As I mentioned in a pair of articles I wrote for CPN some time back,
there are really 4 ways to get close-up photos.
1)Macro lenses---very expensive
2)close-up lenses (as discussed here) cheap but they *do* suffer distortion
3)A "reversing ring" ad J. Del Col mentioned.
4)Extension tubes---these are cheap and also my favorite way to get
close-up or even macrophotos. For macro work you should combine
these extension tubes with a reversing ring for best images. For more
on this, see the excellent, well written, and useful articles in
CPN written by one Barry Meyers-Rice.
:)
B