May I ask your advice?

[acmejack]

I am interested in macro photography and wanted to ask for some expert recommendations on what I need to get.

I am using a D 70 and have 18-70 and 70-300 lenses. I appreciate your input, I need all the help I can get!

[F.Gordon]

1. I've crossed "macro photography" off my list....

... of things I want to do. I'm no expert.... hope a hack recommendation will do until a real expert chimes in.

Are any of your lenses true macro? I don't know them.

It's a costly and time consuming undertaking. Need a very good macro lens, special ring/flash mount, rock solid tripod, remote switch, and a lot of patience.

You may also need to shoot multiple frames at different DOF points and overlap the shots if you want a large DOF to capture a sharp image of your entire "subject".

Hope that helps until a real expert shows up. :P

Here’s a dude that is REALLY good at Macro stuff. He shows a shot of the rig he uses......

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=15634

[ET Awful]

2. Depends on how much you want to spend.

If you are on a very tight budged, the Vivitar/Phoenix 100mm macro lens is actually pretty nice. It's got good glass, but very cheezie build quality. It runs about $140 or so at B&H.

The Sigma 150 and 180 macro lenses are both extremely nice, but are more than twice the price.

The Tamron 90mm macro is VERY well thought of by most, but I have no personal experience with it. Most rate it much higher than the others I've mentioned.

The Nikon brand lenses are all very, very nice but prohibitively expensive.

Any of the above will give you true 1:1 magnification and much closer focusing than the lenses you have now.

Lighting is something else entirely. :)