Macro on the cheap. Which way?

[robertgilbert86]

Ok, it seems everyone is doing macro, and summer is a good time to 'invest'. But I don't want to buy a dedicated lens for macro work. I'd rather play with the £10 options below.
I'd like to know your experiences with them and which one is best. Also I'm interested in how close I'd need to be to the subject, because I fear getting right up close to insects will scare them away. I'd be using my D50 with the 18-135mm lens for this and it has a 67mm thread.

• macro filter rings (can be stacked-are the results good?)
• reversal rings (to mount lens backwards)
• extension tubes (I'd be buying manual ones-so aperture is automatically widest? could bluetak be used to vary the aperture if the lens doesn't have a manual setting?)

 

[robertgilbert86]

Thanks for all the advice guys, you have all made my decision much more difficult

I think auto extension tubes may be the way to go, because then I can use any lens with them and as pointed out above, I won't lose any optical quality. Then maybe if they are no good for insects I'll get a close-up filter.

I'm sure you'll see my results on here at some point!

 

[robertgilbert86]

So I finally got some manual extension tubes off the 'bay. Here's what I got this morning using flash (-1.5ev), f22, 1/500s and the 50mm f1.8.