Alternative to canon macro lens

[donskibeat]

Hi all

I have a canon eos-550d and am very interested in trying out macro photograhpy but just can justify the cost of the canon 60mm macro

I had been looking at these two lenses instead as though it would give me best of both worlds i.e. macro and telephoto

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro

Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3,5-6,3 XR Di LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO

Any comments or suggestions please on which to go for or perhaps a better choice?

Thanks

[squishy]

Hi, welcome to the forum

Neither of those lenses are actually true macro lenses, they just focus quite close. True macro lenses can go to 1:1 (life size on the sensor) magnification, those zoom lenses will get to 1:2 (half size on the sensor) at best.
Image quality (sharpness, contrast etc.) will also be lower than with the 60mm macro.

It depends what you want it for. They give you more all round abilities, but you pay the price of quality and not being able to focus as close.
Out of those two I would go with the sigma 70-300mm unless you really need the wider angle of the tamron 28-300. As a rule of thumb, the larger the zoom ratio of a lens, the more you compromise on image quality.

If you do get one of those zoom lenses, you can always add a raynox close up lens (about £40) to the front which will get you about as close as the 60mm macro. The image quality still won't be as good, but you still have more flexibility.

If you want a cheaper higher quality "nearly" macro lens, have a look at the cosina 100mm f/3.5 macro. You can get them in canon mount for under £150 on fleabay and it'll focus to 1:2 magnification with very decent optical quality. You can also add a raynox close up lens to this to get to 1:1 ratio and still maintain very nice image quality. It's sold with a cheap screw in "1:1 adapter" lens, but this is supposed to be quite poor optically.
The draw backs of the cosina are poor build quality and very slow auto focus, which makes it a lot less useful as a general use lens, but it's probably the cheapest way to get high quality macro performance.

Hope that helps

[Geoff F]

What do you want to photograph?

If it is small insects you will probably have saved yourself a lot of disappointment and wasted money by not purchasing the 60 mm lens. This size can work OK for larger objects like flowers though. But for insect work I would advise using 150 mm.

You could add an extension tube to that 70-300 and get even closer. A 25 mm tube should work out just a little over £100 for a reputable make.

There are a few slight 'side effects' like a small reduction in light levels and you can't focus at longer distances when using it. But this doesn't usually cause any serious problems.

I started getting serious about macro with a 25 mm tube attached to the Canon 70-300 lens.

A good tripod will be another essential. Macro photography can initially be fun but it is addictive and soon becomes expensive! You have been warned!

I don't know anything about the Tamron 28-300 lens but that is a wide range unless you are spending serious amounts of money. I did have a Sigma 28-300 macro which came attached to a secondhand camera and my opinion is that it made a third rate door stop!

[donskibeat]

Thank you both for your helpful replies

I am interested in photographing insects and flowers and generally anything close up - I also like photographing birds/wildlife and have found my existing lens doesn't get me quite close enough so thought one of the above would possibly help in both areas

My existing lenses are :-

Canon EFS 18-55 IS
Canon EFS 55-250 IS

I also already own a tripod so this won't be a problem

Would I get okay results with just buying an extension tube for use with my existing lenses? I had thought about the Canon 25mm one

Or would I be better off going for one of the lenses I suggested

Thanks again for all your help it is much appreciated especially when helping me not buy the wrong thing or spend too much money

[LCPete]

Originally Posted by donskibeat

Thank you both for your helpful replies

I am interested in photographing insects and flowers and generally anything close up - I also like photographing birds/wildlife and have found my existing lens doesn't get me quite close enough so thought one of the above would possibly help in both areas

My existing lenses are :-

Canon EFS 18-55 IS
Canon EFS 55-250 IS

I also already own a tripod so this won't be a problem

Would I get okay results with just buying an extension tube for use with my existing lenses? I had thought about the Canon 25mm one

Or would I be better off going for one of the lenses I suggested

Thanks again for all your help it is much appreciated especially when helping me not buy the wrong thing or spend too much money

I would have thought that an ext tube would work well with your 55-250 IS
the IS will help a lot
I used to use an ext tube with my 70-200 canon and the image quality was very good
the jessops set is very good as it will give you a range of sizes to play with
dont get the very cheap ones from ebay
pete

[donskibeat]

Originally Posted by LCPete

I would have thought that an ext tube would work well with your 55-250 IS
the IS will help a lot
I used to use an ext tube with my 70-200 canon and the image quality was very good
the jessops set is very good as it will give you a range of sizes to play with
dont get the very cheap ones from ebay
pete

Thanks Pete - it seems that the set of 3 kenko tubes from jessops are not compatible with the Canon EF-S lenses I have unfortunately

[squishy]

Kenko do make some Ef-s compatible tubes.

The one's jessops sell aren't, but if they have a white square next to the red mount alignment dot then they're EF-s compatible.

You can get them on ebay if nowhere else.

Much better value than the canon ones.

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by donskibeat

Hi all

I have a canon eos-550d and am very interested in trying out macro photograhpy but just can justify the cost of the canon 60mm macro

I had been looking at these two lenses instead as though it would give me best of both worlds i.e. macro and telephoto

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro

Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3,5-6,3 XR Di LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO

Any comments or suggestions please on which to go for or perhaps a better choice?

Thanks

I believe you have 2 choices.

Buy one of these lenses and take frustratingly poor quality macro and long range images, or

Buy a decent macro lens (concentrate on things like your field craft and camera settings), then wait 'til you have money for a decent long lens.

[wizzo]

Tamron SP90 Macro/Portrait lens. Stunning Glass for the money! Wizzo

[donskibeat]

@wizzo

thanks, but I can get the canon macro lens for not much more - and the problem is I don't have that amount to spend

@all

Any other suggestions for cheaper macro lenses or other lenses that would allow me to do reasonable macro photography without such a high cost