Macro on a budget

R

rocketman122

Senior Member
ah dont know about nikons closeup filters. from what I remember they didnt make 77mm sizes back then. not sure today. today cheap ones that are decent can be had for $15 or so for 3 strengths. the ones you posted with the contacts are plastic body with metal mount. thats ok. the problem is mounted lenses with more than 1 tube and there is a flex and you can even see the lens has a slight bend downwards. and it will havesome slight movement. contacts are iffy. they mostly worked but sometimes they needed to be removed and remounted. I didnt want to deal with that and bought the all metal ones for peace of mind not in reliabilty for fear it would break but because of the flex/wobble thats annoying for critical work.
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Cheapest way to do a bit of macro is simply to hold or tape a magnifying glass in front of any lens. Not perfect, but it does exactly the same as close-up filters.
 
E

Elliot87

Senior Member
rocketman122 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J8fFQwt7pc

thats for configuring the specs of the lens. it wont help with tubes though that have no contatcs. with kenko or the mid range one it should pass it along for those with G lenses. D/AI/AIS lenses..Id go manual.
Click to expand...

Interesting video and I've certainly learnt something new from it. Unfortunately it doesn't help me much as the D3200 has no aperture indexing ring, so there's not much I can do. What I've read is that none of the D3*** or D5*** range have one. A D7100 is on the cards for me in any case so I'll put that tutorial into effect then.
 
R

rocketman122

Senior Member
Elliot87 said:
Interesting video and I've certainly learnt something new from it. Unfortunately it doesn't help me much as the D3200 has no aperture indexing ring, so there's not much I can do. What I've read is that none of the D3*** or D5*** range have one. A D7100 is on the cards for me in any case so I'll put that tutorial into effect then.
Click to expand...

Whoops my bad. sorry. didnt pay attention to that and I didnt know they dont have that feature. wow is nikon stingy with basic features.
 
E

Elliot87

Senior Member
rocketman122 said:
wow is nikon stingy with basic features.
Click to expand...

It seems that way. If I'd have known how much I'd love photography I'd have bought a D7100 right off the bat, not only would I have had a better camera body, it would have opened up a whole lot more suitable lenses. In saying that I don't think I'll have lost out because the price has dropped by a few hundred £'s since then so I'll probably end up with two cameras without paying much extra.
Really like this 55mmlens though and I think I'll love it on a D7100.
 
M

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Just picked up from another forum the idea that a cheap macro lens can be made by removing the front element,they had used the basic Canon kit zoom but its supposed to work with any,so just get a nikon lens with a badly scratched front element and remove it,think its too late for an April the first post so i guess there is a chance it could work.
 
Top