Here is a short right up on my camera and macro gear setup for the GDPG (Greater Dayton Photography Group) May 2023 photo challenge. If you are interested in shooting Macro you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get into it. Or buy an expensive Macro specific lens. You can use any lens you already have and some extension tubes.  Extension tubes are exactly like it sounds a tube that attaches to back of your lens. This tube moves the lens further from the image sensor, which causes the lens to focus more closely or magnify the focus. I am using 2 extension tubes a 10mm + 16mm for a total of 26mm of extension. Extension tubes don’t have any lens optics in them so they are very inexpensive. The extension tubes I have can be purchased on Amazon for approximately $30. The extension tubes I am using have the electronic contacts on them so the lens auto focus feature still works. Provided you get close enough to your subject to bring it within view. The extension tubes will change the lens focusing distance (you will need to get closer).

When shooting macro the focal plane is razor thin which can make it difficult to focus on your subject. I find myself shooting mostly at f7-f11 to have enough depth of field. Also since this is a telephoto lens I generally shoot around 70-150mm. I find the advantage to shooting with the telephoto lens is it allows me to shoot my subject without having to get to close to it. Which could scare my subject away or I might be covering the subject with my shadow if I am standing to close.

The extension tubes are attached to my OM Systems M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R lens. Which in full frame terms would be equivalent to 80-300mm lens. The camera body I am using is the OM Systems OM-D EM-1 Mark III which is a 20 megapixel micro four thirds sensor. The photo was taken hand held, below is the EXIF data from the photo.
ISO 800 1/250s f5.3 120mm