Macro set up on a budget... is it possible

wildman

wildman

wildman

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I am trying to get a macro set up but I am on a relative shoe string. Mainly for flowers and insects with some indoor still life macro work also. I have a Sony A700. looking to keep it under 350 quid if possible

So far I have been thinking of getting the following

Sony DT 30mm f2.8 SAM Macro Lens - 160 quid
Set of Kenko AF Extension tubes - 145 quid
Cheap 40 quid 4 way macro focusing raid from the rain forest

that comes in aroudn the budget I am looking at.

The Sony 30mm build quality could probably be better but for 160 quid new plus the fact the min focus distance is 2cm I think it will likely yiled fairly good results ?
 
wildman said:
I am trying to get a macro set up but I am on a relative shoe string. Mainly for flowers and insects with some indoor still life macro work also. I have a Sony A700. looking to keep it under 350 quid if possible

So far I have been thinking of getting the following

Sony DT 30mm f2.8 SAM Macro Lens - 160 quid
Set of Kenko AF Extension tubes - 145 quid
Cheap 40 quid 4 way macro focusing raid from the rain forest

that comes in aroudn the budget I am looking at.

The Sony 30mm build quality could probably be better but for 160 quid new plus the fact the min focus distance is 2cm I think it will likely yiled fairly good results ?
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I'm not sure the rail is a good idea. Insects will move/fly away while you're carefully adjusting the rail and if the flowers are outside the wind will poke fun at any attempt at focussing with the rail.

Do you have a tripod or monopod already? I find that a tripod is helpful with insects and I have also used a monopod successfully.
 
Focus rail I'd personally only find useful for focus stacking a static subject. I'm afraid I don't know anything about the Sony macro lens, 30mm is a short focal length though? The extension tubes I'd look at sourcing those from a HK seller, they'll cost you around £80 then.

What lenses do you currently have? The Raynox DCR-250 might be worth a look at for a cheap way into macro?
 
You need to choose which focal legnth you need. All true Macro lenses will give 1:1 (or better) at their Minimum Focus Distance (MFD). The MFD is the distance form the camera sensor to the subject required to get 1:1 reproduction.

On a 30mm lens this will be pretty short and probably only a few cm in front of the lens. You are going to scare way most insects that way. Soemthing in the 100mm range would be better for insects on a crop camera.



Secondly, how much magnification do you really want? As I said, all true macro lenses will give at least 1:1, so something 2cm big will be projected 2cm big on the sensor and will likely fill most of the frame. The extension tubes would only be needed if you want greater than 1:1 reproduction. I would skip these and allow more budget for your lens.


also, make sure you have a decent tripod and head, critical in macro work. If you don't have a set this will easily eat through your budget before you have even got a lens. Macro work is incredibly unforgiving of vibrations so cheap tripods just don't cut it really.
 
The excellent Tamron 90mm Macro is available in Sony A fit for just under £350 and is all you need (apart from the decent tripod).
 
Get a longer FL lens. You need to be a bit further away for insect photography than 2cm. Also lighting will be an issue the closer you get to the subject (flash eclipsed by camera or shadows). What are you thinking of using for lighting?
 
danza said:
Get a longer FL lens. You need to be a bit further away for insect photography than 2cm. Also lighting will be an issue the closer you get to the subject (flash eclipsed by camera or shadows). What are you thinking of using for lighting?
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was going to save up for a ring flash.

Tripod side is sorted I have a decent Velbon legs and head which is sturdy.
 
Do you need to spend £145 on Kenko tubes, surely any AF extension tubes will do the same job. They are just spacers with pass-through contacts so should have no direct affect on image quality depending on brand.

Choosing another make could save you £100.
 
I'm not certain what the equivalent would be for Sony mount but on the Canon people get some nice results reverse mounting the cheap 1.8 50mm Canon lens.

Only thing I would say is the working distance of a 50mm lens can make it very difficult to get close enough to insects without spooking them.
 
Snapshot said:
The excellent Tamron 90mm Macro is available in Sony A fit for just under £350 and is all you need (apart from the decent tripod).
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Have one of these myself, it's noisy and causes horrible fringing even stopped down.

I've found one of the best ways is to get some cheap manual extension tubes, they cost just over £10 and can be used with any lens. You need a 1:1 measure of the tubes (so 50mm tubes makes 1:1 on a 50mm lens).

If you've a little more money to splash you could get some bellows, I wish I did and I'm planning on getting some now as they give you much more control. Another plus about bellows is most operate to 150mm, where as tubes usually go just over 50mm, this means you can add a 150mm lens and still get 1:1 reproduction, and also stay a good distance away from the subject (great for insects). Only downside is the larger the distance, the more light falloff you'll get and thus will need to use a slower shutter speed, so this method works best if coupled with an already fast lens ;)

As mentioned you'll want a nice sturdy tripod and a shutter release. For a cheap sturdy tripod look at Redsnapper; they aren't as refined as more expensive legs but are very good for the money!
 
I really need to get back into macro photography, maybe this summer.

It all depends what you want to shoot, for insects I'd go for a dedicated macro lens of around 100mm this will give you a decent working lengh and later on add some extension tubes and a good flash gun. I never found a use for a tripod when shooting insects, its a bugger to carry around and by the time you've set it up the insects long gone. A steady hand and flash gun with deflectors is the way forward.

If your doing still life then a tripod is handy, again i'd go for a dedicated macro lens. Not so much need for a flash as you should be able to lower the shutter speed working on a tripod and its a good idea to set the camera off by remote so there's zero camera shake.

for very cheap you could just get some manual extension tubes and use a 50mm lens or there abouts, you can get good results like this however if your lens doesn't have an aperture ring your lens will be stuck wide open also if using all 3 rings your'll get a lot of light fall off which makes working in any thing other than bright light a lot harder to focus.
Of course you wont get any of this if you go for the more expensive kenko tubes.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Do you need to spend £145 on Kenko tubes, surely any AF extension tubes will do the same job. They are just spacers with pass-through contacts so should have no direct affect on image quality depending on brand.

Choosing another make could save you £100.
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I haven;t found any other AF tubes for A-mount that come in much chepaer TBH. For cannon / Nikon mounts I can see more offerings but son'y stable seems to be a bit barren unless I am looking the wrong places
 
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