Macro lens help

jignesh111

Senior Member
Hi guys just brought my Nikon 5200 this week and I been shooting pics all week. I like shooting flowers and bug and therefore decided to buy a macro lens. My budget is £150- £200 max prefer to stay on the lesser side. I wanted to know your opinion on a good value lens for me to start with. Do i need to have VR? Will I need a tripod to (going to get one eventually).

Thanks Jignesh

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Dave_W

The Dude
Quick question - are you willing to buy a lens that will only be manual focus? There are some very good D macro lenses that are fairly inexpensive but unfortunately will not auto-focus on your camera. Otherwise you'll be forced to chip in a few more bucks (or should I say quid) and buy a G lens.
 

Kodiak

Senior Member
Hi Jignesh,

I
f you are young, calm, and patient, Vr is not your worry.
"£150- £200 max prefer to stay on the lesser side" is!

In your case, I would contemplate the manual Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 that can be found used.​
Better, a longer 105 or 200 macro (but I think these may scratch the upper limit of your budget!).

As far as the tripod goes, if you are young, calm, and patient, you should consider wind blockers.
From experience I know that most movement comes from the wind, in which case a tripod would
be a lesser investment. A good friend that would cover the wind would be a better solution, as well
as holding reflectors and what not!

And friends are, generally speaking, better communicators the a 3-legged contraption!

Have a good time!
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Are you talking real macro or just close up work,may not be ideal but a close focus lens and a crop may work,you have a good pixel count there.

mike

Edit it was a close focus lens i meant not a lose focus ::what::
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
You can also try extension tubes & reverse lens photography.
a prime or a wide angle lens (or a combination of 2 lenses as well) will give more than 1:1 magnification..
 

Kodiak

Senior Member
Indeed, this would be a better strategy than sacrificing one's pixel count and cheaper then…

I recently bought a AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED and then I learned that Nikon
does not carry AF Tubes! So I went for some third party tube set that costed +/- 115 € and I very
happy with that decision.

The idea with the reversed lens mount is a lesser solution nowadays because of the sensors
ability to pickup all the stuff left loose around them.

Good tip, WhiteLight!


Please visit the groups:


http://nikonites.com/groups/product-...#axzz2Yku2yynD
http://nikonites.com/groups/panoramas-virtual-reality/#axzz2Yku2yynD
 
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jignesh111

Senior Member
What do you guys thinks about Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di with AF Motor

It seems noisy but will do the trick.

I wanted the lens for close up on flowers and bugs not sure if that counts as macro
 

Kodiak

Senior Member
​No way Jignesh, the name does not even contain the mention "macro"!
But this could work in the lesser "pixel count" strategy. =(

WhiteLight's suggestion of extension tubes is by far the better move. And cheaper than the lens!
 

WhiteLight

Senior Member
Only Kenko's new Auto DG extension tubes work AFAIK...

Using extension tubes/reverse lens is not only cheap to start with but also gives you a perspective if macro & high magnification photography is something you'd like to pursue.
No point spending a lot of money on expensive glass only to realize you don't want to do it as much as you thought you would :)
 

Dave_W

The Dude
A fully manual lens will have a much finer focus mechanism and by that I mean you have to turn the focus ring much farther to achieve the same effect as you would with an autofocus lens. This allows the photographer to carefully zero in on the proper focus and will be much less likely to overshoot that spot one way or the other. An autofocus lens, on the other hand, has been designed for speed of focus and thus the turn ratio is much smaller to aid in the focus speed and as a result it's much easier to over and under shoot the proper focus when using it on manual settings.

But don't get me wrong, many people use AF lenses on manual, it's not impossible by any means, I just wanted to point out that a true "manual" lens, as in the type you asked for reviews on, is very different than an autofocus lens set on manual mode.
 

kirbfucius

Senior Member
I am a big fan of my Micro-Nikkor 105mm AI-S lens. It is full manual: aperture ring and very fine-tuned focus ring. The focal breathing is something to be aware of, but I tend to crop-compose my shots anyway so it tends not to be a problem. I picked it up for about $200 used from a local store.

My only complaint with the lens is that it only gets to 1:2 ratio without the PN-11 extension tube, and I haven't found the extension tube at a good price. That said, I've only really "needed" the 1:1 ratio for very tiny bugs which doesn't happen very often. Heck, considering your D5200 has even more megapickles than my D7000, cropping the image to get closer is even less of a problem for you!

As far as tripod and VR go, I guess it depends who you ask. I do nearly all of my macro shooting hand held. That partially comes from me having a lousy tripod and not having convenient things like a focus rail, but also because I prefer shooting bugs and those guys don't typically hold still for very long. VR is definitely very useful for hand holding macro shots at low shutter speed. It may be because I don't have VR, but I simply don't do that. Shooting by hand with a paper-thin depth of field pretty much demands a high shutter speed and plenty of light since even the slightest movement from either you or the subject can ruin the shot. I typically don't shoot at less than 1/200, and at that speed VR isn't as useful for me.

Would I like the newer 105mm AF-S VR? Absolutely! Actually, had I the money I'd probably go with the Sigma 150mm Macro OS, but both are out of my price range. I've enjoyed my fully manual lens and I've learned a great deal more about the Big Three (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) because of it being fully manual.
 
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Kodiak

Senior Member
Hi kirbfucius,

I said it somewhere else on this site, last week I just got the fantastic
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED.

The greatest feature is IF!. I have the Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 since
years and to see it extend almost twice in lenth is a bit freaky in some
setups. The 55 is not IF.

Like Dave mention higher, the macro focusing ring goes one full turn but on both
the non-IF 55 and the new IF 105 (that is AF as well)!

The following are the first test shots I took handheld with my new
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED sometimes mounted on the D3S,
the D3X, and the D800E.


View attachment 43388 View attachment 43386

View attachment 43381 View attachment 43383 View attachment 43384

View attachment 43382 View attachment 43387

View attachment 43377 View attachment 43379 View attachment 43380

View attachment 43378 View attachment 43385
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
Hi kirbfucius,

I said it somewhere else on this site, last week I just got the fantastic
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED.

The greatest feature is IF!. I have the Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 since
years and to see it extend almost twice in lenth is a bit freaky in some
setups. The 55 is not IF.

Like Dave mention higher, the macro focusing ring goes one full turn but on both
the non-IF 55 and the new IF 105 (that is AF as well)!

The following are the first test shots I took handheld with my new
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED sometimes mounted on the D3S,
the D3X, and the D800E.

Nice pics Kodiak..
Good to see you were able to get these uploaded :)
 
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