Some questions on lenses

[rparker762]

I have a Minolta Maxxum 7000 with a 35-70mm lens. I want to do some close up photography. Is that what a macro lens would be for? What lenses would you knowledgable folks recommend for this camera? I am looking to do general people pictures and landscape/ architecture. I don't want to be limited and would like to expand what I can shoot as my skills progress.

 

[Iron Flatline]

There are lenses that can do all of this, but they do all of it within limits. I don't know the lenses that fit your mount, but there is a LOT of them. I don't know if you need it, but below are some general comments on lenses:

A macro lens can take lovely images, but macro photography is really about capturing small details - almost like shooting with a looking-glass. You want something small to be bigger.

People pictures (portraits, candids, and street photography) benefit from a "normal" range, somewhere between around 28mm to 75mm. You could get a little "zoom" to cover those focal lengths, or go with some "prime" lenses. Zooms can visually close in on the subject, where as primes have a fixed focal length... but tend to be higher quality (there's less moving parts.) Your current lens does this job nicely.

Architecture is the urban version of Landscape - both benefit from wide-angle lenses (so you can capture a lot of the scenery) and both should be shot with a wide Depth-of-Field. That means you're going to want to shoot with a small aperture (like f/16 or f/22) and you should seriously consider using a tri-pod. You don't need a wide-angle for architecture or landscape, but you see them used a lot.