Macro, Closeup +7, Closeup +10

Okay . . . I'm a little confused about something. What's the difference between a Macro filter (the kind that frequently come with Wide Angle lenses) and a Closeup +10 filter? I thought that a +10 and a Macro were the same, but I've seen them both sometimes in listings on things . . . are they the same? I'm looking at one set of lenses that come with a 2x teleconverter, a .5 wide, and a closeup +7 and a closeup +10. I was also looking at a set that had a 2x tele, .45 wide, and the other lens included was just listed as a "macro." I wasn't sure whether or not it had a +number.

Also . . . I'm debating between a .5x wide and a .45 wide, does anyone have any example pictures showing just how far of a difference there is? I also hear the photo quality is horrible using a wide converter . . . is that true? I know you'll get a lot of shape distortion but that can be corrected pretty easily in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. I know PSP has a special feature for it, not sure about PS. But yeah . . . how bad is the image quality?

A +10 closeup lens is getting down into the macro range, depending on what lens you use it on. On a 100 mm or longer lens it'll let you get to and beyond life size. +7's less strong.

Unless you're planning to use the wide adapters on a camera that doesn't support interchangeable lenses, I'd say that they'll both be pretty poor. But quality will be influenced by who made the lenses as well as by the strength.

I know that it's better to use actual wide lenses, but is the image quality really that bad on these wide converters? I've heard they're extremely blurry and don't produce good images.

How close could I get to something using a standard zoom (~35mm) using a +10? I've toyed around with +1, +2, and +4 a bit. I seemed to be able to get closer the further that I zoomed . . . but the way you described it, it seemed like I should be able to get closer with LESS zoom . . . as my SN shows, I'm totally new at photography, so maybe I'm understanding this a bit wrong.

Yes, it is - you'll commonly see horrible aberrations around the corners; cropping that out will get you back to where you were without the wide adapter, but with fewer pixels to work with.

The shorter a lens' f.l. is the greater the diopter (+1, +2, +4, +7, +10) you'll need to get to a given magnification. In general, with your camera's lens focussed at infinity you'll be able to focus at 1/diopter meters, so with a +1 on any lens you'll be focussed at 1 m; with a +10, at 10 cm (1/10 m). The longer the lens is the greater magnification you'll get at that given distance though.