Nikon D3100 w/ Tokina 100mm, Tamron 90mm or Tamron 60mm lenses? [Insects & flowers]

[NPatel18]

Hello, I'll be getting a Nikon D3100 soon and was wondering ahead a bit, which would be better to take pictures of flowers (the overall flower itself and the inside of the flower) and insects with?
Tokina AF 100mm f/2.8 AT-X M100 Pro D Macro Lens
Tamron AF 60mm f/2.0 SP DI II LD IF 1:1 Macro Lens
Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 Di SP AF/MF 1:1 Macro Lens, or the newer version, Tamron AFF004N700 SP 90MM F/2.8 DI MACRO 1:1 VC USD

My main question would be do all the lenses mentioned autofocus on the Nikon D3100 (I'm pretty sure the Tokina 100mm can't though)? And if the Tokina 100mm can't, how hard is it to focus while trying to get up close to the subject? Does it take a long time or are you able to do it in a short amount of time and are you still able to create the 'bokeh' effect in the background? I also don't want to spend a whole lot of money so that's why I'm shying a bit away from the new Tamron 90mm, however I have heard that a 100mm lens is much better to take pictures of insects with since they don't frighten away.

How close would you have to be from the subject to take a good macro shot of them? For instance a bee, would you have to be much closer with the 60mm or the 90mm than the 100mm? Also, how do these lens fair with catching flying insects such as bees in motion? Do they have a hard time trying to capture them in detail then?

Is the Tokina 100mm a 1:1 ratio like the others as well? And for the users who have either of them, how close are you to the subject (if it's an insect) to take a good shot? And last question, can anyone show sample images of each of the lenses on insects? I'd love to see them side by side!

Thanks and sorry for the amount of questions!
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[NPatel18]

Also I saw this picture on a different forum and the user was using a Nikon D90 with a Tokina 100mm lens.

> TPF Rules don't let us post images to which we do not hold rights. You can edit this post with a link to the image if you wish. <

Would I be able to take a similar picture with the same quality as this one with a Tokina 100mm and a Nikon D3100? Or is the image quality mainly due to the Nikon D90?

 

[bc_steve]

the lens is more important than the camera body, so you should be able to take a similar pic.

autofocus is not as important for macro. often people manual focus anyways, but it would be useful to have autofocus when photographing more distant subjects.

 

[greybeard]

It depends on how you go about it. I set my auto focus to CONTINUOUS, pick a spot and let the camera follow focus the subject. This has worked for me with living insect photography. So, auto focus is very important to me. If however, you are using a tripod and a static subject that doesn't move then, AF isn't all that important. I personally use AF for living insect photography.