Lens for Macro Flora (Page 6): There is another way. You might consider a telephoto zoom that will focus relatively close to the subject--you can fill your frame without scaring your...

TBPJr Loc: South Carolina

PolkadotDaisy wrote:

Aloha, I've been looking into getting a lens for Macro photos. I'm still pretty new to all of this and researching had become a little overwhelming. So I thought I'd ask for personal experience/preference. I do a lot of Macro Flora. Flowers, leaves, and almost anything on a plant. What lens would you recommend? These were all taken with my Canon 80D with the 18-135 mm kit lens. I want to be able to get up close and personal with the flowers.

There is another way. You might consider a telephoto zoom that will focus relatively close to the subject--you can fill your frame without scaring your subjects away and framing is easier with a zoom; a second advantage is better depth of field when you have good light. This also would give you a wildlife lens at the same time. A faster lens, like the EF 70-200 f/2.8, would be very good, too, and might make it easier to get your pictures in shade or dim lighting. Add your monopod and you can shoot with a pretty slow shutter speed, for things that will sit still for a moment.

I have the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, and I don't find it as useful for close-up work as my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. Once I understood how much easier it was to capture small creatures without getting close to them, I have rarely used the macro (I intend to use it for digitizing pictures and slides, so it's not a complete loss). Here is one of the best I have captured (September 2017, in the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls, Canada); I ended up using an ISO of 12800, at f/14, and 1/800 sec., while using an EF Extender 1.4 III for a 560mm focal length; this is the .jpg straight from the camera (because I haven't worked on the RAW files yet).

(Download)

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

PolkadotDaisy wrote:

Aloha, I've been looking into getting a lens for Macro photos. I'm still pretty new to all of this and researching had become a little overwhelming. So I thought I'd ask for personal experience/preference. I do a lot of Macro Flora. Flowers, leaves, and almost anything on a plant. What lens would you recommend? These were all taken with my Canon 80D with the 18-135 mm kit lens. I want to be able to get up close and personal with the flowers.

Macro lenses are great for flat copy, but for the subject matter you describe, I prefer a quality zoom and extension tubes. Any lens that produces good image quality at infinity will suffice. Focus at infinity, select the desired reproduction ratio and subject distance by choice of extension and focal length, move in or out to focus. Short focal length, shorter distance, and vice versa. Longer tubes, more magnification. With a prime lens one is stuck with a fixed distance for any given ratio, a zoom lens with extension tubes provides a range of distances for any given ratio. Edge definition is not critical for most three dimensional subjects, when they’re out of focus attention will be drawn to the main subject.
You might also want to Google lens reversing and lens stacking, a couple of inexpensive methods to attain higher magnification without sacrificing image quality.

travisdeland Loc: deland, FL

kpmac wrote:

Consider a Tokina 100mm. No image stabilization, but otherwise a great lens at an affordable price. IS is not very useful for macro, anyway.

I find the IS on my Sig macro very usefull-but I do shoot a lot without a tripod.

travisdeland Loc: deland, FL

I prefer a quality zoom and extension tubes.

I have to agree-I find I'm shooting more and more with my 100-400mm and extension tubes. The added working room really helps.

Mr Shannon

Like there are different powers in magnification in reading glasses there are different powers in magnification in macro lens
You can buy sets of them x1 to x5 and up that can help you a lot different scenarios and sizes of flowers

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

PolkadotDaisy wrote:

Aloha, I've been looking into getting a lens for Macro photos. I'm still pretty new to all of this and researching had become a little overwhelming. So I thought I'd ask for personal experience/preference. I do a lot of Macro Flora. Flowers, leaves, and almost anything on a plant. What lens would you recommend? These were all taken with my Canon 80D with the 18-135 mm kit lens. I want to be able to get up close and personal with the flowers.

The best value in a quality macro lens is the Tokina 100mm f2.8...its as good as the more costly lenses and 100mm is a versatile focal length.

PolkadotDaisy Loc: Hawaii

joer wrote:

The best value in a quality macro lens is the Tokina 100mm f2.8...its as good as the more costly lenses and 100mm is a versatile focal length.

I just got the Tokina 100mm f2.8 for my birthday. So far, I love it. Haven't taken it outside yet so we will see.