What's a "good" lens?

Derrel · Sep 6, 2009

You seem to like shooting close-ups with shallow depth of field. Have you considered buying a macro lens, like the Tamron 90mm f/2.8, or the Sigma 70mm EX macro, or maybe the new Tamron 60mm f/2 Macro?

Keep in mind that macro lenses lose focal length as they focus closer, as do cell-focusing 50mm lenses, so the focal lengths will be a bit "wider" at really close-up ranges, but at Infinity down to 1:10, the FL will be around the stated length.

The difference between 85mm and 75mm is pretty significant, as is the difference between 85mm and 70mm, or 85mm and 60mm. If you really want to continue shooting these narrow slices of life, with OOF backgrounds well blown-out, it's possible a macro lens in the 60 to 70mm range would be useful.

Look for used lenses. There are lots of used macros on the market. People buy them,try them, then sell them back to their camera dealers all the time.
I am assuming you have a D90; if so, you might consider a pretty good quality older manual focus lens, the 75-150 f/3.5 Series E Nikon. It's probably the best low-cost zoom you could get for $150. The optics hold up even on the D3x,and it has a nice range of focal lengths in one tube.