Help! Macro Lens advice????

Firstly in what sort of way did you find problems with the 300D shots you tried - I am guess from your first post that its a lack of magnification (not close enough) for your tastes. To expand on what as been said already extension tubes are basically tubes - they attach to your camera between it and the lens and they will then reduce the minimum focsuing distance of the attached lens. Thus you can get closer and thus get a more magnified image; they will however remove you infinity focus - that is you will no longer be able to focus on things more than a few feet away at best (it varies on the lens and on teh amount of tubes you add). I should point out that the macro diopters and attachments like the 10+lens also work on a similar principle. Note that since tubes don't have any glass components its best to go for the Kenko AF tubes rather than the offical canon ones which are way overpriced for what you get. Also note that there are some super cheap tubes on the market (£5) but these have no electrical contacts - so your instantly unable to change you lens aperture nor auto meter with the lens once its attached - so go Kenko if you do go for tubes. They also have little noticable image degradatin - there is some, but its very minor.

Firstly in what sort of way did you find problems with the 300D shots you tried - I am guess from your first post that its a lack of magnification (not close enough) for your tastes.

To expand on what as been said already extension tubes are basically tubes - they attach to your camera between it and the lens and they will then reduce the minimum focsuing distance of the attached lens. Thus you can get closer and thus get a more magnified image; they will however remove you infinity focus - that is you will no longer be able to focus on things more than a few feet away at best (it varies on the lens and on teh amount of tubes you add). I should point out that the macro diopters and attachments like the 10+lens also work on a similar principle.

Note that since tubes don't have any glass components its best to go for the Kenko AF tubes rather than the offical canon ones which are way overpriced for what you get. Also note that there are some super cheap tubes on the market (£5) but these have no electrical contacts - so your instantly unable to change you lens aperture nor auto meter with the lens once its attached - so go Kenko if you do go for tubes.
They also have little noticable image degradatin - there is some, but its very minor.

[quote]The 300D is great for macro, with the correct lens, but compact cameras tend to be great and easy to use for macro due to sensor size and depth of field. There is a lot of maths we could go into but lets just say that the small sensor and the short real world focal lengths make them quite easy to use. Returning to the 300D, I found that using a set of macro tubes on my sigma 18-50 lens I got acceptable results, but I will say that I found manual focus worked better, and distance between you and the subject is critical to the focus. I found that a 50mm prime worked a treat with the tubes. Here is an example taken by me using my 300D and 50mm lens It is not the best photo in the world, but it lets you get a feel for how close you can get. The print is much better, you can see all the sections of the eye.... I now use a sigma 105mm macro, why well the tubes are fussy and the sigma turned up for @ £100 2nd hand so I snaped it up. Oh and the Leif chap knows his stuff, so for better advice listen to him.[/quote] wow great macro would my 18-55 with tubes have similar results? and what would i be looking for say on ebay?

Quote:The 300D is great for macro, with the correct lens, but compact cameras tend to be great and easy to use for macro due to sensor size and depth of field. There is a lot of maths we could go into but lets just say that the small sensor and the short real world focal lengths make them quite easy to use.

Returning to the 300D, I found that using a set of macro tubes on my sigma 18-50 lens I got acceptable results, but I will say that I found manual focus worked better, and distance between you and the subject is critical to the focus.

I found that a 50mm prime worked a treat with the tubes.
Here is an example taken by me using my 300D and 50mm lens It is not the best photo in the world, but it lets you get a feel for how close you can get. The print is much better, you can see all the sections of the eye....

I now use a sigma 105mm macro, why well the tubes are fussy and the sigma turned up for @ £100 2nd hand so I snaped it up.

Oh and the Leif chap knows his stuff, so for better advice listen to him.


wow great macro
would my 18-55 with tubes have similar results? and what would i be looking for say on ebay?

thankyou folk, I'm obsorbing all advice I can get before deciding :)

thankyou folk, I'm obsorbing all advice I can get before deciding

The 18-55 would not be quite as good, but I think you could get reasonable results. In terms of how close it would focus, stick it to 50mm and it will get that close. I use the jessops set of 3 tubes. The 50mm f1.8 prime is very sharp @ f8, so any degradation caused by using the tubes. For the price it optically works tremendously, but beware lots of the lens is made from plastic. But remember the prime is a sharper lens than your zoom. So my feeling is a dedicate macro lens on a dSLR produces stunning results and ones @ 100mm work well (Tamron 90mm, Sigma 105, Canon 100, I have used and like all 3). Next best is a prime of @ 50mm on tubes, then a zoom on tubes. If I try and give you a comparison, print at A4 and the zoom will be OK, print at A3 and put them side by side, the prime will look better. But it is my subjective view. [link=http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Accessories/Lens%20Accessories/Extension%20Tubes/products/Kenko/DG%20AF%20Extension%20Tube%20Set%2012-20-36%20CANON%20Fit-73453/Show.html]This is the sort of thing I am talking of[/link] I got some Jessops own brand ones, under £70 when I bought them and they could take EF-S lenses. Please not that some, like this set, do not take your lens.

The 18-55 would not be quite as good, but I think you could get reasonable results. In terms of how close it would focus, stick it to 50mm and it will get that close. I use the jessops set of 3 tubes.

The 50mm f1.8 prime is very sharp @ f8, so any degradation caused by using the tubes. For the price it optically works tremendously, but beware lots of the lens is made from plastic. But remember the prime is a sharper lens than your zoom.

So my feeling is a dedicate macro lens on a dSLR produces stunning results and ones @ 100mm work well (Tamron 90mm, Sigma 105, Canon 100, I have used and like all 3). Next best is a prime of @ 50mm on tubes, then a zoom on tubes.

If I try and give you a comparison, print at A4 and the zoom will be OK, print at A3 and put them side by side, the prime will look better. But it is my subjective view.

This is the sort of thing I am talking of I got some Jessops own brand ones, under £70 when I bought them and they could take EF-S lenses. Please not that some, like this set, do not take your lens.

odd - I have a set of kenko Extension tubes and they will take canon EFS lenses - shop about and I am sure they can be found.

odd - I have a set of kenko Extension tubes and they will take canon EFS lenses - shop about and I am sure they can be found.

If you search on Ebay for AF Extension Tubes there's a seller in Glasgow that has some. They're not Kenko but they do have the electrical contacts for AF confirmation and aperture control of the lens. Price is about £65 plus £5 postage. The genuine Kenko ones can be had from Ebay sellers and Onestop Digital from Hong Kong for £85. Tempted myself...

If you search on Ebay for AF Extension Tubes there's a seller in Glasgow that has some. They're not Kenko but they do have the electrical contacts for AF confirmation and aperture control of the lens. Price is about £65 plus £5 postage.

The genuine Kenko ones can be had from Ebay sellers and Onestop Digital from Hong Kong for £85.

Tempted myself...