Recommendation of macro lens for vintage Nikon D3

kasperbergholt

kasperbergholt

New member
Clever people,


Last week I received a fine vintage Nikon D3 aquired at a good price. My current camera is a Pentax K5 with a 35mm 2.8 macro lens, which has slowly broken down through the last year.

I'm researching which macro lens to get for the D3 - its primary job will be some archival work for Wikipedia & Radiomuseum with images of a range of vacuum tubes for Leben tube amplifiers.

The AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G is cheap, but as I understand it won't function fully well on a full-frame camera as the D3 (leading to a lower number of megapixels).

Then there's the 60mm 2.8, which there seems to be two versions of - AF-D and AF-s respectively. What's the difference between the two?

And, lastly, some lenses are market Thailand and some Japan. Would going for the Japanese versions be recommended in general if all other parameters are close to equal?


Thanks in advance,

Kasper
 
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B

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard, enjoy the ride. We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

You might also want to consider introducing yourself on New Member Introductions.
 
Needa

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
kasperbergholt said:
Then there's the 60mm 2.8, which there seems to be two versions of - AF-D and AF-s respectively. What's the difference between the two?
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The AF-D requires an in camera focus motor to auto focus while the AF-S has an internal focus motor. The D3 has a built in focus motor so either will work assuming the in camera focus motor is working. The AF-D will be slower to focus and make more noise doing so. As far image quality I have the AF-D and it is quite sharp but no direct comparison of the two.
 
kasperbergholt

kasperbergholt

New member
Needa said:
The AF-D requires an in camera focus motor to auto focus while the AF-S has an internal focus motor. The D3 has a built in focus motor so either will work assuming the in camera focus motor is working. The AF-D will be slower to focus and make more noise doing so. As far image quality I have the AF-D and it is quite sharp but no direct comparison of the two.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the swift reply, Needa. That makes sense. The price difference is minimal, so I think I'll go with the AF-S variant. Which types of photography do you use the AF-D for & with what camera?
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Both the D and S versions of the 60mm are used for exactly the work you anticipate... The D is just an earlier version... The D3 is a full frame camera... I wouldn't consider purchasing a DX crop-sensor lens for the D3
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
l don't think I would worry too much about whether the lens is made in Japan or Thailand. I have a Z5 with the 24-70 lens which are both made in Thailand and both seem to be excellent build quality.
 
Needa

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
kasperbergholt said:
Thank you for the swift reply, Needa. That makes sense. The price difference is minimal, so I think I'll go with the AF-S variant. Which types of photography do you use the AF-D for & with what camera?
Click to expand...
The AF-D 60mm Micro has been used mainly for flowers and some close up shots of small objects. To this point it was used mainly on a D7100 with a small number of shot on the D810 which was fairly recently acquired.
Looked at your site. I used to have a customer that updated flight manuals he had a large room filled with tube aviation broadcast radios. All the radios were repaired and in working order.
 
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