Macro photography has come to be a hobby (or profession) for numerous photographers in the prior number of years due to better quality equipment readily available at reasonable prices. This information was originally published on my Nature and Travel Photography web site and shares my thoughts about what to buy if you are interested in shooting macro photos. I recommend the The 123di Suite for additional information, a FREE sample is available.

Macro Photography Equipment

* dedicated macro lenses

* extension tubes or bellows units

* reversing rings

* close up lenses and

* macro zooms (that are pushing the limit of what we are talking about)

Dedicated macro lenses are the ultimate way to go if you are serious at all about doing this sort of work. It won't have to end up being pricey, I purchased a great 50mm Sigma Macro lens used for all of $120 (brand new about $270) and it is tack sharp and produces amazing images. My main macro lens is a Sigma 150mm Macro and cost a huge $700, the best money I have ever spent. This presents you an idea about the cost range available and the sky’s the limit with a few highly specialized Nikon macro lenses in the $2,000 range. Why the difference in focal lengths? I’ll get to that soon in another article that I’m working on! If you are really serious about macro photography buying a lens specifically created for the purpose is the best way to go. The lens designs are generally optimized for close focusing and the lenses are also generally flat field (focus in a flat plane) producing crisper corners on flat objects such as pieces of timber or slabs of rock. Flat field may be a term that many have not heard of and I’ll elaborate in the future on this as well.

Extension tubes or bellows units are pieces of gear that put space between the camera body and the lens thus allowing the lens to focus closer. They can work well with certain lenses, for example, if you have a 50mm prime lens this may well be a great option to get into macro work at an reasonable cost. Extension tubes often come in sets of 3 of different lengths (high quality tubes tend to be sold individually) that can be employed singly or combined to get the close focusing distance required. Bellows units work on the same principle but are expandable like a “bellows” allowing a good deal of flexibility. The real disadvantage is the expense and they are bulky and heavy as well. I expect most individuals use bellows units for studio work only as they aren’t terribly practical in the field. One area where extension tubes really sparkle is for making lengthy focal length camera lenses like a 400mmfocus closer, great for photographing skittish damsel flys and various other critters.

Close up lenses are clear “filters” that twist onto the front of your lens enabling the lens to focus nearer. Quality may differ from mediocre to very acceptable depending on the quality of the filters. This is likely the least expensive way to start shooting macro but does have its drawbacks. A large factor that has to be looked at is the quality of the camera lens you will be using. Inexpensive zoom lenses will likely produce less than stellar results while high quality prime lenses can produce excellent results but none of these will produce tack sharp results like the dedicated macro lenses. The major advantage? As these are just fancy filters they are very light, no extra tubes or additional lenses to carry.

You don’t hear much about reversing rings anymore and I expect that’s because most people are using zoom lenses that likely wouldn’t work very well. Reversing rings make it possible for you to mount a lens “backwards” on the digital camera body. When employed with high quality primary lenses the outcome can be beautiful and if you invert a wide angle lens frequently an individual can easily achieve a large magnifications on the order of 2 times or more. For people interested in substantial magnification shooting this is often the approach to use, especially if you are on a spending budget.

What about the macro zoom lens that you already possess? Many of the new lenses that are available as part of a kit are described as macro zooms and although they do focus a little closer compared to normal they're definitely not genuine macro lenses. My own experience has been that almost all of them are very suspect in terms of sharpness mainly because these kinds of lenses are not engineered for this sort of application. Of course in a crunch they will function but to get in truly in close proximity to your subject one of the above options would be most effective.

What are you presently using? Are you satisfied with the results?