[excanonfd]

To everyone. Thanks for all the great suggestions.

Right now we're talking a couple of hundred ($200) max US dollars for my budget. I'm interested in taking still life and floral close ups at this point. Does that help at all re: narrowing it down?

That's a fair sized budget to enter into macro photography. I recommend you go with a 90 to 100mm macro lenses that can reproduce up to either 1:2 or 1:1 images. Preferably with auto aperture setting to make your life a little bit easier. This will allow you to pursue the type of images you seem interested in.

I am sure there are many nay sayers, but I would not recommend reversing rings. This set-up is for extreme closeups, where you can get real close, more than 1:1. Depending on the lens used, your subject will literally be just millimeters away from the lens. Breathe too heavily or sudden movement can have you diligently blowing pollen out of the rear element of your lens. Worse yet, you may bump into the stamen of the flower with your reversed lens because you forget how close you are and you will end up trying to wipe the colourful and sticky residue from the lens (been there, done that). Plus, to compose and focus properly with reverse mounted lens (and to prevent the above from happening), you need very precise control of the x,y, and z axis. The equipments that will give you some degree of adjustment over the 3D planes, will quickly eat into your budget, even if the mount itself is so affordable.Try it if you must, but it would be far more satisfying to fully explore the near-macro to macro photography before trying extreme closeups.

[jct us101]

That helps a lot, and I'm going to once again go with my recommendation of the Sigma 50mm f/2.8 lens. You'll love it, believe me.

[RioRico]

I'll extract the essence of what I said above. The cheapest way is a lens reversal ring, but that only works with lenses with aperture rings. The simplest way is with something like a Raynox DCR-250 or -150, either of which work well on your kit lens. The most expensive way is with a 'macro' lens, which can also be used for other purposes.

As an inexpensive easy start, I recommend a Raynox DCR-250. That will get you going. Cheers!

[Rondec]

The Raynox is a good choice, or an older manual focus macro lens. Remember that in general, you will need to shoot from a tripod and manual focus is the way to go. I guess one lens I would recommend looking at, saving for, would be the DA 35. It is an excellent macro lens for non moving things and doubles as a good walk around. Unfortunately it tends to run considerably over your budget.

[Naturenut]

Okay thanks again everyone. You've given me some great info and now I feel like I can at least make an informed choice.

[rparmar]

Besides the Cosina lens I mentioned above, I have had good results with a (quality) screw-in adapter, often called a filter (though this is inaccurate terminology in this case). These are handier than the Raynox since they are physically smaller. For example I can screw one onto the FA77 and still use the pull-out hood. But unlike the Raynox you need to get one for a specific thread (eg 49mm).

Here is an example:


spiral with pink petals