Close up/Macro plant lens

rocafreestyler

rocafreestyler

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Hi

I was hoping someone would be able to help. My father is looking into getting a Canon 600D the same camera I have enabling us to swap lenses etc.

He mainly uses the camera for taking close up shots of plants in the wild. His main interest is the plants and flowers the photography comes as an aid to this interest. Obviously the plants will move a little in the wind but can usually be held still and he doesn't have the worry of the subject flying off or scuttling away.

I have very little knowledge on the subject and have no idea what is a "good" lens and whats not but. Anyone suggestions on a lens would be great, and something under 150 quid mark would be ideal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by myself and my father.

Cheers
 
The price limit makes things difficult... but there's a Canon 50mm f2.5 "Macro" at Ffordes for £179...

http://www.ffordes.com/product/11070617411581

It's not a true macro without the lifesize adapter but I have one and it's a good lens, sharp, small and compact and quite good for flower shots.
 
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rocafreestyler said:
Hi

I was hoping someone would be able to help. My father is looking into getting a Canon 600D the same camera I have enabling us to swap lenses etc.
Click to expand...

It doesnt need to be a 600D for you to swap lenses, any Canon EOS can do that and any crop(400D, 450D, 500D, 550D, 600D, 40D, 50D, 60D) from the past few years can take EF-S lens if you wanted to save money for a lens.

It depends how close he wants to get, if its just a bit more than say the kit lens can do then extension tubes or a screw in lens can help although they do I believe mean you can't focus on anything distant while there on. The 50mm macro mentioned that gives you 2:1(image on the sensor is half real size).

A real macro is generally considered to be a lens that gives 1:1 magnifation(so say 5mm in real life is 5mm on your sensor) so even pretty small flowers can be made to fill the shot. With Canon the cheapest options are the 60mm EF-S macro(around £250 used like here) or the 100mm EF macro thats around £330. The main difference between them is that to get the maxmimum magnifcation of the 60mm the subject needs to be about 4 inches away from the front of the lens where as with the 100mm its about 6 inches so less chance of shading/knocking into it. When you magnifying to that degree then a tripod starts to become much more important to get steady shots aswell.

Third party manifacturers also make a few macro lenses that are a little cheaper than the Canon but most of them don't focus internally, meaning the front extends quite alot which can be a problem if your already very close to a subject.
 
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There is an altogether, much cheaper alternative, if you are strapped for cash.
You could buy a cheap converter (under a tenner) and use an M42 screw thread lens on your Canon. It would be manual operation (focus and aperture), but when used in conjunction with extension tubes, quite good results can be had. The really good part is, that the whole lot should cost under £50, and the quality will be great.
You do lose the ability to focus more than a foot or so, but this should not be a problem if you are doing close up work.
 
You could pick up a Tamron 90mm f/2.5 Macro for just under £100
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TAMRON-90...lters_Lenses&hash=item3369ba503c#ht_500wt_949
http://completed.shop.ebay.co.uk/i....ode&LH_SALE_CURRENCY=0&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50
Get an adaptall/EF adapter
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300554316600#ht_4083wt_754
Then get some manual extension tubes:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Macro-Ext...nsion_Tubes&hash=item1c1d66c853#ht_3254wt_814

Should be under budget and this way you've got a nice prime that will focus to infinity with no loss of image quality with a close MFD without any extension tube, with the option to decrease the MFD with the cheap tubes.
 
Brilliant thanks guys for all the replies.

I will have a read through all the suggestions and will probably be come back with more questions!

Thanks again
 
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