Macro

goodwin1234

goodwin1234

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Kieron
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Hi all,

I've recently found myself taking an interest in macro photography.

I'm looking for a budget macro lens (sony A mount), sub £100 (used) if possible. Any suggestions?

Cheers guys
 
Some people mostly use manual focus when shooting macro and if you can cope with MF you could get a legacy lens and an adapter if you need one. A legacy lens will help you to stick to budget.

The focal length will depend upon what you shoot and how and if you're shooting things that are likely to take fright and run or fly away a longer focal length may be an advantage. If shooting none living things you may get away with a shorter lens which could also be cheaper.
 
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Thanks for the reply :)

It'll mainly be used for wildlife. Bugs, spiders and close ups of my reptiles ect

I guess the longer the better then? How long are we talking?
 
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I have a 150mm f2.8 for my Canon but they're expensive.

Your cheapest option will probably be a 50mm macro legacy lens. On an APS-C camera that gives you an equiv FoV of 75mm. Longer would be nice and you may pick up a longer macro, something between 80 and 100mm but even that may blow the budget.

I picked up a lovely Sigma 50mm macro and I use it on my Panasonic G1 for an equiv FoV of 100mm but the G1 is x2 crop and your camera is x1.5 so it'd only be equiv FoV of 75mm on your camera. Might be good enough?

Have you thought about extention tubes?
 
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What lenses do you have at the moment, have you considered a cheap set of extension tubes ?
 
You might be able to pick up a Sigma 50mm Macro if you could up your budget some - my daughter has one and it's excellent for what she likes to do.

It depends on what you are wanting to photograph - if it's still life, flowers etc, then a 50mm will be fine, if your after shooting bugs etc, then you are going to struggle, I'd recommend at least 100mm for those...
 
If you're working to a budget, definitely give some thought to Alan & Ingrid's suggestions of extension tubes and also have a look at the Raynox DCR-150 or DCR-250 (depending on how close you want to get) as well as looking into some of the lens suggestions.

The Raynox and tubes both work with your existing lenses though, hence the question about what you already have.
 
There's also the option of using coupled lenses, with a lens mounted reversed on a normally mounted lens - face to face as it were. I've seen some good results (from other people) using a pair of fast 50mm lenses used like this. Try somewhere like SRB Griturn for coupling adaptors (they use the filter threads to join).
 
Thanks for all the input :)

I currently only have the kit lens, but i'm picking up a minolta 50mm 1.7 this week and i'm also on the lookout for a beercan.

Extension tubes you say? How do they work? There not something i've come across before.

Please excuse my noobyness:thumbs:
 
extension tubes go between the lens and the camera - basically altering your focussing distance so you can focus on stuff closer to

you can get a good set for about 70 quid - http://www.onestop-digital.com/inde...uct_id=33492&gclid=CITv9NDx_bgCFTLMtAodvhYA9w

also worth considering are supplementary lenses (sometimes incorrectly called close up filters) which screw onto the front of your lens to provide extra mag - there come in dioptre +2 +4 +6 and so on with the higher number having more mag - you can also stack them although this can impair image quality.

I would highly recommend a book called "small things big" by Paul Harcourt Davies which covers all this stuff in detail - if your budget is limited it would be worth seeing if your local library has a copy
 
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Thank you, that's definitely something i'll look into. Would a decent set of extension tubes be a better investment than a budget macro lens, in your opinion? Also would the 50mm 1.7 lens i'm picking up be a good match with the tubes you posted a link of?

It seems I can get a copy of small things big on amazon for about £6! Can't go wrong :)
 
yes and yes - cheap macro lens is a contradiction in terms. You might get lucky and get a legacy (ie MF only) macro lens and a converter in your budget - but it would be down to luck.

decent new macro lenses start at about £200 (forget the telephotos that claim to be macro but only actually give maybe 1:4 ) a true macro lens should give 1:1 (that is 1cm on the subject = 1cm on the film/sensor)

A decent fast prime like a 50mm f1.7 and a set of tubes will get you close to 1:1 - and the tubes will be useful even if you get a true macro lens later , as they can be used with it to get higher magnification
 
That's that sorted then, extension tubes it is! Thank you to all who took the time to comment, it's much appreciated :)
 
btw make sure you get tubes with electrical contacts so you keep your metering - very cheap sets are often literally just tubes , so you lose all your metering etc and have to do everything the old fashioned way
 
To add to the above: For me, tubes with electrical contacts wasn't so much about metering but more about aperture control. Trying to get accurate (manual) focus while the lens is stopped down to say f16 in anything but bright sunlight was not fun. Your eyes may be better than mine, though :)
 
Thanks all for the advice. Taken on board and just ordered a set of tubes (with contacts) :thumbs:
 
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DBT85 said:
Extension tubes are a great way of getting into Macro without spending a larger chunk of money. Plus you can use them on lots of different lenses to see how they work differently.

Check out some if the videos in this playlist about Macro and extension tubes to see how they work and what they do :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwgbYaB2jqI&list=SP7293B21222BDAE91

Some search results on Flickr for 50mm and extension tubes :)

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=50mm%20extension
Click to expand...

Just make sure you buy the extension tubes with the contacts or your aparture is fixed
 
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