d40 macro

Jestev · Oct 21, 2007

Coldow91 said:
What do people think of used nikon film slr macro lenses. Are there any good ones that I might be able to get used?

There are many great Micro-Nikkor lenses. The Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D is a wonderful lens. There are also several Micro-Nikkor 105mm versions, all of which are great macro lenses.

Coldow91 · Oct 21, 2007

Thanks for the help. I will look to see if I can get my hands on some of them.

JerryPH · Oct 21, 2007

Well, first a little update. The lens came in, and its not a HSM, so that means that for the D40 bunch, its a manual focus lens. Second, it *is* made for a full frame camera, and it *does* work darn well (autofocus and all) on D200s, and most likely on all of the more recent digital Nikons (except the D40s, as mentioned, sorry).

Now the really good news. I had a chance to compare it to the macro functions of my Sigma 18-50 (which I thought was excellent... and still do!), and it was very nice!

I did the pics a little rushed, so the focus may be a touch soft. 95% of the time, macro shots are supposed to be focused manually, and thats what I did. Here are a couple comparison shots:

First, the Sigma 18-50, with the 1:3 macro:

A fast note... the barreling is not the lens' fault, but mine. I angled the lens wrong in proportion to the chip as it layed back. Two ways to correct this: Remove in post processing or angle the object to the lens properly (as I did in the 2nd test).

This is a 100% zoom and crop of a section of the above pic:

Now the SAME memory chip with the Sigma 105mm:

The full picture:

Zoomed in 100% and cropped:

No obviously, these are reduced pics, the full sized ones are available on my flickr account at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10118472@N05/sets/72157602389164019/

One can tell that both lenses have the ability to be tack sharp with a little care while focusing, but though the Sigma 18-50 did really well, the Sigma 105mm with it's 1:1 macro capabilities really shines when getting up close is important for you.

I'll let the images speak for themselves and also let you make your own decisions.