Macro Photography (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I am interested in purchasing a lens for macro photography but
I'm not sure which would be best suited.

I am using a Canon 30D with Canon 28-105mm at the moment but the close focus on this lens isn't close enough, I have used a Nikon coolpix 4500 in the past and this was much better with macro focussing down to a few centimetres which was good with plants, Moths etc.

Could anyone guide me as to which ones I should look at.
Thanks in advance.

Personal preference is important here. Do you want a longer working distance, or working to a budget? 100mm is what I'd consider minimum focal length and Sigma Tamron and Canon all have suitable kit. I'd also consider Sigma or Tamron 70-300 mm as they both do half life size, with a working distance that is great for larger insects. Carl

Have you tried the macro setting on the camera program button that will help you if you use jpeg and the lens you have that will get you close.Then if you want to to do it cheap you could try extension tubes means using manual settings but they will get you really closer still then theres the macro lenses canon sigma and tamron have good ones but top of the heap must be the canon mp65e 5x magnificationIi think thats what its called sorry if im wrong ,I have a tamron 90mm and love it but it does extend when focusing where some other lenses dont get longer in length when focused so thats something to check to see which sort you prefer but most of them are excellent lenses and very sharp good hunting Phill

I personally use Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro and am very happy with it. As mentioned above, it doesn't extend with focusing, and the handling is just excellent. It's sharp wide open and AF is pretty fast and reliable too. Definitely recommend it. It makes a great portrait lens too. :t:

Using macro lenses less than 100mm mean that your focusing distance is very close if you want maximum reproduction size (1:1, life size). You need to check the specifications of the different focal length macro lenses to get an idea of the working distances that will work best for you.

In my Nikon days, I had a 200mm Nikkor macro lens. It was great for shy critters but at times the minimum focusing distance became a problem. I also took a number of macro photos using extension tubes which came out great but requires a focusing rail, which I had, to nail focus. The photos came out great but it was much more tedious to set up and use. I have read many wonderful things as well as seen great photos posted from the Sigma 150mm macro lens on Nikon bodies. I haven't had the opportunity to use macro lenses on my Canon 40D yet.

I often use the Canon 100mm macro with a 1.4 tc on board (non Canon of course). This gives you more working room and the IQ is superb.

Do a google for ffordes if I recall they had a Tamron sp 90mm macro lens for sale in the used lens section.

Steve.

I use lenses at the extremes of the focal-length range for 'macro' work - ie closer than normal distances. A 50mm Sigma which has 1:1 focussing and a 400mm Sigma (no longer available) which has a 1:3 macro ratio, though the 1.6x crop factor of the cameras (in my case Canon 20D and 40D) means that they're both capable of getting large images of small critters before you get to the 'true' macro definition of 'life-size' or over.

Most lenses these days seem to be pretty good quality and I have to say that the best shots I've seen with regard to sharpness have come from my mate's Sigma 150mm (he has a couple of Canon 'white' L lenses for comparison).

It comes down to what you can use satisfactorily in the field (and can afford!) as much as anything and working distance has already been mentioned, though it must be stated that this is relative. No matter which lens you choose, you'll still need to get pretty close to your subject, especially if it's quite small, such as a damselfly.

I've posted a couple of shots below of my mate using his 150mm Sigma trying to get a shot of a damselfly and a darter (ringed in yellow in each shot) to give you some idea of how close you need to get - I'm not sure whether he was right at his minimum close-focus distance in either shot, but he would have been quite close to it.

Both shots were taken with my 50mm lens and the third shot, of a pair of damselflies on the same day (yes, the sun did shine occasionally this summer !), was with that lens just to show what can be achieved with such a short focal length - it's uncropped and not at the closest focus distance