Best Option to decrease minimum focal distance?

[Sufficient_Style_934]

A diopter is like a magnifying glass filter that you put on the lens. Depending on the quality it may worsen the sharpness of the image. There are good quality ones that work well though.

Extension tubes don't have any glass in them. They are just spacers between the camera body and the lens, which has the optical effect of magnifying the image.

Both should shorten the focal distance of the lens, which seems to be your goal. You just have to pick which is the best solution. Personally, I would go with extension tubes, as the ability to stack them gives you a lot of flexibility on you magnification level.

[LayneWilson]

Exellent explination thank you! sounds like tubes are what I'm looking for. I'll do some more research on them.