need advice on equipment

Hi everyone,

I love the shots that you are posting here.
I have always been intrigued by macro photography.

I read somewhere that I could start with a 50mm lens and am extension tube.
Is that correct? I have seen a post in another thread of someone using a 100 mm lens and an inversed 50mm. Is that a better solution?

any advices would be greatly appreciated

thanks

stephan

You can do either but you will end up with high magnification and very shallow DOF and very close focus distance from the reversed lens (around 2:1 magnification whilst most dedicated macro lenses are 1:1).
You probably find it easier to use a std 50mm lens and a set of extension tubes- you can then vary the magnification but can still get above 1:1 with a full 65mm set of three. They work very well and can give results as good as a dedicated macro lens although the focus distance will be a bit closer than a proper macro lens.
If you look at my FLICKR pics some are commented as being taken with my emergency macro lens which was in fact a 50mm pentax lens on extension tubes. The quality is just as good as my sigma 105mm macro lens with extension tubes.
Brian V.

with this sort of set up you will be working close to the lens and will probably also need to think about getting a flash to the front/side of the lens.
Something like this (FZ20 with a Hakuba bracket to mount the flashgun):

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Extesion tubes and the 50mm work great, but, you have virtually no room to work with. With my set-up, 28-300 tamron and the Ext. tubes, I have, in my opinion, excellent working space,(the space between the subject and the lens) Take a look at my Gallery to get some ideas.