Budget Macro Lenses

=silber-englein Jan 17, 2013

Hello All,
I've been meaning to start doing some macro photography and I wanted to buy a starter lens for it. I've been searching for a while but I can't seem to find anything that's less than €400 without sacrificing a large amount on quality. I have a Canon EOS 400D. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Is finding something with decent quality that costs less than €200 (around US$270) impossible? Thanks for the help!

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Devious Comments

~poseidonsimons Jan 21, 2013

I use sigma lenses. They are cheap and produce decent results.

=silber-englein Jan 27, 2013

Thanks!

~secondclaw Jan 20, 2013

I agree - Macro extension tubes would allow you to use your existing lenses as macro. Be aware though that cheap tubes do not have contacts to allow camera to communicate with the lens. Some expensive ones, such as Kenko Auto Extention Tubes, do ([link]) and allow full auto-focus with the tubes attached. It may or may not be important in this case. I think that for $200 USD the tubes are too expensive, but a used copy may be good to get. I'm looking for one myself.

=silber-englein Jan 27, 2013

Thanks for the good advice!

~hedwards Jan 20, 2013

I'm doing what FSGPhotography suggests. I found [link] on amazon and I'm waiting for them in the mail. I'll be throwing my 50mm F1.8 on the end of that. If I understand things correctly, I'll have about 9inches of working distance and have magnification up to 1.25x.

But, for $22 plus the cost of the lens, it's hard to go wrong. It's probably not as good as using a proper macro, but it's a lot cheaper.

=silber-englein Jan 27, 2013

Thanks for the tip!

~hedwards Jan 27, 2013

Starting in probably a week I'm likely to start using those extension tubes. Like I said, for the cost it's hard to pass that up, even if you don't have automatic control over anything. Ideally I would have a completely manual lens where I could adjust the aperture manually.

=ChristophMaier Jan 17, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

I suggest you take a look at Sigma's 50mm macro lens: [link] (or for lower prices check here: [link] but I don't know the cheaper stores on that list so no guarantees)

I had it for quite some years and really enjoyed it. It's quality is really good it does offer a true 1:1 macro. Extension tubes might be an even cheaper solution but if you are serious about macro I would suggest going with a real macro lens from the start.

=silber-englein Jan 27, 2013

Thank you very much!

~Photography-Forever Jan 17, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

You might want to try Macro extension tubes. Try googling them.

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