Need to shoot some macro photos

Okay, I am in need of shooting some decent macro shots within the next 2 or 3 weeks.

What I currently have is a Canon kit lens (18-55) and a Sigma 70-300 macro zoom.

Now the Sigma is an old lens that is more made for film cameras and not digital cameras. Needless to say, the dang thing doesn't work correctly on my Canon 350D.

So, I will probably need to shoot the macro shots with the standard kit lens.

I have been doing a tiny bit of research and my question is this;
Are these add on cheap macro/fisheye lenses worth a crap? I mean really, most of them are around $20 to $30.

I have also seen the extension tubes that go behind the lens and attach to the mounting on the camera. (I know that aperture and focus has to be done manually).

If you had to choose, or wouldn't try them at all, which would you prefer?

Here is a couple of examples of what I am referring to:

macro/fisheye lens: http://www.amazon.com/Altura-Photo-Professional-MagicFiber-Microfiber/dp/B0047YRKK8/ref=pd_cp_p_3

Extension tube set: http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Canon-Extension-Extreme-Close-Ups/dp/B003Y60DZO/ref=pd_bxgy_p_text_z


Any and all help would be immensely appreciated!

Tubes over lens.

That being said, why not just rent a macro lens for a week instead?
http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/Canon_60mm_macro
http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/Canon_65mm_MP-E_Macro
http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/Canon_180mm_f3.5_Macro

That's what I would've done anyway. Anytime I'm in need of a specialty glass, I just go and rent it.

I figured the tubes would be a better choice. Thanks man!

Great idea on the rental, however there is nothing in this area to do such a thing.

What? Where do you live?

northrop said:

What? Where do you live?

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Cheyenne Wyoming. LOLOL
Arm pit of the states..

I would probably have to drive down into Colorado to find somewhere to rent lenses.

Or, you can just rent from this online rental place I posted above and have them ship the lens to your house

northrop said:

Or, you can just rent from this online rental place I posted above and have them ship the lens to your house

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Well, there is that.....LOL

I might have to do that as neither of the lenses have a manual aperture adjustment.
So they would be stuck at what ever the default aperture is for the lens.

Can you tell us more about your subject for these photos?

I'm not familiar with this 70-300 "macro lens" but that should probably work just fine. I have a nikon 70-300 VR which works for some macro, but the minimum focus distance is like 5 feet, so you have to be way back from the subject to focus. If I stand up straight I can take pics with it of things on the ground at my feet.

If your "macro" 70-300 focuses within 2-3 feet that would be ideal. You say it's an older lens that doesn't work with your camera, which I assume means it doesn't auto focus, but for actual macro you almost always need to manually focus anyways, so I would definitely give it a shot anyways and see how it does.

Besides that, definitely let us know what you're trying to photograph and we can recommend a lens to rent for the purpose. For most macro work something around 100mm works really well, but for smaller moving subjects a 200mm is very nice.

madFive said:

Can you tell us more about your subject for these photos?

I'm not familiar with this 70-300 "macro lens" but that should probably work just fine. I have a nikon 70-300 VR which works for some macro, but the minimum focus distance is like 5 feet, so you have to be way back from the subject to focus. If I stand up straight I can take pics with it of things on the ground at my feet.

If your "macro" 70-300 focuses within 2-3 feet that would be ideal. You say it's an older lens that doesn't work with your camera, which I assume means it doesn't auto focus, but for actual macro you almost always need to manually focus anyways, so I would definitely give it a shot anyways and see how it does.

Besides that, definitely let us know what you're trying to photograph and we can recommend a lens to rent for the purpose. For most macro work something around 100mm works really well, but for smaller moving subjects a 200mm is very nice.

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Thanks MadFive for your response!!!

Actually it is going to be used for close up macro's on computer hardware for reviews.
That is actually the other issue with renting a lens. I would probably have to rent one several times actually.
And naturally I flat can't afford to buy a decent macro lens.

Anyhow, that Sigma will focus at around 3.5 feet. Which as you stated needs to be manually focused anyhow. The problem is that it will not set the aperture automatically and the lens does not have a aperture ring on it.

Its an old Sigma DL lens, which even when they were new several years ago they were considered at the lower end of the Sigma line of lenses.

Now I have found a new Sigma DG APO 70-300 "super macro" that also focuses at 37.4 inches at both 200 and 300 zoom, which isn't all that bad. It is priced at $154 through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70-300m...415927738&sr=8-4&keywords=sigma+70+300mm+lens

That I can probably swing the funds for. But there is now way at this time I can swing well over $400 for a lens. LOL

Ah, ok - gotcha.

So the best thing you can possibly do to get good product photos is to build yourself a light-box like this:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
If you don't have an off-camera strobe flash to use, just use a lamp or two. Then get a tripod. It won't matter what aperture you're on - just play with the exposure time 'till it balances out. When using my light box, I like to set the camera to like 20 seconds exposure, turn off all the lights, then pop the flash or a lamp a bunch of times around the box to fill in every area of the subject.

You can stretch your setup a really long way just by working the light with a little creativity.

For some inspiration and personally to me, the best macro photographer i have ever seen in my life

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/

posts often on http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

MrGuvernment said:

For some inspiration and personally to me, the best macro photographer i have ever seen in my life
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/

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Wow, yeah, can't disagree with you there. PS-Rage who posts here has some similarly impressive work.

The Nikkor 200mm Micro is good for shots like this. One of these days I'll get around to picking one up. Maybe 2016-ish.

I recommend looking into Alex Koloskov.
http://www.koloskov.com
His website is pretty jank, I'll admit that, but he's a serious working photographer that specializes in Macro photography for major high end brands. Cartier, Channel, amongst others. He also specializes in splash work.

I bring him up, because he is probably the leader in terms of talking about macro photography and technique through his other site Photigy. http://www.photigy.com/free-photography-courses/
He also talks a lot about technique through Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlexKoloskov/posts , and often has Google Hangouts and answers questions as well as runs assignments and contests related to macro photography.

If you're just getting started doing macro work, I'd give all his resources a read/watch.

Thanks everyone for some very interesting posts!

Are these little macro magnifiers worth a dang?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081TSZCC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have read good and bad things about them.

Definitely tubes but watch the maximum focusing distance. It can be too short for product shots depending on lens.

uOpt said:

Definitely tubes but watch the maximum focusing distance. It can be too short for product shots depending on lens.

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Thanks uOpt! I was actually wondering about that myself.

stinger608 said:

Thanks uOpt! I was actually wondering about that myself.

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There is a table floating around about Canon's MFD with various lenses and tubes. The zooms are mostly OK but the primes are often not.

I just wish that Canon offered a tube shorter than 12 mm.

I have lenses with a maximum MFD of less than half an inch. WTF?

This might be a little late but I have lots of experience with doing Macro for cheap.

Here are your best options for any DSLR (I use Nikon but this applies to Canon as well) for the least money in order of what I would recommend, but first, here are some small samples of the results you'll get in case you're interested:




1. Extension tubes like you mentioned
- They come in sets of 3 and cost around $10-15 on eBay for manual focus ones and $60-80 for auto focus ones. Personally, I got the AF ones but I rarely use it as cameras will generally not focus well when we're talking a 0.5mm focus plane, for example. Generally you will lock the focus or go manual and physically move back and forth if you're shooting insects and moving subjects.
- This works with any lens, but generally you'll need something over 35 mm or the focus plane will be inside your lens so you can't shoot anything in focus. People tend to use a 50mm lens and ~50mm worth of extension to get 1:1 or an 18-55, 70-300, etc. In my experience, shooting at 300mm is great if you like shooting from far, but it makes it difficult to stabilize hand-held shots unless the lighting is great (outdoors, etc).

50mm lens with extension tubes:


70-300mm lens with extension tubes:


2. Inverted zoom lens (ie, your 18-55mm kit lens)
- An inverted lens adapter costs about $1. With it, you can screw in your lens with the end of the lens facing your camera's sensor/mirror.
- This costs almost nothing and you can zoom in and out to focus closer or farther. This also gets you beyond 1:1 magnification which is what proper macro lenses aim for.
- It saves you tons of money while giving you the same results or better.

Inverted 18-55mm lens:



3. Macro adapters/magnifying glasses attached to your lens
- I don't recommend these. I've tried a few and only the center of the picture is really clear, the edges get progressively more distorted/blurry and there's chromatic aberration, etc. Basically, the image quality isn't great and the options above are cheap and give the same image quality your lens would normally give you.

4. An actual macro lens (The most expensive option at ~$400+)
- If you choose this one, you should basically skip all lenses and buy a Tamron 90mm f2.8 1:1 lens. It's around $400 brand new, which is cheaper than its competition and it gives amazingly sharp images. Feel free to Google reviews or pics from this one.

I hope that helps save you some money. At the end of the day, as long as you have enough light and you know what you're doing, you can take pictures as good as you would with any macro lens for little to no money.

Oh wow BigD!!! This is amazing information man!
Your post has been just exactly the information I was looking for and I appreciate everything you posted bro!

So in your opinion would these tubes work good?
http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Cano...3Y60DZO/ref=pd_bxgy_p_text_z?tag=hardfocom-20

I have both a "kit" 18-55 lens as well as a new Sigma DG APO 70-300 lens.

I also seen the inverted lens adapters on Amazon and wondered about them as well.

This one reverses just the lens:
http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Reve...r_1_32?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1417890450&sr=1-32

And this one allows you to reverse the lens to another lens:
http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-52-5...144_m?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1417890768&sr=1-144

In your honest opinion what setup would be best?
Extension tubes?
reversed lens to camera?
reversed lens to lens?

Again BigD, thanks a million for your post man! Great information.

Also wanted to comment that your macro images are fantastic man, and just what I am looking for!

I'm glad it helped!

Yes, the macro tubes you posted are fine, they're the manual focus ones (meaning they don't have the little connectors for electricity) so they cost less. The only down side if you'll need to focus and expose manually, so if you're not super used to that, you can always pay 60-80$ and get the auto focus version.

The reverse one is also good. I don't think you'll need anything non-canon since you have the 18-55mm lens which will be perfect for what you'll need. My only advice is to get it from China if you want it for 1-2$ (but it'll take longer to arrive), but at 9 bucks it's not a lot anyway.

Once you get it, there's lots of tutorials on how to use it but it's basically like this:


I personally went from little macro attachments to the reverse lens technique to the macro extension in that order. I still use the tubes and reverse ring to this day so they are my favorite and they're easy to carry around too. For 1:1 macro I can use the tubes on a bunch of my lenses so they do a good job, and to go beyond 1:1 I change to the reverse lens.

You should probably get both, or the cheap reverse ring to start, then decide if shooting in Manual mode is fine or if it would be easier with the AF option (which controls exposure, ISO and f stop as well so you can shoot in Aperture priority and other modes).

Again Big D, very awesome advice!!!