Do You Need a Macro Lens?

In order to do close-up photography, do you need a macro lens?  The answer is no, but, you may be not able to do a 1:1 image.  First, you can add a macro filter to a 70-200 mm lens.  The best filter is a Canon 250 D or 350 D.  These filters are a double lens and are not inexpensive but work excellently.  What else you can do is to utilize a long telephoto zoom lens and try to fill much of the frame with your subject.  Because of the longer focus distance, sometimes this can be hard.  The other lens you can use as a wide angle lens that has a very close focal distance.

Here are two pictures of flowers.  The first is the money plant, which I used the Nikon 200-500 mm lens to get my close-up.  The second is a forsythia, and I used my Tokina 13-35 mm lens, which I could get so close that I practically was touching the flowers.

Money Plant

Forsythia

Experiment and see what you can accomplish with the equipment that you have now.