The How Zone

Macro Photography II

Equipment


Snowflake closeup 2
Click for full size image

As I mentioned I'm using a D70 and so the equipment I have the most experience with relates to that. I'll provide links to what appears to be similar Canon gear, but urge you to do a little research on your own.

In the first D70 Macro article I used a low cost Nikon 70-300mm G zoom lens. It's not the world's best lens, uses quite a bit of plastic, but for a hundred bucks it does a nice job and is great for experimenting and knocking around. This 70-300mm Canon lens looks somewhat similar.

The other part of the setup is a 50mm lens. I'm using a hand-me-down AF 50mm f/1.8 from a relative, and you can probably find these cheap on EBay or used at your local camera shop. Brand new ones are under eighty bucks: Nikon 50mm, Canon 50mm. It doesn't have to be the latest auto-focus, auto-everything lens either. In fact it's better if the lens is older and has a manual aperture ring. You'll see why in a bit.

Before you rush out and buy a lens I should point out that you don't need a zoom lens nor do you need something as large as 300mm. In fact that much magnification makes focusing and alignment pretty tough and, of course, magnifies subtle problems in the lens along with everything else. If you already have a higher focal length fixed lens you might want to first experiment with them.

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