Best macro lens for Canon 1200D

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Rachel
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Hey I'm new to photography and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out with which lens to buy for my Canon 1200D for macro shots. I have recently bought the Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro lens. I have now figured that this lens isn't what I wanted, this one is for long distance macro shots. I want one where I can be directly above the thing I want to photograph. For example, I want to be really close to a flower and be able to capture all of the intricate details of the petal/ water droplets/ the middle bit of the flower, etc.

I hope this makes sense and someone can help!

Rachel
 
So for that your best bets are - Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma 105 macro, Canon 100mm Macro (two of these either older USM or newer more expensive IS version). Those would be my recommended close up / macro lens for starting out. All give good results, and go from infinity to 1:1 at reasonable working distance.

There's a canon 60mm - but I'd go with any of the above. I have the old Canon 100mm lens for flowers, dragonflies and butterflies. A Canon 65mm MPE for the stupidly small bugs - but that is much more specialized and harder to use.
 
I personally think your best bet value wise would be a t of extension tubes and a 50mm f1.8 lens.

Even if you bought Kenko extension tubes new and the 50mm f1.8 also new the cost would still not be above £250.00

You could also try these polaroid tubes for £60.00:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polaroid-F...ords=polaroid+extension+tubes#customerReviews

add on the 50mm:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-1...UTF8&qid=1479405658&sr=8-1&keywords=50mm+f1.8

and the cost is now about £160.00 and the tubes can be used on almost any lens.

This combination will allow you to do exactly what you want.

See how this combination performs here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157625975281497

and here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157625276148446

And if you want to go to extremes this is what you can do with 2 sets of extension tubes, a flash and the 50mm f1.8 lens:

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/harold-the-spider.637407/
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Dont know you location but if your passing more than welcome to try mine. Mpe65. ,100L both canon and Sigma 180 2.8
 
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (L version is not optically much if any better than the non-L version) or EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro would be my suggestion. Though as suggested by @petersmart the 50mm f/1.8 plus a set of cheap extension tubes would be a more cost effective route to macro.
 
As illustrated in the link that @alfbranch provided and the post here from @petersmart there are several approaches to close-up/macro (which can be mixed and matched btw). Another option not mentioned here yet is to use your zoom lens with a close-up lens. I have found a close-up lens on a 55-250 on a Canon 70D good for flowers. I generally use the 55-250 by itself or with a mild Canon 500D close-up lens. However, your Sigma 70-300 Macro goes to 0.5x magnification I believe, which will get you down to scene widths of around 45mm wide, in which case a slightly more powerful close-up lens like a Raynox 150, Marumi 200 or Canon 250D might be more suitable. With the Raynox 150 on my 55-250 at full zoom I get down to a scene width of about 19mm wide, or slightly better than 1:1. I imagine your 70-300 at 300 might go slightly smaller. The Marumi 200 is fractionally stronger than the Raynox 150 and the Canon 250D is not quite as strong as the Raynox 150.

Just another option to throw into the mix. Not a recommendation. We each have to find what works best for us, and that varies a lot.
 
Andrew Moore said:
Baptism by fire never hurt anyone :)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that is always true. I have seen people put off macro by trying to start with a relatively difficult approach.

One consideration not mentioned about the MPE-65 that unlike most other macro lenses it has a minimum magnification; 1:1. That may be rather restrictive for anyone who enjoys photographing flowers.
 
petersmart said:
I personally think your best bet value wise would be a t of extension tubes and a 50mm f1.8 lens.

Even if you bought Kenko extension tubes new and the 50mm f1.8 also new the cost would still not be above £250.00

You could also try these polaroid tubes for £60.00:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polaroid-F...ords=polaroid+extension+tubes#customerReviews

add on the 50mm:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-1...UTF8&qid=1479405658&sr=8-1&keywords=50mm+f1.8

and the cost is now about £160.00 and the tubes can be used on almost any lens.

This combination will allow you to do exactly what you want.

See how this combination performs here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157625975281497

and here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157625276148446

And if you want to go to extremes this is what you can do with 2 sets of extension tubes, a flash and the 50mm f1.8 lens:

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/harold-the-spider.637407/
.
Click to expand...


These are amazing, thank you for sharing!! I will look into these :)
 
Looking at this review
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RRG...detail-glance&nodeID=560798&store=electronics

The extension tubes look good.
BTW I have the Canon 60 mm and you can get good photos with it.
IMG_8751bumbleebee by davholla2002, on Flickr

The advantages are it is a lot lighter, my 9 year old child might be getting into macro soon and I would rather he used this than a heavier lens the disadvantage (although sometimes it is good) is the shorter minimum working distance.

IMG_8451wasp by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
Andrew Moore said:
What's your budget? The Canon MP-E 65mm is an absolute belter but is far from cheap. £350+ Second hand and that's if your lucky!
Click to expand...

But don't forget that you would also need realistically to also purchase a set of lights to focus with because of the vastly reduced light at such high magnifications AND a decent ring flash (NOT LED) to actually take the shot.

Cost - even S/H figure approaching £1000

The one thing I forgot to mention with my setup for the spider is that another reason to use the 50mm is the f1.8 aperture which does make focussing a lot easier than even a 2.8 lens because of the increased light with the aperture wide open.
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petersmart said:
But don't forget that you would also need realistically to also purchase a set of lights to focus with because of the vastly reduced light at such high magnifications AND a decent ring flash (NOT LED) to actually take the shot.

Cost - even S/H figure approaching £1000

The one thing I forgot to mention with my setup for the spider is that another reason to use the 50mm is the f1.8 aperture which does make focussing a lot easier than even a 2.8 lens because of the increased light with the aperture wide open.
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Click to expand...
Such wide apertures have the trade off of having virtually no Dof.
An ordinary flash gun with a decent diffuser is all that is needed not a ring flash.

There are many solutions to the issue.
 
Thank you everyone for your help, really appreciate it! :)

I have bagged some macro extension tubes off eBay for really cheap that someone recommended. I will try those with one of my lenses and hopefully get some nice results that I can share on here.

Thanks again,
Rachel
 
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