Upgrade My General Purpose Lens or Buy a Macro Lens?

andrrsgg

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I currently have two lenses:
~ the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
~ the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM (ordered it this week, haven't actually gotten it yet)

I've been interested in macro photography for a while now, but I'm not sure if it would be best to first focus on upgrading my general purpose lens (the 18-55mm) before going for a good macro lens? The images I get from my 18-55mm lens seem fine to me, but I've never really experienced first-hand the difference between a lower quality lens like mine and a high quality lens... Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
What's your budget and what do you really want to do?

That would be the first consideration since even a rough value gives a starting point for what kind of lenses will fit into your price bracket and thus what upgrades or macro lenses are going to be viable. Remembering of course that if you want to upgrade your kit lens you might well end up being able to sell the kit lens to give you a little more money.


After that comes what you want; if you want to shoot macro a macro lens is a very fine starting point and gives you a high quality prime lens (single focal length) that you can use for regular photography as well.

You could also upgrade your kit lens and get a set of extension tubes (they are quite affordable - Kenko makes a good range which have a good price and has the all important metal contacts which let you retain lens control - dirt cheap options will work just as well optically but will lack the contacts meaning you can't change the aperture of the lens). Extension tubes would let you shoot macro and get a respectable magnification; they can be more tricky as you have less working distance (distance from the front of the lens to the subject), than on most traditional macro lenses; but they can give you a good taste of macro with a low cost.
 
Why don't you rent a upgrade to your 18-55 to see how much difference it would make to your shots?

For getting into macro there are other options than a macro lens, extension tubes, close up filters or reverse mounted legacy lenses (direct on the body or on your existing lens). All of them can give excellent results and many will get you closer than the macro lens. A macro lens will be easier to use, but if you find the upgraded kit lens is worthwhile you can still get into macro as well without excessive cost.
 
If, as you said, you're happy with the images you're getting from the 18-55 then get the macro. Especially as you've been interested in that for a while.
 
I bought a Tamron macro lens and found to my delight that it is an excellent landscape lens as well. I would stick to the kit lens and get the macro lens.
 
Thanks for the input everyone, helps a lot :)
 
A macro lens that doubles as a portraiture lens or relatively quick prime would definitely be useful.
 
Like the 105mm f/2.8...
 

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