I have a question that is probably pretty silly. I am a newbie in the photography world. I was wondering if a 55-200mm lens is the same or works the same way that a macro lens works, as long as I turn the camera on the macro setting?
No, a 55-200mm lens does not become a macro by putting the camera on macro setting. I'm not really sure what the "macro' setting does on a DSLR, for point&shoot cameras the macro setting does work that way. A macro lens allows you to focus closer, like maybe an inch away. Your 55-200mm lens probably can't focus unless you're 3-4 ft away. So, you could use it to take a picture of a bug and zoom in from 3-4 ft back, and you might get a pretty good picture of a bug on a leaf. But if you used a macro lens, you could get an inch away and get a picture of the bug's eye. There are a couple ways to use a regular lens to get macro shots, with some additional accessories that are cheaper than a dedicated macro lens. You can get close-up filters that fit on your lens or extension tubes that go between the camera and your lens. Not quite as good as a macro lens, but less $$.
Not exactly. The macro setting on a camera more or less tells it to use a low aperture setting to achieve a shallow depth of field. What really matters in macro is how close you can get the camera to the subject and still achieve focus. This depends on the lens.
For example, on my 28mm lens I can focus as close as about 8 inches from the subject. But if I use my 28-105mm zoom the closest I can focus is about 1.5 feet away. And with my 70-200mm that minimum focus distance is nearly 4 feet!
Macro lenses are specially designed to allow you to focus on something very close. That doesn't mean you can't do macro shots with a non-macro lens, but the lens' specific minimum focus distance will dictate how close you can actually get to your subject.
@maceugenio I'm with you on that one, I also hate the macro setting. I just turn my lens to macro focus it all the way to the right and move myself physically to get a clear picture. Also I noticed today whilst playing with my macro setting on the camera that my image was darker than on manual but the sharpness etc was just the same. I was taking a photo of a berry, it was nearly black on macro but red on manual. So I'm not using macro anymore, I'll just do it manually from now on. It is a good setting on a p&s though, I love using it on my wee panasonic.
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For example, on my 28mm lens I can focus as close as about 8 inches from the subject. But if I use my 28-105mm zoom the closest I can focus is about 1.5 feet away. And with my 70-200mm that minimum focus distance is nearly 4 feet!
Macro lenses are specially designed to allow you to focus on something very close. That doesn't mean you can't do macro shots with a non-macro lens, but the lens' specific minimum focus distance will dictate how close you can actually get to your subject.
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