Macro lens choice for Canon Digital SLR?

G

Guest

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#1
Ive got the old Canon Digital Rebel SLR, and I want to get VERY close shots.

Like this:


What is a good lens choice for me? I dont care about Sigma or Canon brand. Lets leave price out of this for the moment, as I keep cruising craigslist for used macros and would like to find one used if possible. Thanks!
 

Cherub

Hey you
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#3
canon 100m, obviously the L would be better but you can get some really nice shots out the regular one. Canon is rated higher then the Sigma on user reviews and people usually get the Sigma to hold them over until they can get the Canon.
Both have good reviews but the Canon just does better over all.
 

jahmic

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#4
At least a 90mm focal length. If you really want to take shots like that of insects, you'll be hard pressed to do so without something closer to 200mm (and a tripod).

Also look at Tamron once you do get to the point where price may be a concern. The only disadvantage with those lenses over the Canon is going to be that the barrel extends as you focus, so you get some light fall-off and although the aperture might be set to, for example, 2.8...your camera will meter the image at about 5.6 or higher to adjust for the loss of light as the barrel extends.
 
G

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#8
very cool. is that the closest you can get with it? when people get the super close up shots are they cropping the image? or is there a way to get even closer?
 

djkms

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#10
SAZAMA;200789 said:
khris are you using a tripod and shutter release? those are ridiculous...
Yes, yes and thanks :)

Ryan, the pics are sized down for web viewing purposes. I did not crop any of the images but there is a minimum focusing distance with any lens. How much closer do you want to get?
 

jahmic

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#11
ryan;200777 said:
very cool. is that the closest you can get with it? when people get the super close up shots are they cropping the image? or is there a way to get even closer?
With a longer focal length you can stay further away from the subject...or get closer and have a very detailed close-up shot without cropping. The thing about cropping an image taken with a macro is that you will often lose sharpness rather quickly, especially if you didn't use a tripod to take the picture. With a 180mm macro you can get great shots (like the insect you posted) but the slightest bit of movement is amplified by the longer focal length. Long story short, many of those very close shots are taken with a tripod, and then cropped to get that level of detail...you just need a sharp, focused image to pull that off...which is one advantage of going with a professional grade lens.

A couple examples...

Uncropped 90mm Tamron macro:



The goby was about 10 inches from the lens...still plenty of detail but the camera can focus much closer. I took the pic without a tripod and got lucky.

Another uncropped image with the same lens, taken as close to the colony as I could get while keeping it in focus:




The same image cropped:



You can start to see the loss of sharpness. The pic was taken with a tripod...but you can only crop so much due to how the photosensors process the picture; you're also somewhat limited by how many megapixels your camera is when you start cropping.

They have "macro" adapters that magnify images, you can place them between the lens and your camera body. That would be the better option for getting very close pictures with a macro lens... you don't lose details like you do when you crop too much.
 
G

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#12
I want to get pretty close. somehitng like this:
[attachment=62733:name]

What the min focal length for that 100mm?
 
G

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#13
i really liked this from the SCMAS site. Was this a special lens or more cropping and tinkering on the computer?
 

jahmic

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#15
Unfortunately I don't have access to a computer, but if you or someone can save those images to the computer and view the metadata it would likely at least tell you the focal length that they took the picture with. From there you could probably determine whether the image was cropped or if they maybe used a shorter focal length with a teleconverter lens to get the image.
 
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