Pentax-DA 1.4x AW AF Rear Converter

Macro Photography

The close focusing distance of a lens remains the same with and without the rear converter. As an example, the closest focusing distance of the D FA 100mm macro lens is 30 cm (11.8 inches). This yields a magnification of 1x (life-size) when the lens is used without the rear converter. With the rear converter, the magnification increases to 1.4x lifesize, since we now effectively have a 140mm lens with a close focusing distance of 30 cm.

Boosting macro magnification is a very useful feature of a rear converter. It requires the converter to be of good quality, of course. The HD Pentax-DA 1.4x Rear Converter fits the bill.

To illustrate this use of the converter we photographed an HO model railway car from a distance of 30 cm with and without the rear converter attached to the D FA 100mm WR lens. We shot at ISO 100 with a Pentax K-3.

To provide a sense of scale we first show the scene with a coin the size of 25 US cents. The images were not cropped (but were reduced in resolution). Click any thumbnail to enlarge and browse:

The scene
With rear converter, F11	Without rear converter, F8

The car was shot from a slight angle so due to the very narrow depth of field the bottom part of the text is rendered out of focus even at F11 and F8, respectively (we focused manually on "36 Pl").

Conclusion

The Pentax-DA rear converter is suitable for boosting magnification in macro shots without any discernible degradation of image quality.