Help me choose a Lens!!!

[Canon 450D]

Forgive me for I am still pretty new to this Hobby; my weapon of choice is my Canon 450D. I take a lot of Reef Aquarium photos, plenty that are upclose and detailed. Right now, the only lens I have is the 18-55mm that came with the camera.

My question is, which of the lens' below would function best for Macro shots along with quality/price? I found these on C'List. Any additional info is greatly appreciated!

1.) Quantaray 70-300mm tele-macro - $100
2.) Sigma 75-300 AF Lens - $180
3.) Sigma 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 macro, aspherical lens - $100
4.) Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM - $275

 

[KenC]

Do you need to get as close as true macro, which is a 1:1 imagebject ratio? This would give you an image on the sensor the same size as the object, so you could fill the frame with something about an inch long. If so, I'm not sure any of these lenses would get you that close - you could check the specs. There is a little additional magnification from the smaller sensor in the Rebel bodies. The best thing is a macro lens, probably either the Canon 60 mm 2.8 EF-S or the 100 mm 2.8 (non-L). However, either one costs more than even #4 on your list. I don't know the other macros available for Canon, e.g., Tamron and Sigma, but they may give good results for less.

If you don't need to get as close as 1:1, but it is better quality from a moderate close-up you are looking for, you could get a 50 mm lens. These focus to about 1.5 feet and the small sensor crops the image so you get something like a 1:5 ratio or so, and could crop further in processing to boost this if you are not looking to make very large prints. The sharpness of the 50 mm should be much better than that of the kit lens.

 

[Canon 450D]

KenC, thanks for shedding some light. This is just the type of insight and info i was fishing for! I dont think I need a True Macro Lens (1:1), so I may look into the 50mm lenses.

Thx again! Cheers