starter Macro lens

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Ray Comer

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Hi, I've only recently got into photography and new to the forum

I've developed a real interest in macro photography. I'd be interested to hear other peoples views on the best macro lens to start with; I can't afford top quality glass but don't want to buy something cheap that won't give me the results.

I've got a Canon 7D
 
The tamron 90mm gets good reviews I have the canon 100mm f2.8 myself and it is a great lens.

Depends on how much you want to spend really The canon you can get 2nd hand for less that £300 now.

spike
 
My advice is to get a set of extension tubes. These are hollow tubes that go in between the lens and the camera and allow the lens to focus at closer difference, like a dedicated macro lens can. You can get a set of three (three different sizes for difference levels of 'macroness') for £60ish from eBay or £120ish from a proper shop. They can give very good results, will be a relatively cheap way of finding out whether you like macro photography and will still be useful if you buy a dedicated macro lens.

If you're set on getting a lens straight away, then I'd recommend one in the 100mm range. Canon, Tamron, Sigma and Tokina all make good ones, costing between £350 and £450 new.
 
Wow, thats a quick response, thank you.

I've tried tubes - which I borrowed - for a couple of weeks and really got hooked. I'll look at the Tamron and the Canon 100mm, I've got a budget of around £400 ish for the right lens
 
For that money i would personally look at getting the canon 100mm f2.8 and a flash to make the pics great.

spike
 
SpikeK6 said:
For that money i would personally look at getting the canon 100mm f2.8 and a flash to make the pics great.

spike
Click to expand...

Thanks Spike, I've got a decent flash so the 100mm it is!

Thanks to everyone for their input
 
Wonder if you've considered a reversal ring setup. It's pretty old school and some people scoff at the idea, but using a reversed Asahi Pentax Takumar 35mm on a 7D gave me some amazing results!

This shot is straight out of the camera. I took some pics of some charm jewelry for my aunt and I'm pretty pleased with them. The lighting on it is a flashgun from below just incase you were wondering.



The one in the middle is roughly 12mm in width I would say. Not too bad for what amounts to a hack!
 
If you have a large zoom lens then I would have said have a look at the raynox250 - there are loads of threads here on it, plus you can search flickr.

Around 40ukp attaches to the end of your lens.

Otherwise get a proper macro lens and some tubes :)

Enjoy macro!
 
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