Cheap but Fairly Good Macro Lens
- Thread starter BigBen14
- Start date
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/194451-USA/Canon_4657A006_100mm_f_2_8_USM_Macro.html
You can possibly find it used for a bit less.
Jesse
You can possibly find it used for a bit less.
Jesse
fatrip
Yup That Stuff
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/371176-USA/Canon_0284B002_EF_S_60mm_f_2_8_Macro.html
this is a good one too.
this is a good one too.
Consider this 3rd party lens that has received many excellent reviews. My wife uses this lens and I have been very impressed by its performance.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/330641-USA/Tamron_AF272C700_SP_90mm_f_2_8_Di.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/330641-USA/Tamron_AF272C700_SP_90mm_f_2_8_Di.html
An alternative to the Canon and the Tamron: http://www.adorama.com/Als/ProductPage/SG10528DEOS.html. A little cheaper than the Canon, but still with good quality. For tank photography, I really like the reach of focal lengths around 100mm as opposed to the 50mm macros. You just can't always get as close to your subject as you would like for the shorter lenses. Also, you can find reviews of all the above lenses here: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/. I'd highly recommend checking it out before making any decisions.
Last edited:
d0ughb0y
Active member
anyone tried achromatic close up lenses?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/87494-REG/Canon_2822A002_58mm_500D_Close_up_Lens.html#features
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/87494-REG/Canon_2822A002_58mm_500D_Close_up_Lens.html#features
I'm not familiar with that one in particular, but you're going to be sacrificing quality with those macro attachments. You're much better off going with an extension tube. These are very popular among macro photographers: http://www.adorama.com/KNAETSDEOS.html. You can probably pick them up used if the price is a little intimidating. Plus, I'm sure there are cheaper brands. There's no glass to intefere with image quality, so what you'd be giving up is build quality and possibly lose your autofocus with cheaper models.
d0ughb0y
Active member
have you used the extension tube? can you post sample pictures?
3 f stop light reduction is pretty significant, but hopefully should not be a problem in really brightly lit reef tanks.
I can see the advantage with the extension tube since it will work with any lens diameter. with the front attachment, I would have to get a 58mm and a 72mm size for the lenses I use.
I haven't personally used extension tubes before. Honestly, though, I don't find the 3 stops a big deal, since you're usually stopped down a pretty good deal when shooting macros. I'm usually at f/9 or higher. Also, you're not necessarily going to lose three stops. That depends entirely upon how many extension tubes you end up stacking. The big reason to go with extension tubes over macro filters is you aren't adding any extra glass, which is pretty much always going to reduce the quality of the final image to some degree.
If you want some examples, http://photography-on-the.net/forum/ has plenty. Many of the people there use extension tubes not just to turn a normal lens into a macro, but also to get magnifications higher than 1:1 for ultra close-up photography. Just go to the macro forums in either the 'Photo Sharing' or 'Sharing Knowhow' sections.
If you want some examples, http://photography-on-the.net/forum/ has plenty. Many of the people there use extension tubes not just to turn a normal lens into a macro, but also to get magnifications higher than 1:1 for ultra close-up photography. Just go to the macro forums in either the 'Photo Sharing' or 'Sharing Knowhow' sections.
If you're going to get tubes just get the Kenko ones. For the price you don't really get much "improvement" with Canon tubes. The only improvement would be in build construction, IQ is the exact same because all they are are hollow tubes. Canon air ain't any different than Kenko air.
The forum Island linked is a good one, go read in the macro talk section and you'll learn a lot. There are many over there who live and breathe macro/extreme-macro.
+1 the Kenko tubes are a really good deal.
I didn't but I'm a member on the board that was linked and I've read lots of posts of people buying them from the HK place. I think it just takes a while to receive them (as does anything from overseas).
Keep in mind with tubes depending on the lens and how many tubes you got on your focusing distance can get incredibly short. Still though, a set of tubes has made my 100mm macro so much more enjoyable to use.
Keep in mind with tubes depending on the lens and how many tubes you got on your focusing distance can get incredibly short. Still though, a set of tubes has made my 100mm macro so much more enjoyable to use.
Similar threads
