cheap macro photography equipment

This week, I just found myself in the close up macro phase of my on-off photography adventure. And having found the regular macro lenses a little too expensive for my taste, I got into a little research about cheap macro photography setups or equipment. And fortunately, I found a few cheap macro close up alternatives.

The Macro Close Up Lens

I’m not referring to the real macro lens such as the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro Lens as like I said earlier, it’s a tad too expensive for me unless I specialize in macro photography. What I mean are those little filter sized lenses you put on your lens that lets you get closer to your subject beyond the minimum focusing distance that your regular lens allows.

I got 4 pieces of these little lenses like the 1 2 4 10 Close Up Macro Filter at Amazon. The 1 2 4 10 numbers simply mean a dioptre magnification of 1x, 2x, 4x, and 10x.

Here are some of my attempts at macro close up photography using the filters. As I can’t find some interesting object like a bee perhaps or a spider to shoot, I used my forefinger as a test subject. For these, I coupled the 4x and 10x filters together and placed it on top of the 18-55mm kit lens.

cheaper alternative to macro photography — The kit lens with the 10x and 4x tandem

The Macro Reverse Ring

The day after I shot the above pictures, I went to the malls to check out for reverse rings. Among the first three malls I visited, only one happened to have a store that sells these rings. I purchased a 58mm reverse ring which fit perfectly with my 18-55mm kit lens.

Hereunder are some of my attempts at macro photography. Again, these attempts being at the spur-of-the-moment ones, I scrambled to find something interesting to shoot besides my forefinger again. I the absence of an interesting subject, I opted to make a door key my subject for test shooting using my macro reverse ring. 🙂

cheap macro photography equipment — Using the macro reverse ring with the 10x and 4x macro close up lenses on the 18-55mm kit lens. Uncropped.

cheap macro photography setup — Using the macro reverse ring on the 18-55mm kit lens only. Uncropped.

cheaper alternative macro photography — The model

I’m sure the macro shots using those expensive macro lenses give way much better quality images than these cheap alternatives. Because if not, no one would be shelling out big bucks if their quality equals those taken through the above-cited alternative macro photography setups. Me, unless I decide to take macro photography more seriously, I shall content myself with these cheaper close up macro equipment.