Macro lens

[rude944]

My girlfriend is taking a photography class as a part of her continuing adult education. She decides to use my old 35mm camera and I supplied her with all that I have, unfortunately, this does not come with a macro lens. I've always been interested in taking some quality macro shots of my corals, and she is also interested, but we do not know where to start searching for a lens. Does anyone know the specifics about what macro lenses are available and what kind of things I would need to outfit the camera with a lens? What would the cost be, etc... TIA
-Seth

[Gaidin]

which camera are you using? Canon makes really good glass, probably the best, but you can only use them with canon cameras, so you should know which camera you are using to make sure you get the right lenses. And Canon can be a little spendy. Tamron, Sigma, and Phoenix make decent lenses for most cameras out there and they are a little more reasonable priced. Really depends on a few factors like speed of the focusing and such for the higher priced lenses.

HTH

[impur]

You can make one out of a pringles can ;) Sorry i'm all about DIY when you can, might look a little funny if she whips out a pringles can in the middle of class though i bet.

[Krux]

sigma makes a very nice 50mm lense that should fit most cameras with appropriate adapters. if you happen to have a cannon you are in luck, as they in the past year or so changed out their optix a lot, and there is a glut of older, good quality lenses on ebay.

if you are learning, i would get a fixed lense (like the 50mm.) used and learn on that, and then if you want to keep going, get a nice ranged lens like a 25 to 90 or something in that range.

this site specializes in digital photography, but it is probably the best tutorial site there is, and it does cover equipment... since it has dslr stuff you are going to be in the same boat lense wise.

http://www.ximinasphotography.com/lessons/lesson02/equipment_3.html#The%20Lense

for general photo stuff here is the index

http://www.ximinasphotography.com/lessons/index.html