Macro on a Budget

Noggerwood

Noggerwood

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Woody
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Had my camera about a year now (still a complete newbie) and now i'm starting to get comfortable with the controls, I'm interested in having a go at some marco photography.

After doing some research, it looks like some extension tubes, a Raynox DCR-250 or a reversing ring would allow me to have a go at macro on a budget.

I've currently got a Canon 60D with the following lenses...
EF-S 15-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
EF 50mm f/1.8
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

But I've got to be honest, given my lens choices above, i'm still not sure if buying some extension tubes or a Raynox DCR-250 or a reversing ring (or maybe all 3) would be my best option.

I wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction of which would give me the best results?

Thanks
Woody
 
I bought a Raynox DCR-250 from the classifieds on here and it's a great little lens!
It's certainly one of the better cheap alternatives to a true macro lens and has the benefit of being able to fit most lenses
Reverse lens macro is fun to try but it's a real pita as the DOF is miniscule though saying that, I tried it by coupling two lenses rather than just using a single lens mounted in reverse.
A decent set of autofocus tubes is about £60. The slightly cheaper ones are AF confirm, meaning you have to focus manually but get a beep when focus is achieved or the cheapest ones (sub £10 ebay specials) are fully manual.
At less than a tenner you might want to try some tubes anyway to see how they perform and if they give you what you want you could then buy some better ones.
 
I've been having a lot of fun with a 12mm extension tube and am looking to supplement it with a 24mm one.

Have tried reversing rings in the past and the results aren't as good as with the tube.
 
Take a look at this thread:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=380149

Since then I've bought extension tubes, which I've experimented with my 50mm 1.8. Can get some great results, but if you want real close-up macro I used all 3 that were in my set (so total extension tube length was >60mm), but I had to get very very close, and indoors it certainly required the use of a tripod/off camera light source.

A few plays with it though and I was hooked so I picked up the canon 100mm f2.8 macro not long after for ~£300. It's so much fun, and doubles up as an incredible portrait lens. Used with the extension tubes it's even better. If you can afford it I'd highly recommend that, if not go for the extension tubes with your 50mm, they're good fun and you'll get some great results if you're patient enough. You can get a set of polaroid AF tubes on amazon for about £60, so well worth it imo.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Just ordered a set of AF tubes to have a play with, so I'll let you know how I get on in a few weeks.
 
New tubes arrived, should hopefully get chance to have play with them this weekend.
 
I have also brought the polaroid extension tubes, arrived today but like you have not had any chance to use them yet, they are still wrapped up. I only have the standard kit lens and a 50 to 250mm zoom lens so not sure how they will work may have to buy a nifty fifty
 
I had a set of the cheap tubes last year but never got on with them. The lack of AF is fine but having to shoot wide open (i found the workaround too much hassle), especially with my 50 f/1.4 to be very tricky.
The Raynox has been on my list of things to buy since then, but I'd still like to go the tube route, i just dont want to splash out over £100 for a set of Kenko's.

Does anyone know of a cheaper set (or even better, singles)?
 
Had a quick play with the Polaroid tubes. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the tubes and they produced decent results. I took a few of a coin and they looked good. Camera is only on macro auto setting still getting used to it
 
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