I have a Nikon D60 digital camera and want to photograph close up of insects etc. What would be the best lens for doing this?

I have a Nikon D60 digital camera and want to photograph close up of insects etc. What would be the best lens for doing this? - 1

A macro lens.

Rather than buying another lens, have a look at a reversing adapter ring - you mount your existing lens backwards (!) and it acts as a macro lens.

If you have the 18-55mm kit lens, that will do pretty good. I've shot many insects with that lens.
The kit lens has a minimum focus distance of 11 inches from the sensor plane at 55mm which gives you a 0.33 magnification factor.
The trick is to manually set the focus distance to minimum and move the camera distance from the subject to get the subject in focus. This is the same procedure I use when using a macro lens if hand holding (as opposed to the camera mounted to a tripod).

If you want the full 1:1 magnification factor, you need to use a macro lens. 60mm macros are affordable, but for bugs, a 100mm macro (expensive) gives you better working distance from the subject to the lens (less likely to disturb the critter). Macro lenses are fixed focal length. There are zoom lenses that claim to be macro, but they aren't. The other added benefit of a macro lens is the image quality is very good, very little distortion, and flat focus field which is important for taking pictures of flat objects like art.

You can also use extension tubes (Kenko comes to mind) which will allow you to focus closer to the subject. Extension tubes are cheaper than a macro lens.

The best lens would be a macro lens with a focal length of at least 100mm.

Macro lenses produce life-size images. This means that the image being projected onto the sensor is life size or 1:1. Lenses "with" macro like a 55-250mm zoom, can only produce quarter life size or 1:4.

The image that you get with a 1:1 macro is the same regardless of its focal length. A 200mm macro will not get you a tighter shot than a 50mm macro. However, what it will do is allow you to be further away while still capturing the same shot. This is extremely important for macro shots of insects because the closer you get, the more likely they are to fly away.

I'd go with at least a 100mm macro, which can pull double duty by acting as a portrait lens too. You can compare lens sharpness and bokeh at photozone.de. Don't discount third-party manufacturers like Tamron, Sigma and Tokina who make some very good lenses which often are as good if not better than Nikon.

Canon L series 100mm macro

Depends how close you can get to them, and if you are in the long grass or not(ie you have to manually focus to avoid things in the way). The article below might help. A 2nd hand(ie an OLD lens) might provide an answer(a good compromise) so long as it includes AF when you need it as older lenses sometimes don't. Don't forget old lenses are heavy, and its no good if things are not in focus so the min focal length is also important. Also the closer you get the more you need a quick zoom in feature for focusing on a specific point which my old d50 hasn't got but my busted Optio A30 did have until it broke. My new super duper canon 4k compact super zoom doesn't have it and I assumed it would. £350 down the drain as far as insect pictures go. Bring back my optio. I have seen better choices such as using extension tubes on compact cameras with adapters and they help fill the frame with the insects(spiders in that case) but that means you need very still non moving insects.