Cheaper Macro options

Jon555 wrote:

cba_melbourne wrote:

If buying new, the most cost effective options have to be achromatic diopter lenses. They offer great IQ, are very easy to attach and use, small and light, and can be used and re-used across different formats and systems, and they retain full lens AF functionality. The best known diopters are probably the ones made by Raynox.

Also, unlike with cheap Chinese extension tubes, there are no problems with inferior materials and mechanical build. Whereas good quality extension tubes are best used for increasing magnification of a real macro lens. What the OP forgot to mention, is the possibility of using a teleconverter (provided one already owns one) along with extension tubes.

I wasn't sure a £300 teleconverter/extender made the cut as what I was calling cheap

It depends. If one already happens to own a TC (I bought it kitted together with the 40-150), then putting it to double use for macro is better than cheap - it is free

However one of my favourite macro combinations is a Canon 100-400 II with (or without) the 1.4x extender on a 50MP body.

The lens gives 0.31x and a large (!!) working distance
The extender gets you to 0.434x, without changing the working distance
A 1.6x crop to 19MP gets effectively 0.7x, again without changing the working distance

Sample (it's not the full-res version, a crop then scaled-down, plus not even particularly a macro shot, also no 1.4x, but see the Bee insert for what the scale is even then):
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62189807

Of course if not also using extension tubes you need a macro-ish lens to start.