Macro Lens advice

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benni_84

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Ben
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Hi All,

I am very new to photography but i am very interested in two aspects at the moment.

1 is light painting, i love the effects this can give and shall be looking into this at a later date

2 is Macro. Now i need some advice on sony fit macro lenses, my budget isnt very big so obviously the cheaper the better to start with. i currently only have an 18-55 kit lens and am looking to expand this :)

Any help would be greatly appreciated :D

Thanks

Ben
 
You need a Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens ( around £450) and a ring flash, ( around £130) I use these and they are brilliant
whats your budget fella?

Les :D:D
 
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Not much of an idea on budget to be honest at the moment. need to see what i can get for what kind of money before i can commit to a budget :P would rather spend £100 on something that works to begin with than £1000 on something that does everything except give me the ability to take the photos lol.
 
Amazon have some decently priced Macro lenes- Try Tamron 90mm or Sigma 105mm both cracking lenes - unfortunatley they come in at £400 + :shrug:

Les :thumbs:

Ps I vist the Lake District every year for a couple of weeks ( Keswick area)
 
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Try a Raynox DCR-250 or 150, from Amazon, about £40. It will work fine on you lens at around 50mm. There is no cheaper or easier way to get into macro, and the results are usually amazingly good on popular subjects.

Here are a few sample pictures I prepared earlier http://www.flickr.com/groups/raynoxdcr250/
 
Awesome :) thanks hoppyuk

May just have to have a little look at one of these.

Definately going for a new lens and am seriously looking at the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens but the DCR-250 looks like a good buy for the intrim :)
 
For dedicated lenses they generally fall into three main length categories (there are a few others, but they are rarer)

canon 60mm
sigma 70mm (I think its 70)
tamron 60mm

tamron 90mm
canon 100mm
canon 100mm IS
sigma 105mm

sigma 150mm
canon 180mm
sigma 180mm
tamron 180mm

There are things like Hoppy mentioned the Raynox, the other alternative is extension rings - these mount between your lens and camera (but contain no glass) and allow you go reduce your minimum focus distance allowing you to get closer to your subject and make it appear bigger on the sensor

all of these are slightly different interms of internal or extanding focus (don't want to squash the bug on the fron of your lens) as well as price and also image stabalisation is to be considered.



The other thing to consider is flash - the canon MR-14EX is an example of traditional ringflash (sigma, marumi and many other manufacturers make this type of flash) whereas the canon MT-24EX is a dual flash head pivoting around a ring which attaches to the front of your lens

Length/budget/requirements will all make a big difference - bug hunters tend to prefer the longer lenses and the MT-24EX whereas flower people can often make do with the shorter lenses
 
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