinder or liveview, position your camera a distance away from your subject where it appears roughly in focus and secure your tripod in that position. I should mention at this stage that if you find that you are too close and missing some of your subject, repeat the above at a different focal length. Once your tripod is set up, open the aperture right up (helps with focussing in dim light) and switch to live view. Zoom right in to a point in your subject that you want in sharp focus (e.g and insect's eye) and adjust your focus by hand until its dead sharp. Because you positioned the focus ring half way earlier, you have a bit of adjustment either side. When you're happy with your focus, close the aperture up as far as you like and fire away. Takes a bit of practice but some great results are possible.
 
with my250 i always have to manual focus, dof is so shallow, but you can get some amazing results, but yeah you need to be really close.
 
Thanks all for your suggestions. I tried using Raynox DCR-250 mounted on my Nikon 18-55 kit lens inside the house and was able to finally focus on some small household objects. Still finding it difficult to focus using my 70-300 lens, but will need to wait till tomorrow to try it outdoors. One question, do you always try and zoom the lens to the telephoto end when using DCR-250?
 
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