good cheap macro lense

[Regnis]

Hey gentlemen/gentlewomen

I currently own many native bee hives (the very very small non stinger bees) and am looking to take photos of the bees for my school program I am starting. I need a good but really cheap macro lens (if this is possible) or if you could just recommend a decent one that'd be great. I have a Canon 40d

Cheers
Regnis

[yayas]

Don't know how cheap you could go.

If you want cheap, you better look at manual focus lenses:
Tamron 90/2.5 adaptall (1:2 goes 1:1 with teleconverter)
Nikkor 55/2.8 or Nikkor 55/3.5 (1:2 goes 1:1 with teleconverter)

Those are good macro lenses.
I just got Tamron 90/2.5 adaptall. A very beautiful design (Zeiss lookalike), solid metal, but I ended up returning the lens since the diaphragm blades stick at wideopen position sometimes. Nonetheless, it's a beautiful macro lens.

If you're shooting bees, I'm afraid you would need long macro lenses (>90mm) which are typically expensive.

[Bob Atkins]

There are alternatives to actual macro lenses, including extension tubes and close-up lenses which screw in like a filter.  Depending on what lenses you alreay have, one of these alternatives may be the least expensive way to go.

See my article on macro lenses - http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/macro_lenses.html

If you have some thing like a 70-300 zoom, a Canon 500D close-up lens would be a good way to go.

[trailblazer87]

Hey all,

New to the forum, but have been reading for quite some time. 

To answer the question above, I have tried using the screw on up close lenses and found them to be quite effective except in bright light where some chromatic aberration seems to rear its ugly head.  Also if you do go this route you will use the flash because it will be too close and you will end up seeing the shadow of the lens in the shot. 

My rig is a 50D using the 28-135 IS kit lens and the Promaster closup lenses.  Also when wide open and at the shortest focal length a tiny bit of vignetting shows up in the upper corners, just as a faint shadow.

The honey bees I have shot were quite tolerant of my proximity, though I noticed something odd, when near the hive they attacked my UV filter heavily, not me, just the UV filter.

The other thing about the close up lenses is they don't like to auto focus and spend a lot of time hunting, its easier to use manual focus and just move the camera.  Shoot in burst mode and move the camera toward and away from the subject and you should get some good shots.

Hopefully this helps.

[KeithB]

I don't know if it is "cheap" but the EF-S 60 mm macro is about $370 with the rebate.  (Buy it through Bob's links!) that will get you to 1:1.

As far as Bees attacking a UV filter:  The bees might be seeing a reflection and assuming it is from a rival hive, or the UV filter might be reflecting a lot of UV - as opposed to absorbing it - and the bees think it is a bright flower.

[KeithB]

And for some tips on shooting insects check out:
http://scienceblogs.com/photosynthesis/

and hit previous to go to last month's posts.  (Currently it is all about model rockets, which is cool, but not relevant to the problem at hand!)

[Bob Atkins]

It's important when buying a close-up filter that you get a good one. The best ones are 2-element achromats, like the Canon 500D. Cheaper examples tend to be single element meniscus lenses and they result in lower quality images (softer and possibly showing chromatic aberration). I suspect the Promaster closeup lenses are simple single element meniscus lenses, and their performance will be limited.

When used with a long focus lens like the 70-300 at the longer end of the zoom range, they give you good working distance and allow the use of flash without the lens blocking the light.

My standard "long focus macro" lens is a Canon EF 70-300/4-5.6IS with a 2 element closeup filter (like the Canon 500D) attached.

I think Keith is probably right that the best price on a good macro lens for the EOS 40D is probably the EF-S 60/2.8 Macro. It will give you 1:1 magnification and the price is currently $360.

There was a low cost Vivitar/Phoenix/Cosina 100mm macro lens for the EOS a few years ago. It sold for under $150 and was pretty decent optically, but mechanically rather fragile. It went to 1:1 with a closeup lens attached to it. It's still around in versions for some older, non-AF cameras, buy I haven't seen an EOS version for sale in quite a while. It's possible they stopped making it.

[dentheman]

I have a 40D and the 70-300 USM IS lens and get great macro shots (IMO) with the 250D attachment.  With that attachment the distance from the end of my lens to the subject is 9.5 inches.  And it is about as cheap as you can get and still get high quality.

[hammmerhead]

I have a 40D and the 70-300 USM IS lens and get great macro shots (IMO) with the 250D attachment.  With that attachment the distance from the end of my lens to the subject is 9.5 inches.  And it is about as cheap as you can get and still get high quality.

Wow! The 250D on a 70-300 will really cut the focusing distance fom 5 feet to 9.5"?  Is this right?

[Bob Atkins]

The 250D is recommended for shorter focal length lenses, from 50mm to 135mm. The 500D is recommended with longer focal lengths, from 70 to 300mm, While you can use either the 250D or 500D on any lens they will screw onto, in general you'll get better results within the ranges Canon recommends.

You might find this chart useful - http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/closeup.htm

[Regnis]

Thankyou for your replies guys. Very much appreciated!

Just a question bob in regards to the chart... (sorry but i am very new to digital photography and am still trying to learn the basics) .... The two lenses i have are the canon 28mm 2.8  prime lens and the canon 28-105mm but i am still unsure as to what the chart means in terms of magnification. For the 500D on the 28mm 2.8 it says 0.06. So does this mean I will be able to see the image clearly and quite largely?

[Bob Atkins]

No. As I said the 500D is for lenses 70-300mm, not 28mm. Closeup lenses are only effective on lenses with a fairly long focal length. They don't do much on short focal length lenses.

If you want to do macro work with a wideangle lens (which isn't really the best way), you need and extension tube, not a closeup lens.

A magnification of 1 means the image is the same size as the object. That's what most dedicated macro lenses can do. 0.5 means 1/2 life size, 0.1 means 1/10 life size and so on.

If you haven't read it yet, see http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/closeup2.htm for more info on macro work.

[dentheman]

Yep...However at 300mm, focusing really becomes iffey.

I have a 40D and the 70-300 USM IS lens and get great macro shots (IMO) with the 250D attachment.  With that attachment the distance from the end of my lens to the subject is 9.5 inches.  And it is about as cheap as you can get and still get high quality.

Wow! The 250D on a 70-300 will really cut the focusing distance fom 5 feet to 9.5"?  Is this right?

[dentheman]

I have a 40D and the 70-300 USM IS lens and get great macro shots (IMO) with the 250D attachment.  With that attachment the distance from the end of my lens to the subject is 9.5 inches.  And it is about as cheap as you can get and still get high quality.

Wow! The 250D on a 70-300 will really cut the focusing distance fom 5 feet to 9.5"?  Is this right?

Yes, 250mm (as in '250' D) is equal to about 9.5 inches, and I have found that is the distance from the end of the 250D lens to the subject.  When used on my 70-300mm lens, precise focusing and DOF are very touchy at the highly magnified 300mm end, but get easier as I zoom back toward the 70mm end.  It  works well at all zoom settings, even though Canon recommends the 500D for this lens.   I have to assume Canon doesn't recommend my combination because of the focus/DOF issues at the high magnification end, but I find using a tripod,  macro focusing slider and a small aperture reduce those issues.  I don't have a 500D, but I assume the lens-to-subject distance would be 500mm.  The 250 or 500 in the nomenclature is the "lens-to-subject distance", no matter what reasonable lens it is attached to. (I assume, since I don't have a bunch of lenses to test this.) It looks like I got my post right this time.