Another Macro question (sorry!)

Doddy1974

Doddy1974

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I am really intrigued by macro photography, but really have no clue as to what I need!

Tubes...what are the proper names for these, how much are they and are they effective?
Can I use my kit lens (i have 18-55 and 75-300)?

With the use of these lenses, how close up can I expect to get?
With proper Macro lenses, how much dosh are we talking about, and are they only useful for macro togging, or can they be used for other shots?

TIA
 
With your kit lenses, you'll find that the quality really falls off when you add extension tubes. A good way of getting close up with little financial outlay is to buy supplementary close-up lenses. They come in dioptres - +1, +2, +4 etc. You will see even +10D, but give such high power a miss unless you buy the expensive versions - the chromatic aberration will be horrendous.

Supplementary close-up lenses are very convenient, just screw them on to the front of your camera lens like you would a filter and they allow you to move in on the subject. Stop down to f8 or f11 and away you go.
 
There are guys on here with waaaaaaaaaaaay more knowledge than me, but I'll try my best here but some of it may be a load of crap :D

Tubes - these are extension tubes, I think most people use Kenko tubes as they're decent quality and you can pick up a set of 3 for reasonably cheap (I've seen them as cheap as £70 but you may have to pay a bit more than that!) - available in all the usual places. Can be used with your kit lens to give it better macro capabilities or with a proper macro lens to get you even closer in.

Advantages of using a proper macro lens over your kit lens with tubes - main one I think is in aperture - most macro lenses are f2.8, your kit lens probably is probably 3.5-5.6 and that's without tubes which will take another couple of stops off. You need a lot of light for good macro shots so that's not a good thing. I think image quality will be better with a proper macro rather than kit lens and tubes although that obviously depends on a variety of other factors.

For a proper macro lens the price probably varies too much to give a specific figure. I think you can pick up a canon 100mm for about £400, a sigma 105 for a little less or a Canon 100m L for about £700- check camerapricebuster.co.uk to get a reasonable idea.

Depending on the length, they can make very good portrait lenses too - around the 100mm mark is good for that.

The absolute ultimate for really close up macro is the MP-E 65 - gives you up to 5x magnification but may set you back the best part of about a grand :D

Hope this helps (and that I haven't got anything majorly wrong)... :lol:
 
Thankyou for your replies :)

The Close up lenses sound like what i might like to go for...are they just called Close-Up lenses?
 
Also, worth mentioning is that the extremely shallow depth of field can be very challenging - even frustrating!
Typically with macro you are looking a literally a few millimetres DOF. You can around this with focus stacking (where you take several images - each with different areas of the subject in focus and combine them into a single image). Never tried this myself, so cannot comment on how easy/difficult the stacking process is.
The problem here is if your subject is a bug/fly then (if they are alive) they will be moving around.
 
Doddy1974 said:
Thankyou for your replies :)

The Close up lenses sound like what i might like to go for...are they just called Close-Up lenses?
Click to expand...
Yes, they are. I have a set of HOYA ones - they look just like standard screw on filters but with a piece of convex glass instead of a flat piece. Good, cheap way of getting into macro. If you're hooked you can get yourself a proper macro lens. Don't be fooled by zoom lenses claiming to have macro capabilities - more often than not they just focus a bit closer that normal. You need to be looking at fixed focal length lenses called MACRO. The Tamron SP 90mm is a good piece of glass. Secondhand prices c. £150
 
Do Macro lenses zoom in on the subject, or do you have to get close to the subject then adjust the focus? This is probably a really silly question, but the way I did macro with the P&S camera was to get close then focus!
 
Doddy1974 said:
Do Macro lenses zoom in on the subject, or do you have to get close to the subject then adjust the focus? This is probably a really silly question, but the way I did macro with the P&S camera was to get close then focus!
Click to expand...

Best to set your lens on 1:1 or 1:2 etc and move back and forth til the subject is in focus.
 
You can start with some cheap close up lenses on your 15-55mm kit lens and get reasonable results.

But a good reasonable alternative is a set of Kenko DG AF tubes and a "Nifty Fifty."

Buying S/H on here would probably cost about £140 in all and you can get good results without spending a fortune:


4032796615_fa65e43eb5.jpg

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That pic was taken using the onboard flash in daylight.

Large pic here:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/4032796615_26efa6305a_o.jpg

.
 
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