Daughter is currently in her 1sy years of her GCSEs. She’s interested in some macro photography for her fine art/graphics work – is there a reasonably cheap way of getting into it? We got her some clip on lenses for her phone for Christmas which are good but she possibly wants to push it a little (she’s talking about detailed eye photos for some project or other)

Got a decent Nikon DSLR, its just the lenses look a little spendy for what could be a short lived and not very productive experiment.

Could budget £100ish.

Try a lens reversing ring – converts a standard 50mm lens into a macro lens on the cheap.

True macro (ie. 1:1) lenses can be pricy, but not necessarily needed assuming macro in this context means close up images. The thing will be to find a lens with the right combination of focal length and minimum focusing distance.

Try looking at MPB for used Nikon lenses that have a macro capability (lots of zooms will likely have a Macro setting)
If it’s a short-lived interest sell the lens back to MPB

If you’ve got a DSLR then look at Macro Rings … they basically space your standard lens out a bit further and allow great macro performance (at the expense of stupidly small focal range – you’ll need a tripod and timer to use a small aperture with decent exposure to get some range back). They’re dead cheap though – by far the best bang for the buck if you’ve already got the DSLR. Your daughter will also (have to) learn about photography as they only really work well using full manual mode – exposure, focus, aperture etc which I think is a good thing.

Have a look on eBay for Sigma and Tamron macro lenses.

You’ll find dedicated macro lenses as well as telephoto lenses with macro capability. They generally aren’t proper macro lenses but will have a close focussing function and will do a decent job.

I’ve got the Tamron 90mm macro lens which is a great lens but not sure you’ll find one under £100.

Or as above, extension tubes will get you going.

Another vote for macro extension tubes. Have a set I have used for 20 years ish (on Minolta / Sony), they can be used with any existing lens but work best with a high quality prime (fixed focal length) lens, they don’t have any glass so are very reliant on the original lens

I used to have an old Canon G7. From what I can remember the quality of the glass was very good for a compact and in full manual mode it was pretty decent for Macro. Prob a few models of high end compact from various manufacturers that will let you go full manual on a tripod that are viewed as junk these days / sell for not much second hand. Auto focus will be rubbish and you won’t have a giant sensor or high MP count + manual controls will be fiddly but for a school project it shouldn’t matter that much.

If you can push the budget….

I have this lens in Sony fit – never actually used it for macro, but used it as a portrait lens and it’s sublime

Sigma 2.8

Macro extension tubes are a good cheap option. But if you don’t want to go full manual the cheapest and easiest way is to use close up filters on whatever is your most macro-ish lens currently. Lower quality obviously, especially towards the edges of the frame, but I would think fine for a GCSE.

As a left field alternative, look at vintage lenses.

I have a Canon FD 70-210 with a combo to Sony adaptor for landscape photography. This lens has an additional macro addition that is useable at the 70mm focal range (~105mm once adjusted for the Sensor size).

Realy nice lens and there are more from this era with the macro feature. Will come in under budget too