Wanted to buy a new macro lense !!!

[Lsingh]

I been getting more and more evolved in photography and wanted to treat my self with a new macro lense ...
I been using canon 100mm non L series for a quite some time now and I luv it so far ....
I also regular updates on l series lens also wanted to know if that is a better buy rather than sigma lens for my canon xti!!!!


Thanks
Lucky Singh

 

[Gavjenks]

I'm a little confused about whether you've already bought one and are just commenting, or if you are thinking of buying a new lens? I will assume the latter:

1) Have you tried tubes or bellows yet? These are vastly cheaper than macro lenses, and will generally offer equally high quality results. Real macro lenses offer only one major benefit over an equally high quality piece of glass with an extender: more light (using tubes or bellows you lose a lot of light and may only be able to shoot at f/8 or so). They also offer things like autofocus and IS. IS could be nice, but AF is odd/not terribly useful for high magnification macro photography, since you usually focus by moving the whole camera. So if you plan on shooting macro in a well lit studio or in broad daylight, this is probably just as good as any but the most high quality macro lenses, and only costs like $30.

2) If you're set on buying a lens, then I suggest getting the 65mm f/2.8 macro 1-5x lens if you want to do extreme macro on rails and tripod, etc. OR the 100mm f/2.8 IS USM L if you want to do things more like medium magnification handheld shots of bugs as you walk around in the world (100mm gives you a good distance so you dont scare bugs away, and its bright enough + IS to hand hold fairly easily during the day). Both are rather expensive, but cheap macro lenses are a little pointless IMO (see #1).