Nikon macro

Deleted

Senior Member
I'm edging towards a D610 with Nikon 105mm micro lens for macro work.

Macro subject matter: tropical fish, insects, flowers. (I cannot use flash with the fish).

For outdoor & indoor shots of flowers & insects which flash unit would you recommend?

Could the 105mm micro be reasonably used as a prime lens, say for portraits?
 

aroy

Senior Member
Have you figured out how small will your subject be. If it is very small - less than 10mm macro is needed. If it is more than 25mm then any long lense will do. Again if it is skittish insects you need a long lense, 105mm to 200mm, to maintain the distance, for flowers on other hand a shorter 60mm will be better.

One thing that I have experienced is that at close distances, the DOF is very low, so you need high F stops or focus stack when ever possible. At high F stops diffraction comes into play, as does CA (which actually gives fringes to edges, so diffraction effect is visible at relatively lower F stops). So you have to search for the optimal focal length and a low CA combination.

The on-board flash of my D3300 works well enough for close ups with normal lenses, but with the 105mm AIS, when the aperture needs to be around F32 or more, the on-board flash gives up. In such case an external flash is required. To calculate the max power required :
D = G/F
where :
G is the guide number.
F is the aperture (the number - 11, 16, 22, 32, 45 etc).
D is the distance, in the same units as the guide number.
So if G = 100 feet and F=32, you get D=3 feet.

Now D has to be more than the distance of the object being photographed, and it varies between 1 and 3 feet depending on the macro and the magnification used.
NOTE
. While calculating the maximum flash power required, keep at least 30% as a reserve.
. The guide number in many models increases as the coverage cone decreases at longer focal length lenses, so take that into account.
 

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Yes, and defitiely yes, but as I told you in the other thread, get a Tamron 90 as it will do basically the same things at $300 less and get a kit zoom for walkabout/landscapes/etc.

Flash-wise, Yongnuo 565EX - $100 and all the fancy features besides being able to be a wireless commander.
 

wornish

Senior Member
I'm edging towards a D610 with Nikon 105mm micro lens for macro work.

Macro subject matter: tropical fish, insects, flowers. (I cannot use flash with the fish).

For outdoor & indoor shots of flowers & insects which flash unit would you recommend?

Could the 105mm micro be reasonably used as a prime lens, say for portraits?

Yes the 105 works great for portraits in fact I use it for other shots as well.
 
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