Macro photography is almost the only direction in photography where everything or almost everything depends on the technique used for shooting. Of course, artistic flair is important here, but a good lens will do its job much better for you – which is why many beginners start with macro. A macro lens is any lens labeled “macro” or “micro”, which not only makes it stand out as a tough kid, but simply allows it to focus from a closer distance. If you look at the lens characteristics table, you will see the “minimum focusing distance” parameter, which for modern lenses can be 35-38 cm, and for macro lenses – 5 cm or less. Naturally, what kind of lens does it have and how it works in macro – if you don’t want to do a lot of shamanism in Photoshop with fine-tuning the results, buy a good one right away, although macro games probably shouldn’t be made a hobby for life either.
Of course, it’s good to have a fast focus motor, but it’s not at all necessary – you won’t be able to catch a bee on the fly even with fast autofocus, and you need to use prefocus and its lock function, coupled with burst shooting. But the open aperture plays a dual role here: the “big hole” allows you to shoot in poor light, but does not give the desired depth of field required for macro, so the hole still needs to be clamped. However, in some cases, the ultra-small depth of field, characteristic of macro, gives good results. Please note that the most budget lens models (like the one in the photo) “soap” the picture, i.e. does not give the clarity that macro is valued for – yes, this can be compensated in the editor, but it will still not be the same.
In theory, a macro lens, like a portrait lens, simply does not have the right to be universal – both have a very narrow application and, as a result, features of design and quality, and therefore should be bought only for these purposes. Naturally, it’s bad manners to shoot portraits with a macro lens, but if there is no other, who will forbid it? Personally, I didn’t buy a macro shotgun for myself – I just used the one that I got from the film era.