I'm thinking of trying out some macro photography mainly for days when i'm not well enough to leave the house. If i'm honest I don't want to really to spend a lot of money on a macro lens in case I find it isn't my thing so was thinking of maybe getting some extension tubes to go onto my 18-55mm kit lens or possibly getting a cheap Canon 35-80mm lens & doing the front element removal mod but the only thing that puts me off with this is how close you have to be to the subject which is about 4cm from what I have read. The gear I have is a Canon 750D with 18-55mm IS STM kit lens, Tamron SP 70-300mm lens & a Canon 430EXii speedlite
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Beginner Macro
- Thread starter Sweety
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A set of extension tubes will work fairly well with your kit lens, Kenko make a good set with electrical pass through.
You may find that you can use them with your 70-300mm lens but please note that the longer the focal length the less effective the tubes will be, but for certain subjects the longer working distance may be an advantage.
Tape some tissue over the head of your flash and use it pretty close (the closer the light source the larger it will be in relation to your subject) and you will have a reasonably good light source, perhaps combine with a small reflector or two....
You may find that you can use them with your 70-300mm lens but please note that the longer the focal length the less effective the tubes will be, but for certain subjects the longer working distance may be an advantage.
Tape some tissue over the head of your flash and use it pretty close (the closer the light source the larger it will be in relation to your subject) and you will have a reasonably good light source, perhaps combine with a small reflector or two....
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Err.... Yeah.... Well, in common usage 'Macro-Photo' is essentially 'Close-Up' Photo; typical kit lens will focus down to about 30cm, which is pretty close, so it is really a question of how close do you need to get?
In 'old-money' as in fro latin root, Macro, mans life-size, or larger-than-life, as opposed to Micro, meaning smaller. In photography, then, it was applied to photo's where the captured image, ie what was put on the film-negative, was life-sized or larger.. on a 10x8" 'full-plate' camera, you could reproduce something as large as a pint-pot 1:1 on the negative.... on Medium-Format 120 roll film cameras with a 6cm wide negative, you could still put some pretty large things on the neg at 1:1! BUT, when you come down to 35mm 'small-format' cameras, as neg's smaller than 1" across, I don't think you can actually fit a modern penny into the film-trap, so you cant really 'do' proper 1:1 or larger on the neg 'Macro-Photography', even for pretty small artifacts; hence the term has become applied to 'close-up' photo, where the enlargement to or above 'real-world' scale is made in reproduction.. If you let that reproduction enlargement argument 'lie' then you are opening up the remit of what may be 'macro-photo' to anything reproduced at or above life-size, and anything they shoot to put on a bill-board, would become 'macro-photo'.... Hence the 'difficulty' was/is just the close focus problem, that remains with such small capture 'sensor' sizes even on full-frame widgetal..
But semantics aside, begs the question, TO YOU, what is Macro-Photo? And how small a subject do you want to cram in the frame?
Working up close, the bigger 'problem', tends not to be 'close focus' but simple 'focus'.
Depth of Field, tends to be a proportion of focus range, more than it is aperture; so at close focus distances, DoF can get incredibly short, ad the matter of close-focus can be inconsequential just to actually nailing simple focus more obtaining the required DoF.
Now.... Auto-Focus lenses tend to be at a disadvantage, zoom lenses more so. Even if you can fool the electrickery some-how, AF systems aren't that smart, and most AF lenses are optimized to have the focus control twiddled by electrickery not human hands. Mount one on extension tubes or a reversal ring, and you probably loose electric AF before you start, and are at disadvantage to both nailing focus manually, likely with a rather loose, and short travel manual focus control, and a 'zoom' threatening to slide compounding the problem.
And, in days of yore, the toe-in-the-water way into 'macro-photo' was to get a reversal ring for your 35mm SLR's standard 50mm lens. Designed for manual focus from the go-get, these often have a very good range of focus travel, making nailing critical focus manually, very much easier. Its also far less 'sloppy' and prone to slip. Then there's no 'zoom' to complicate matters. Original minimum focus distance was often quite short to start with too, maybe the same sort of 12" you still have on a modern AF-Zoom...
This the begs a few alternative avenues to explore. Old legacy lenses can be very cheap... if the MFT brigade haven't leaped on them.... For the price of an AF lens to 'butcher' and or little more than the price of a set o extension tubes, yo may be as well or better, looking at an old-skool set-up, and getting the benefit of a lens optimized for manual focus.
I am not at all familiar with the white-side of canons, but there should be plenty of direct fit, canon mount, manual legacy lenses available, that may have much closer near focus limits, and be more suited 'as is' without either extension tubes, reversal rigs or adapter mounts. A-N-D if you were to buy a lens for the job, the old 50 would give a much larger image on the sensor thanks to the crop-factor. Longer lenses more so. You may not need resort to reversal rings or extension tubes, if they give enough enlargement at sufficiently close range, you merely have to back up a bit.... this also gives you more space to get in and light your subject. But, option of reversal rings or extension tubes remains, if you want/need to get that much closer....
If I was serious about table-top-photo, and prepared to chuck some cash at tooling up for it, that's the way would be inclined to go. I have a Nikon Electric-Picture-Maker, and already have an M42 screw-lens adapter for it. Conveniently, for the Nikon Mount, the adapter has to have an 'infinity correction element' or the adapter acts like an extension tube before you begin... so whipping that element out, would give me a mild extension tube and closer focus capability to start with, and I could still add reversal ring extension tubes or bellows, for M42, while I have range of M42 manual focus lenses to play with, for framing. I have a few good tripods, which I would deem essential to holding camera to subject distance and hence set 'focus', but that would probably be my first 'spend' if I did't have them, or on a more dedicated table/bench mount. Next up would be the remote release, to avoid inadvertently knocking camera-subject distance or focus set at capture. I have used 'self timer' fairly successful though, and do have IR release though not so 'reliable'. But these would be as significant to the set-up as what lens or lens adapter.But even from scratch, cost of old legacy lenses and their better 'manual focus' control, would incline me towards that way of working, rather than trying to get it with AF lenses that probably wont AF anyway.
So, from suggested start precept; my suggestion has to be to go old-skool, and a legacy lens and reversal-ring.. it's likely as cheap as anything else, and likely to e more help for it.
Thanks for that info Mike, the Canon 35-80mm lens once you remove the front elements can magnify to 1:7 but you loose the AF function of the lens so focusing has to be done via moving the camera back & forth to get the focus from everything I have read up on the mod of this lens but I think this would only be an option for static objects as I think the 4-5cm distance might be to close for the likes of insects. I shall take on board what you have mentioned & see if I can possibly find some older ef mount manual lenses or some of the earlier canon lenses & reverse mount them but it's the apature adjustment that worries me about reversing a lens
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Bain of the electric lens, is that aperture is so often set electically too, and without the contacts, they wont! Another 'plus' for older legacy lenses with aperture ring mechanically set on the lens body....
If you are snapping creepy-crawlies on the wing.though, I'd imagine you probably have to get up pretty close to start with to avoid spooking them to flight, and working pretty fast.... In that, I'd imagine that technique more so than it does any way, counts for so much more than technology! But still.
Macro, as suggested is oft used term for 'close-up' photo. In this case, though it may be misleading. More than one way to skin a cat, as they say. You have a 70-300, which probably doesn't have a very close near-focus limit, but what is it? Can you back up sufficiently with it? It was an old 'trick' but tele-converters, while so often reviled, magnified frame sizes without actually changing the lens' near focus limit... so, while they do reduce effective aperture, there were quite a lot of situations where adding one to a standard or even a wide-angle lens had advantage in maintaining close focus compared to using say a genuine 85 or 105 or 150mm tele..
Could be that treating the subject as 'extreme birding' and looking at techniques and tools commonly used in that genre may be as or more appropriate than traditional table top 'close up' photo.... you may then get some multiplicity of usefulness from investment, if you can make use of a TC in other genres.
If you are snapping creepy-crawlies on the wing.though, I'd imagine you probably have to get up pretty close to start with to avoid spooking them to flight, and working pretty fast.... In that, I'd imagine that technique more so than it does any way, counts for so much more than technology! But still.
Macro, as suggested is oft used term for 'close-up' photo. In this case, though it may be misleading. More than one way to skin a cat, as they say. You have a 70-300, which probably doesn't have a very close near-focus limit, but what is it? Can you back up sufficiently with it? It was an old 'trick' but tele-converters, while so often reviled, magnified frame sizes without actually changing the lens' near focus limit... so, while they do reduce effective aperture, there were quite a lot of situations where adding one to a standard or even a wide-angle lens had advantage in maintaining close focus compared to using say a genuine 85 or 105 or 150mm tele..
Could be that treating the subject as 'extreme birding' and looking at techniques and tools commonly used in that genre may be as or more appropriate than traditional table top 'close up' photo.... you may then get some multiplicity of usefulness from investment, if you can make use of a TC in other genres.
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I used to shoot with a Nikon D3100, D5100 and a 50mm lens with extension tubes and really had some great images. If you can’t get out much and are stuck indoors you will get hours of pleasure with this setup, whether taking pictures of flowers, insects or any thing small such as coins, stamps etc. Your imagination can run wild. I have even planted bulbs in the garden for future inspiration. Bunches of flowers for the wife, become subject matter. Macro has to be one of the most versatile elements of photography where time makes better images.
Funny you should mention a 50mm lens as I have been thinking of getting the Canon 50mm F1.8 as maybe a portrait lens but also for maybe macro with extension tubes as you have done
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I haven't read every reply but just in case it hasn't been said...
Macro / close up stuff is usually manual focus and one way to do it on the cheap is to buy an old manual focus macro lens. I have an old film era Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro and I'm happy with its performance on my digital cameras.
Old legacy lenses are IMO well worth looking at and may be useable with a cheap adapter if you end up buying one which wasn't made for your camera and of course these lenses can be used for more general photography too.
Extension tubes, close up filters and reversing a lens are other ways to go.
Macro / close up stuff is usually manual focus and one way to do it on the cheap is to buy an old manual focus macro lens. I have an old film era Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro and I'm happy with its performance on my digital cameras.
Old legacy lenses are IMO well worth looking at and may be useable with a cheap adapter if you end up buying one which wasn't made for your camera and of course these lenses can be used for more general photography too.
Extension tubes, close up filters and reversing a lens are other ways to go.