Macro lens question

[brettmc]

So I have been doing more close up photography and have pretty much gone to the limits of my current equipment. So I am looking into a macro lens for my D40. I found this Nikon AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/3.5G ED VR Lens on B&H. Has anyone had any experience with this lens? If so let me know, good, bad, or otherwise. Or if you have any other lens' that you would recommend. Thanks!

 

[TJ K]

I would personally choose the 105 f/2.8 macro lens. If you're budget doesn't allow it than that should be a great lens for you. It should also do well for portraits too.
TJ

 

[Derrel]

That lens is the very newest Nikon macro lens introduced,and it has been on the market less than four months, so you'll probably not find many people here who own it or who have even seen it. I dunno...it's 85mm, has VR, and is fairly light. The price of $529 seems a bit high to me when other, well-proven 90,100,or 105mm macro lenses are on the market for substantially less money. I am speaking of lenses like the Tamron 90mm Di macro, with in-built focusing motor, or the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX Macro.

 

[brettmc]

I can't find those on B&H are they still made?

 

[brettmc]

Dur, stupid me it was listed under the telephoto section. What about extension tubes, what are the pro's/con's?

 

[Derrel]

Briefly, you *could* use your 70-300 Nikon lens and a 12 or 25mm extension tube, like the Kenko Autofocusing extension model of tubes and get significantly closer focusing than without a tube. Also, you could also purchase the top-quality two element Canon 500D + diopter lens or "close-up lens", which is a filter-like device that attaches to a lens using the lens's front filter threads.

The cons are that the 70-300 will not deliver the impeccable close-up image quality that something like a dedicated macro lens can deliver.

The extension tubes will fit on all your lenses, while the Canon 500D close-up lens will fit only one lens filter size, and will need adapters (step rings) to fit on lenses with different sized filter threads.

 

[djacobox372]

If your looking to save some $$ without sacrificing image quality you might want to look into a manual focus AIS macro lens like the 105mm f2.8 ais micro nikkor, or the 105mm f4 ais micro nikkor.

Combine these with an extention tube and you'll get amazing macro shots.

You'll have to focus and meter manually, but that's not a big deal with macro which is pretty deliberate work anyway.

 

[brettmc]

That is true, on the "macro" shots that I currently do, I usually spend a lot of time trying to get the autofocus to focus on what I want. So perhaps a manual focus wouldn't be that bad of an idea. So with this in mind, if I upgrade in the future to like a D300 would it then have the ability to auto focus/meter? Or is this lens completely manual?

 

[Overread]

Most macro shooters do all the focusing in manual focus because its far more reliable and accurate than autofocus can be. Its also a lot quicker, since the AF can end up hunting for a lot of the time.
In addition its very freeing in terms of composition - so its got all the pluspoints going for it.

 

[henryp]

Most macro shooters do all the focusing in manual focus because its far more reliable and accurate than autofocus can be. Its also a lot quicker, since the AF can end up hunting for a lot of the time.

If you're serious about macro, sooner or later you'll want a macro focusing rail. With those you can set all your camera and lens settings and fine tune focus or composition by racking the camera+lens closer or farther from the subject.

 

[Darkhunter139]

Woa those look pretty cool, I have never seen them before. Kind of expensive though

 

[Overread]

Novoflex do make some very good focusing rails - but their prices are very high (on all their products) they also make a really neat reversing lens controler that lets you control the aperture of an electronic lens even if its reverse mounted on the camera.

However I have to say after using the manfrotto focusing rail and ebay cheap hongkong rails the ebay rails win by a lot! Similar design the other novoflex focusing rails (they make a few different designs) but a lot more accurate and easier to control (for macro work) than the manfrotto offering. I personaly feel that they make and affordable option for the macro shooter - who can upgrade to a fancy novoflex when the budget allows

edit - here is an example of the rails from ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-way-Macro-S...ItemQQptZLens_Accessories?hash=item3ca8b1910e

I have to say though the velbon is an interesting looking and not too badly priced rail, but I have never used one

 

[henryp]

Woa those look pretty cool, I have never seen them before. Kind of expensive though

Sorry. I should have resorted the list before posting. The Velbon Super Mag Slider Macro Rail is <100.00 and a good value for the money. The Manfrotto 454 Micrometric Positioning Sliding Plate is less (and excellent) but only works front-to-rear. the Velbon works front-to-rear or side-to-side and is more versatile.