Macro photography in the past was a cheap thing for me to pursue in the past. All I needed was a 15X magnifying glass over my Canon A40 and that did the trick.
Now that I've moved on to a DSLR, I need to look into other options for macro photography. It's still a very murky area for me, so I thought to pose some questions to the folks here who would definitely be more experienced. Any help is most appreciated.
Currently, I have one kit lens (18-55mm) and a telephoto zoom (70-200mm).
1. I've heard of extension tubes, which work to reduce the focusing distance of a lens and in so doing, allow an object to be more frame-filling. How many varieties of extension tubes are available for Canon DSLRs, and how much do they usually cost? Besides requiring a longer exposure time, are there any other things I need to watch out for?
2. I've also read about the Reverse Lens Technique. Is it possible to buy a cheap 50mm prime and then mount that in reverse onto my telephoto zoom for a good macro setup?
3. Diopters (?), which I believe are basically just magnifying glasses seem to be readily available, but I heard that it drops image quality dramatically as the magnification is increased. Should I still consider this?
4. Then the most expensive option remaining seems to be to purchase a dedicated macro lens. There's huge numbers of these on the market...which ones have you used, and what would you recommend? To be safe, I'd just say that I wish to photograph insects and flowers smaller than 2cm across (eg. flies, small spiders).
Now that I've moved on to a DSLR, I need to look into other options for macro photography. It's still a very murky area for me, so I thought to pose some questions to the folks here who would definitely be more experienced. Any help is most appreciated.
Currently, I have one kit lens (18-55mm) and a telephoto zoom (70-200mm).
1. I've heard of extension tubes, which work to reduce the focusing distance of a lens and in so doing, allow an object to be more frame-filling. How many varieties of extension tubes are available for Canon DSLRs, and how much do they usually cost? Besides requiring a longer exposure time, are there any other things I need to watch out for?
2. I've also read about the Reverse Lens Technique. Is it possible to buy a cheap 50mm prime and then mount that in reverse onto my telephoto zoom for a good macro setup?
3. Diopters (?), which I believe are basically just magnifying glasses seem to be readily available, but I heard that it drops image quality dramatically as the magnification is increased. Should I still consider this?
4. Then the most expensive option remaining seems to be to purchase a dedicated macro lens. There's huge numbers of these on the market...which ones have you used, and what would you recommend? To be safe, I'd just say that I wish to photograph insects and flowers smaller than 2cm across (eg. flies, small spiders).