Yesterday a friend lent me a closeup attachment for one of my zoom lenses so undertook a few experiments.

I wanted to see how a dedicated closeup lens attachment (Canon 500-D ) compared with a simple +2 diopter correction filter.
I found the short answers is ‘it depends’.

I only tested two lenses, 17-40 and 70-200 and the results were striking. Using the 17-40 I could not detect much of a difference between the close-up and the diopter. On the 70-200, the diopter was however unusable with really bad bokeh flaring while the closeup attachment was very good.

This image was made with the diopter and of one of my other favorite lenses..

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 595, Favorite Friend’ 2.5 f/8.0 ISO100 40mm+2