Camera Labs

Gordon, I am curious whether you used autofocus or manual focus. I used autofocus.

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Frank

Hi Frank, I used manual focus.

One thing you might want to try is manually turning the focus ring to the furthest point, then gradually move closer to your target until it's in focus.

Gordon

Thanks Gordon. I will try it.

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Frank

I already tried all of the above. Doesn't help me get any closer...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

My first tests reveal, that you need a +5 (diopters, equiv. focal length 200mm) close-up lens, to half the reproduction ratio of the 18-200mm Nikkor to about 1:2.
So, to get to 1:1 you probably need a +10 macro lens. It is not easy to get a good quality macro lens like this!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Ha!
Thinking of those guys saying that the focal length of this lens is reduced considerably when focusing close, I just tried the same close-up lens with the 18-200 Nikkor zoomed out to 200mm BUT with the focus at infinity.
Guess what happens: I get a reproduction rate of nearly 1:1!
This one is really wild: While you focus closer the repro-rate is reduced

It's easy to understand once you have accepted that at the closest focussing distance of the 18-200mm Nikkor at 200mm (approx. 50cm) the focal length of the lens is only about 65mm!
So you can get pretty close to 1:1 repro-rate with a +4 close-up lens, but don't forget to focus to infinity!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses