Yeah sorry about that....my point was, taking a photo then "Zooming in and cropping" (as you say) does not make a macro shot!!!

If you want to play with macro you can purchase extension tubes which fit in between your lens and the camera allowing you to get even closer to your subject. Another cheap alternative to these would be Sigma 70-300 apo dg macro lens, these can be had for about £120 NEW and are a great introduction to macro......with the added advantage of giving you the 70-300 lens for other work.

If you give me a little time I'll post some macro examples from this lens and from a set of bellows I use.
HTH.
Ken.

The shot was a macro I zoomed in on PSP to show it more clearly...examples:

Original



And then



Given that at the moment I don't have a dedicated macro lens which gives the close ups that some lenses do ...this still is a macro shot to me ...though I am after a macro coupling ring at the moment though The actual lens that I wanted is about £500 LOL

DSLR's have a macro setting on them ..do you mean to say that the macro setting and a 14-45mm lens doesn't give a macro or just that you can get better macros with a dedicated lens?

Inquiring minds want to know

Fantastic pic...... Bit of a point and clicker myself. Very impressed with those pics though

I need to learn though Ian ...'tis the only way to improve It's great having someone here who knows what they are doing lol

Oh Blimey ....I've been creepin up on spiders n things all week .....don't tell me I'm doin it wrong now

Actually OH did say .....''why are you doin that when you havn't got a Macro lens ? ''

Tell him because we don't all have the facility to pay loadsa dosh out

The bee in my pic is more than double the original bees size , to ME it is a macro. A macro lens would give me a far better macro ..closer than even the zoomed piccy ..but it is still a macro to me

Well ...I would ...but...for the small fact that ....he actually bought the camera ...it just happened to be about the same time as my birthday ..so I claimed it as mine

...he still thinks its up for discussion

Your Bee is a macro to me too Mel ..thats what I want -good, clear, close ups of teeny things

I think the point that Ken was making is that a proper macro lens will give the result that is in my second bee picture without having to zoom in ....

Firstly I don't see the bee shot in any post before I stated it's not true macro.....I was reffering to Mels spider shot and his/her comment on zooming and cropping.
The macro setting on the camera does allow you to get a little . closer and technically is macro....but .......True Macro is double life size or BETTER without cropping.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound all anal and did originally say the spider shot was very good considering it came from the kit lens.

If you give me a short while to get on my other computer, I'll post a couple of macro shot's IF you'd like.
Ken.

I know ..thats the bit I couldn't get my head round earlier in the thread when I asked if the spider pic had been cropped etc

Ken ..I've looked at your website ( loverly pics )

so ..the Macro shots you have on there ..are they as they came out the camera ??