What macro lens is best?

[NikonD80]

I have a Nikon D80 and would like to know what you would reccommend to buy for a macro lens. I can't afford the most expensive but I do not want the cheapest there is either. Any comments would be great. Thank you!! I am also looking for any examples of macro work with the reccommended lens if you have any.

 

[Overread]

Firstly there is little difference in sharpness between macro prime lenses of either the main producer (your case Nikon) or the 3rd party ones (sigma and tamron mostly). They are all very sharp at macro distances and all fast enough for good macro work (which will mostly be done at f8+ anyway)

If you are after a cheaper macro I can recommend the sigma line - the 105mm, 150mm and 180mm are all high quality macro lenses - with the latter 2 also having compatibility with sigmas line of teleconverters (which work very well at macro work - my 1.4* is almost always on my macro lens); the 105mm does work with other 3rd party teleconverters (tamron I belive, but don't hold me to this).
The 180mm sigma is often compared to the canon 180mm L macro as being on par in terms of photo quality.

I grade the 105mm and 150mm as easily handholdable macro lenses - the 180mm is a little heavier and this makes it a little more suited to tripod work as opposed to walk around macro (not saying you cannot do it, but handshake gets greater at macro lengths, and if you start getting tired it gets worse).

Nikon I sell a 105 (or 100mm) macro with VR installed - the only macro lens to do so - which is a great boon when you use the lens at normal subjects, but in the macro ranges I belive the VR does not work/leads to no advantage/leads to degradation of final result. So its not a massive concern for macro usage;.

With regard to focusing speeds, most macro lenses are not good focuser's, mostly as macro work is done almost always with manual focusing.

As for me I use a sigma 150mm macro on my canon 400D and it works brilliantly for me - if you are looking for photo examples please try for either 100% crops or for full sized examples - once a shot is reduced to websize its properties are changed - for example noise can be reduced further than in the original and sharpness can be far boosted - its possible to take a soft full sized shot and get what appears to be a very sharp websized shot - I will post back soon with some examples as well as some 100% crops (that is a cut out section of the full sized photo so as to have a look at the quality without having to upload the whole photo

 

[brileyphotog]

I'm sorry, but your question is so broad that I would have no idea how to help you. Are you looking for a prime macro, a zoom macro, a telephoto that has macro capability...

I don't own a macro specific lens and I've done some work that I would rate decent+

Heck, I used a 55-200VR for macro stuff for a long time (it just didn't work too great in a lightbox)

 

[deudeu]

I recommend the tamron 90mm macro DI.
It's a true 1:1 macro, it is one of the sharpest lenses you can put your hands on, the bokeh is pretty good, it can also be used as a portrait lens and moderate telephoto (good IQ untit infinity) and it can be found for less than $350.
Go on flickr or any of those sites and do a search for sample pictures.
Most macro lenses are pretty sharp so what you really want to be looking for is what focal length would work for what you want to shoot, and the looks of the bokeh.

 

[mblanton]

If AF is not important you can pickup a really nice Nikkor manual focus lens on ebay. There are a couple of focal lengths that work really well. The 55mm and 105mm are the most popular. You could also look at bellows and extension tubes if your budget is really tight.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your work.

Mike

 

[Boz Mon]

I recommend the tamron 90mm macro DI.
It's a true 1:1 macro, it is one of the sharpest lenses you can put your hands on, the bokeh is pretty good, it can also be used as a portrait lens and moderate telephoto (good IQ untit infinity) and it can be found for less than $350.
Go on flickr or any of those sites and do a search for sample pictures.
Most macro lenses are pretty sharp so what you really want to be looking for is what focal length would work for what you want to shoot, and the looks of the bokeh.

I second this statement, but I got mine for $150