which micro/macro lens to buy...

[Aleris_lib]

i am looking for a good macro lens, that will be able to be used from a distance; i have a 200mm lens, so perhaps something closer than that..

my cost is probably as minimal as possible, however i dont want to comprimise tooo much with the quality of the photograph..

are there things i should be really looking out for? - is camera shake an issue when it comes to certain macro lenses?

any help and reccomendations will be greatly apprieciated.. =)

[i own a Nikon D200 - along with an 18-200mm lens]

[Himself]

Camera shake is always an issue in photography. Talking about macro aka high magnification, that would be a big problem.
Hard to give an answer to your question when I don`t know what camera you have.

[langier]

Depending upon the filter size of your lens, why not try the Nikon 5T/6T (used, on eBay), a 62mm 2-element close-up diopter which doesn't degrade the image too badly in practice or the Canon 500D, if the filter size is larger?

I use the 5T/6T on my 70-300 and the 500D on the 70-200 regularly. Though I have "real" macro lenses, up to 200mm, these are much more convenient and do a swell job as far as IQ.

Either of these will be less expensive than even the most beater 50-60mm macro lens, allow a greater working distance, and, on a zoom, allow easier framing than a fixed-focal length macro lens.

As always YRMV and perhaps, it won't be sharp enough for your application.

[Scott O.]

The Nikon 70-180 micro is a terrific lens.  I believe production was ended in 2005 because the lens was never very popular, but since then it seems to have been discovered and now can be hard to find.  We found an extremely clean used copy on eBay a couple of years ago and it it excellent.  No VR on this lens if that is important.  We also have the 105VR and find that to by excellent, although most of our close-up work is off a tripod so the VR is not too useful to us.

[JohnBrew]

60 2.8G Macro.