Posted 08/04/2013 10:06 am
That's a pretty darn good price, from a seller I've dealt with personally and have no problem endorsing. The lens is an excellent compromise for "regular" photography as well, widely considered to be much superior to Canon's similar one.
Keep in mind, this will become a somewhat technical undertaking. You're going to be learning the ins and outs of photography - aperture, ISO, exposure, metering - and applying it to your imaging. This isn't going to be a "point and shoot" undertaking.
The 18-55 itself isn't going to be very good at coin imaging on its' own. If you wish to keep the effort relatively cheap besides the camera, you're going to want a reversing ring like coffecup is using, as well as extension tubes to turn your lens into more of a macro-oriented piece. However, your lens does not have aperture adjustment built in, and you must have the ability to adjust aperture, so you need extension rings which retain the camera's ability to adjust aperture in-camera. This raises the price of the rings rather drastically.
An alternative is a dedicated macro lens. This will not be cheap; plan on spending more money for it than you spend on the camera.
Another possibility is the bellows/duplicating lens method we're so high on here. Much has been written about it in this forum; you can consult any number of threads for what to choose and how to use.
Keep in mind, this will become a somewhat technical undertaking. You're going to be learning the ins and outs of photography - aperture, ISO, exposure, metering - and applying it to your imaging. This isn't going to be a "point and shoot" undertaking.
The 18-55 itself isn't going to be very good at coin imaging on its' own. If you wish to keep the effort relatively cheap besides the camera, you're going to want a reversing ring like coffecup is using, as well as extension tubes to turn your lens into more of a macro-oriented piece. However, your lens does not have aperture adjustment built in, and you must have the ability to adjust aperture, so you need extension rings which retain the camera's ability to adjust aperture in-camera. This raises the price of the rings rather drastically.
An alternative is a dedicated macro lens. This will not be cheap; plan on spending more money for it than you spend on the camera.
Another possibility is the bellows/duplicating lens method we're so high on here. Much has been written about it in this forum; you can consult any number of threads for what to choose and how to use.
