john.margetts said:
I have the Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 macro lens which makes a good fist of being an excellent landscape lens when I am out and about.
I have on older Tamron 90mm AF-SP (AF= autofocus, SP=Superior Performance line of their lenses). Tamron has made a 90mm f/2.8 macro lens since the 1980's, at least and maybe since the mid-1970's, and it has gone through several iterations. I had the 100mm f/2.8 Canon EF internal focusing macro; there have been three models for Canon, the first which extended a LOT when focused close, the second the internal focusing type, the third Canon and the most-current the new, expensive IS-L or Image Stabilizer type, Luxury series (red ring around the barrel). The Tamron 90mm AF-SP has prettier bokeh than the Canon 100/2.8 Internal Focus model had. I sold the Canon 100/2.8.
My experience with macro lenses? Always buy them USED! Many people buy a macro lens, use it for a week or a month or three months, and then SHELVE it, often for years! There are loads of good-condition macro lenses all over the world. 10 or 15 years ago, I bought a MINT Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 pre-AI that was probably 35 years old, for a pittance. Looked almost new!
For flowers and plants, the shorter lenses can be useful, to get more of the plant in. For insects, you might like a LONG macro lens, like a 180mm or a 200mm. Bokeh is kind of a big deal on the macro lens category, since there is often a LOT of background that is out of focus, and this is where the Tamron 90 is very good: pretty bokeh. The Sigma 150mm macro pre-OS is simply gorgeous in the way it renders landscapes and people....it was a hugely popular lens in Malaysia and Japan for beauty photograpy and outdoor portraits.
Spend $300 to $500 for a dedicated, used macro lens, OR use extension tubes, close-up lenses, and adapted, older lenses. Nikon 105mm f/4 macro lenses are all over the world. SHORT macros, 40mm,50mm,55mm,60mm are "okay", but do not magnify "small" things like insects or stamps very much, but they are usable. 90-105mm macros are longer distance. Example: 1:1 life-size on 60mm macro is about 4 inches from the film plane; the Sigma 180mm f/3.5 EX-HSM Macro has its 1:1 life-size about 18 inches from the film plane.