which one

My head's in a mix ,my birthdays just around the corner and my lady wife has informed me that she would like to buy me a lens . Now she has given a budget of £200 (well.. i showed great willpower and set the budget ).

Now .. i'm torn between a landscape lens or macro .

My favourite photography subjects are landscape ,close up (bugs ,butterflies anything really) and people .

I'm asking for some ideas .

Ta for looking

Something like a 90 or 100mm macro is good for bugs and also quite useful for candid portraits owing to the length and wide aperture. The Da35 macro is more difficult for bugs because of the working distance, but I've seen great results with it and it seems great for flowers etc. And it's a terrific versatile focal length for other stuff.

Given that we are heading into the close season for bugs and the best times for landscape I'd say go shorter to maximise the use of the lens over the next six months. 35mm is not ideal for bugs but still very usable. However, it is very useful indeed for many other subjects. Maybe you could get a 90/100macro for your next birthday.

The DA 35mm macro actually works very well with a teleconverter to give a bit more working distance.

Right ...some good suggestions there , especially the "get the DA35 this birthday and te 90/100 macro next"

I will be sticking to the £200budget.

The Da 35 macro probably out ,way too rich for me

There's only one real choice at that price:

DA 35mm f2.4

The more i read about this little lens the more i'm leaning towards purchasing it ,it's well within my set budget .

Melness, what do you already have?

If you have the 18-55 kit lens, you are well covered for landscapes as you will be shooting between F8 and F16, and TBH it is pretty good for that.

A macro, might be a great way to expand your photo abilities. Buying new might be out of budget, but there are a lot of pre-owned macro lenses out there. For example a few years ago I bought a Tamron 90mm F2.5 SP macro with the dedicated 2x extender and adaptall mount, for £120! Yes its manual, but macro slows you down anyway. It also doubles up as a great 90mm F2.5 portrait lens.
I also have the Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro, again second hand and very sharp. This one was AF, and was £250, but it is a great lens, actually a VERY sharp great lens.

Personally, I would seriously consider a macro lens, and you might actually find it useful for certain landscapes too.

Hope this helps.

Another vote for a 90/100 f2.8 macro lens for : macro, portraits, street & landscape (yes many landscape togs use telephotos for detail and multiple shots for stitching).

Much appreciated the help i've had on here today . Have decided on the DA 35mm f2.4 ,i really wanted the macro but the sensible approach was the Da 35 . My reason being that i have a 1yr old grand daughter ,manual focusing and a one yr old don't exactly go hand in hand ,never mind though Xmas is coming .

Once again i thank you all...