My next lens?

[Wonderland123]

Hey!

Right now I have a canon Rebel EOS 300D.
I have two lenses: one that's 28-80mm and one that's 75-300.
I also have a film fisheye camera on it's way in the mail.

I want a lens that will allow me to get closer, do some macro photography.
I was looking at the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.
What caught my attention was that it's only 170$!
But, it's only 10mm more than what I already have and it sees sort of pointless.

What do you guys suggest?

Thank you!

[shucklak]

The 10mm will make a huge difference! However, that's not the best lens for macro's. That's a good walk around lens and even a good landscape lens. A good staring macro lens is the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II. The best part about that lens, it's about $100 and takes far better pictures than the 18-55mm kit lens.

[CaraRose]

The 18mm-55mm is fairly mediocre... although the IS version is better than the older non-IS one. It's not really a macro lens though.

You might also want to look into getting extension tubes. I found them easier to use than the 100mm 2.8 I rented (though I still want to try the IS version of that lens that is now out ).

[Wonderland123]

Awesome! Thank you guys so much.
So it's the f stop that allows you to get close up, not the mm?
I'll definitely look into that 50mm

Thanks a lot!

[CaraRose]

It's neither. What makes it a macro is the minimum focusing distance, and different lenses have different minimum focusing distances, 2 lenses with the same length and the same aperture and they may have different focusing distances. Aperture controls the amount of light that comes in the lens and the depth of field. The mm will be the angle of view you get from the lens.

Dedicated macro lenses have the ability to focus closer than a non-macro.

Extension tubes work by adding extra distance between the lens and the camera, which changes the minimum focusing distance (but at the cost of the loss of ability to focus to infinity). These can be used with your existing lenses.

[spiraleyes]

Awesome! Thank you guys so much.
So it's the f stop that allows you to get close up, not the mm?
I'll definitely look into that 50mm

Thanks a lot!

The 50 is a great lens, but by no means is it anywhere close to being classified as a macro.

[BlueRob]

I second that that if possible try to avoid the 18-55 it will never be out of being the "kit lens" with all that is implied by that...not saying is bad but there are better glasses out there for almost the same money. And if you want Macro that is not the best lens for that application.

The 50mm f1.8 is great but has a min. focus distance of 18" if I remember correct.
The 100mm f2.8 either IS or not, will be more appropriate and better all around glass.

[WesternGuy]

Wonderland123, it might help us if we knew how much of a budget you have to spend on a macro lens. The 18-55 is definitely not a macro lens as others have indicated. My suggestion would be to get a set of extension tubes first. You might look at those made by Kenko for Canon lenses.

The extension tubes have no optics. They mount in between the camera body and lens to create more distance between the lens and sensor plane. By moving the lens father away from sensor in the camera, the lens is forced to focus much closer than normal. The greater the length of the extension tube, the closer the lens can focus.

The Kenko set contains three tubes of different length, a 12 mm, 20 mm, and 36 mm, which can be used individually or in any combination to obtain the desired magnification, or "closeness". They run around $200 ± (Cdn) for the set and they are designed to work with your Canon lenses so that you do not lose any of the electronic functions of the camera/lens combination, e.g., autofocus should still work okay. You might want to try them with your 20-80 mm first to see what kind of results you get. If these work for you then they should give you a good introduction to macrophotography, before you look at putting out more dollars for a true macro lens. Good news, is that the extension tubes will still work with your macro lens (when you buy one) - I use them occassionally with my 100mm L IS to get even closer than the lens itself, although depth of field and focus can be tricky. As well, you will probably need a good stable tripod for some macro work. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy