Sorting out Macro lenses

I am about to purchase a 500D. This comes with an 18-55mm lens.

I am likely to also acquire a 28-135mm lens.

I need to digitise a batch of slides. My main use is to take macro photos of things like bees on a frame for example. I have been looking at macro lenses. The first three items on the following page show what I have seen as available locally.

http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lenses/macro/ma​cro.htm

But I think I am missing the plot. The 28-135mm lens I am likely to acquire seems to cover the same ground as the macro lenses on the link, do I really need to buy a macro lens?

If the answer is yes, which of the three lenses would be most suited to my need?

expatcm wrote in post #9766020
I am about to purchase a 500D. This comes with an 18-55mm lens.

I am likely to also acquire a 28-135mm lens.

Why? You'd be better off with an EF-S 55-250 IS to complement your 18-55 IS, rather than a lens that overlaps most of the latter's range.

Get a slide scanner.

My main use is to take macro photos of things like bees on a frame for example. I have been looking at macro lenses. The first three items on the following page show what I have seen as available locally.

http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lenses/macro/ma​cro.htm

But I think I am missing the plot. The 28-135mm lens I am likely to acquire seems to cover the same ground as the macro lenses on the link, do I really need to buy a macro lens?

Not for the purpose you state. The 18-55 IS or 55-250 IS will do the job very well, unless you want to fill the frame with a single bee.

Here's an example of what the 18-55 IS can do. The main image is the whole APS-C frame at closest focusing distance and 55 mm; the inset is a 100% crop.

Thank you for your responses xarqi.

Not a reality. The canon slide scanner is good but really expensive. It is a total waste of resources to buy a scanner for just one batch of slides. Scanners are VERY hard to find in the market here. I have never seen a slide scanner. So I will use a lens that will mainly use for macro work. Well that is the theory.

The 28-135mm lens will come from another source as a second hand lens at a very good price. It is an opportunity and so I will probably take it.

So the bottleneck is knowing what is going to work with digitising slides.

Thanks for your sample image .... that was really helpful

Focal lengths between a macro lens and a regular walkaround lens mean nothing. Macro lenses are those that allow you to see a 1:1 (or larger) representation of the object onto the sensor. Neither the 28-135 or the 18-55 can be used to get this macro view. HOWEVER, the kit lens 18-55 is a pretty good lens at doing closeup 1:3 almost-macro shots with a MFD of something like 6 inches (10+ cm?).

Your options are:

1) Buy a set of macro tubes, allowing you to use many different lenses to accomplish the "macro" thing or close to it.

2) Buy a dedicated macro lens, and whatever you choose, you will hardly go wrong. They are almost all excellent sharp lenses. Price and working distance are probably the two largest factors in a decision here, the longer the focal length, the more distance you can get between you and the subject, and when it comes to real live bees/wasps and not those on a slide, that might be a serious consideration.

3) There is a 3rd option but not really for the budding macro photographer, so I won't detail it here.

It really doesn't make sense to list all the good macro lenses, there are so many, Canon, Sigma, Tamron, etc. Just set a budget, figure out a focal length range, and find a lens that fits those constraints, IMO.

Here's looking to your future macro photography!

A Canon 500D closeup lens might help you out in the beginning. It is a two element closeup lens, very high quality that screws onto the front of your lens. It comes in various mm size. That and or tubes is a good way to start without laying out as many $$$ as a decicated macro lens would cost.

expatcm wrote in post #9766215
Not a reality. The canon slide scanner is good but really expensive. It is a total waste of resources to buy a scanner for just one batch of slides. Scanners are VERY hard to find in the market here. I have never seen a slide scanner. So I will use a lens that will mainly use for macro work. Well that is the theory.

$200 from Amazon. Sell it off when you've done the job.
http://www.amazon.com …QI/ref=dp_cp_ob​_e_title_2
Where's "here"?

I see it as an opportunity to spend money better spent elsewhere on a lens that won't serve you well, but it's your call of course. If it is a fantastic deal, buy it, then on-sell it and get a more appropriate lens with the proceeds.

A macro lens could be used but the main problem is keeping the slide absolutely parrallel to the sensor plane (for even sharpness across the image) and having even lighting, you will need some sort of home made jig. Possibly a copy stand and light box could be used although the alignment accuracy will be an issue.

I would not recommend a close-up lens with an ordinary lens as suggested by Larry because it may have poor flatness of field (centre and corners in focus in the same plane) even stopped down; perhaps worth a try if you already have the parts.

Note that none of the mentioned lenses are real macro lenses that will provide good flatness of field.

Many years ago in the film days there was sold a complete solution with a diffuser, slide mount and lens all in one, the optical quality was not great but it might be an option if you can get one and the necessary adaptor to the EF mount.

You could also look into a flat bed scanner with a film/slide attachment, assuming you need a flatbed scanner.

oh dear, this really is much more complicated than I had anticipated.

Here is provincial Thailand. It is not such a good idea to ship things in from overseas since that gets really really expensive after the customs have made their demands.

Going to the shops here and having a choice is something of a joke, it is not as if you have a great choice. The 500D can be found here. On the shelf. In two department stores, an office supplier and three "showcase display" photographic shops. In every shop the price is identical, it is ฿29,900. So why go to one shop and not another? Beats me. They tend to offer you freebies, always a different selection but of a value of say ฿500. Never ever any discount and only very rarely any idea about what they are selling.

Lenses are available if they have them. The shops tend to stock identical products though and the prices are also identical.

Some of them tell me that they can order from Bangkok. Ok .... three or four days for delivery and I can live with that. The problem is that you need know what you are ordering since once ordered the deal is done.

Extension tubes - I did find one shop that had heard of them but it was only one member of staff in that shop. Even I have heard of extension tubes, I even owned some in the distant past.

Larry, the Close Up Lens
http://www.the-digital-picture.com …Close-up-Lens-Review.aspx
looks a bit like the lens filters I used to add to my Olympus OM1 but that was years and years ago. I wonder if I would be able to order one here. I would hope that Canon are good enough in Thailand to do that.

Lester, the problem with flat bed scanners from my experience (I have and HP scanner with a slide / film caddy) is that they scan nicely but the overall result is poor since the grain on the film surface is also dominant in the scan.

Lester you also say

Would you by any chance like to stick your neck out and suggest a macro lens that you think is good. Depth of field on macro work is a very important consideration.

TeamSpeed, you say

I think you are right but from my perspective of equal importance is finding product on the shelf. Do you have any example of a lens that you think I may like to consider?

I would first try using your 18-55 lens on these slides to see what issue you encounter. Based on that, deciding on what to acquire may be an easier task.

As for customs, I expect you could probably order one extension ring at a time like the 12mm ring in order to reduce any customs issue. It is small and thin and would fit in a regular bubble mailer.

For example, look for the following from somebody. Ask them to just send the tube, no box or anything. They are robust and won't break intransit, and it will appear as a very inexpensive item.
http://cgi.ebay.com …ories?hash=item​3caae5281f

Later you can decide on a real macro lens perhaps. Sigma 60 and 70mm macros are great, you could also look at the Canon EFS macro, then you move into the 100mm or more lenses, and they get more expensive the longer the focal length.

Good suggestions TeamSpeed, thank you.

For general macro work you can't go far wong with any of the ones around 100mm, the canon 100mm classic is one of the macro lenses I use. As I say there is a lot of that sort of thing on my web page.

Living in the UK I know all about the customs and tax man taking a big chunk of your body both when you ern it and when you spend it.

expatcm wrote in post #9766628
oh dear, this really is much more complicated than I had anticipated.

the problem with flat bed scanners from my experience (I have and HP scanner with a slide / film caddy) is that they scan nicely but the overall result is poor since the grain on the film surface is also dominant in the scan.

If your flatbed is as good as that - enough resolution to show the grain - then I don't think you need to spend money on anything else...............The answer may be that the scanner software is not very good - it wasn't with the HP flatbed I used! Try Ed Hamrick's Vuescan.