Best non macro lens for closeups

I suspect this has been covered many time so please point me to the thread but,

I wonder in the prime range of lenses available [any make] which would give the best IQ for taking images with a view to heavy cropping /enlargement??

my reasoning is the a "dedicated micro lens" is silly money. but given what you can achieve with top class prime and the 10-14mp cameras we now use , if a image has a nice low ISO and you are lucky enough to get that perfect in focus image with a decent DOF you can enlarge way past the magic macro figure of 1:1 with little loss of IQ.

So given the proliferation of used k lenses that are available from various sources, what are the best of the IQ ones to look out for? what is a good prime k mount any make manual or A type with a high IQ and with a short focal length

What focal length are you after?
There is quite a difference in that so would be helpful to know.

Around 50mm is considered useful for objects and things that can't run a away, but bugs and such are better photographed with longer focal lengths, around 100mm most of the time.

Anvh, thank you just beat me to editing my question to include the focal length, I suppose ease of use as in weight has to come into it for hand held shots, and a nice long focus movement,although I find it is often better to move back and forwards if the object will stay still for me.
alistair

You should also look into extension tubes to turn one of your existing lenses into a makeshift macro. Cheapo ones will do, there is no glass in them anyway. Just choose your sharpest existing lens and off you go!

Another option would be reversing rings to use with a cheap but sharp manual prime like a 50mm f2.

Also some older manual lenses, especially from Tamron, include a minor macro feature. For instance the Tamron Adaptall 2 80-210 f3.8-4 costs around £20 on ebay, and has a 1:2.8 macro function which works pretty well. Here's a pic with this lens coupled with a £5 craptacular Vivitar 3x teleconverter (which will increase the magnification beyond 1:1)

Like Tim said 50mm f/2 with extension tubes is an good option, you can also reverse mount the 50mm f/2.
I'm not sure how close it will focus but I can say it does focus very closely.

I would not go for zoom with a macro function, the macro function isn't really macro but it means that the lens can focus closer then normal.
The problem is that zooms have a quite curved DOF so a subject might be in focus in the middle but might go out of focus in the corners because of that and zooms aren't that sharp.

Here are some photos with a reversed 50mm lens. link
It's done with Nikon though but it gives you a good idea what you can do with it.