advice for macro/convertors

[rob27789]

So my first post ! looking for advice from you with more experience than me. Currently I have a canon 450d with the EF75-300 F4 lens and EFS 18-75 F3.5 lenses.

Id like to get into some macro photography, any advice for a cheap way to get into experimenting etc ?

secondly, id also like a bigger lens for wildlife photos. any advice on convertors (1.4 or 2 X ) or am i better looking at another big lens?

and lastly, ive heard of remote camera controls so you can do time lapse photos etc, anyone tried or got any experience of them ?

thanks in advance

[djguk47]

Re: advice for macro/convertors

Rob,
Firstly, welcome to the forum.

If you want to dip your toe into the water and see if you like macro photography have a look at the close up lens supplied by 7 day shop.

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=102346

You simply screw these onto your lens as you do with a UV filter. Much cheaper than paying for expensive macro lens only to find that you do not really want to go down the macro path.

David

[colin C]

Re: advice for macro/convertors

Hello Rob and welcome.

Extension tubes are an inexpensive way to get into macro photography. The Canon ones are quite expensive and considering there are no lenses within them, no reason why you shouldn't consider ones from other manufaturers.

Be cautious on auction sites that you look for "Automatic" extension tubes. These preserve the information flow between the body and lens so that you can still auto meter and auto focus. If they don't state "automatic" and the price is cheap, you will have to manually meter and focus, which will be a pain.

Expect to pay around £70 - 80 for a set of three, which is less than the cost of one Canon extension tube.

Converters won't work that well with your lenses and the Canon ones won't work at all. Much better to put the money towards a Canon 300mm F4 L IS, or the Canon 400mm F5.6 L.

Hope that helps.

Colin

[codachrome]

Re: advice for macro/convertors

Hi Rob and welcome all the above advice is good,,,as for the time lapse photography a cheap way is to buy a battery grip with the time lapse built in.....you may also want to buy a powerpack as time lapse will drain your batteries

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LCD-TIMER-BATTERY-GRIP-CANON-EOS-450D-500D-1000D-/200477085115?pt=UK_Photography_DigitalCamBatt_RL&hash=item2ead5d8dbb

Coda

[rob27789]

Re: advice for macro/convertors

thanks for the advice so far guys. So if the 1.4 and 2x convertors wont work with my current lens(shame!) any suggestions on what lenses to go for for shooting wildlife (birds etc) im guessing im going to need 400mm plus but when you start looking at lenses theres millions to start looking through

[colin C]

Re: advice for macro/convertors

Canon 400mm f5.6 L.

Colin