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Want a cheap macro lens? Use your old kit lens

This is a trick I learned a couple of years ago but I've never seen people talk about it on this forum (if you have then my apologies, I don't follow this section of the forum much because gear talk is a snooze). Take an old ~18-55mm kit lens and "mount" it backwards on your camera. You can buy a mount that screws into the filter thread, or you can do it like me and just hold the kit lens up against the camera. Viola! Instant macro lens.

Yeah the quality isn't great, there some chromatic aberration but the sharpness is acceptable and hell, it didn't cost you a dime.

Here's a picture of the Apple logo on the back of my (then brand new) iPod Touch.
applemacro.jpg


And a ball point pen.
penmacro.jpg



Bonus tip: to stop down the aperture (I've only tested this on a Canon 30D) mount the lens properly, set the aperture you want, hold down the DOF Preview button while removing the lens. The aperture stays in the stopped down position.
 
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