Carry out this test with all the lenses you are likely to use for shooting close-ups or macro. If you are going to use accessories such as close-up lenses or extension tubes, then test these as well in the same way. If your camera refuses to fire or focus when switched back to AF, try moving slightly further away – if you are too close and therefore out of focus the camera will refuse to fire when shooting in One Shot AF.

ABOVE: On lenses without a focusing scale, the information is simply printed onto the lens barrel, normally on the underside. This lens has a closest focusing distance of 0.25m (0.8ft).

The closest focusing distance is often thought of as the distance from the front of the lens to the subject. However, it is actually measured from the focal plane, which is usually marked on the top of all Canon EOS cameras.

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1| Switch the lens to its manual focus (MF) setting – the switch is typically on the side of your lens (occasionally a button on camera or menu item).

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Your Canon lens will have a way of telling you of the closest focusing distance though, depening on the lens, this may be shown in a number of different ways.

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3| Start at what you think is the right distance away from your subject and gradually move yourself closer or further away until the subject looks sharp – do this without changing any setting on the lens. Then, without altering your distance from the subject, look to see how far away you are. Once you have taken a mental snapshot, put the lens back to its autofocus (AF) setting. Then, in future, you’ll know roughly how close you need to get to achieve the best possible magnification with your lens.

ABOVE: If your lens has a focusing scale, then the closest focusing measurement is shown when you turn the focusing ring as far to the right as possible. You will see two readings: one for feet (in green) and the other in metres (white).

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On most models this mark is in white (as below), though on some it is embossed into the body and is in the same colour as the body. The symbol remains the same. With mirrorless cameras, the focal plane is much closer to the lens than with an SLR camera – this is because of the absence of a mirror reflex assembly in mirrorless cameras, which is positioned in front of the sensor (or film) in SLR cameras.

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It is important to be able to visually gauge the distance you need to be from your subject to get the maximum magnification. There is a simple way to check this distance when you start shooting with a new lens.

2| Turn the focusing ring so that the lens is set to its closest focusing setting. (If using a zoom lens, make sure it’s at its longest focal length.)

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Canon tells you how close its lenses can focus, which is called the closest focusing distance. As the term suggests, this is the closest that the lens can be and still achieve focus on that subject. Any closer and the lens cannot achieve focus, either manually or automatically.

ABOVE: On macro lenses, the focusing scale provides extra information. As well as the minimum distance in feet and metres, it also shows the magnification ratio at that distance, marked in yellow, with the ratio 1: marked on the lens barrel to the left of the window.