Macro Lenses

[Leowu]

Hi, I need some advice. I want to give my wife a present. She began to get involved in photos and I decided to give her good macro lenses.
She is using Nikon DRSL. In Google I found this comparison: https://www.bestadvisor.com/macro-lenses-for-nikon
Can you give your opinion what is best for a novice?

[Manfred M]

I've opened a new thread for you. The existing thread was old and on a slightly different topic.

The first question I would ask is which camera model is she using? The article you linked to has a bit of a flaw as it lumps all lenses together; both for full frame cameras and for crop sensor cameras. The other question would tend to be, what type of subjects is your wife looking at photographing, as that can impact which lens you choose.

[rpcrowe]

There are any number of Macro lenses available on the market today.

As Manfred states above, the model camera that your wife is using as well as her favorite type of subject, if any will impact the choice of lenses, as will the amount you are comfortable in spending...

One think, that I might mention... I would recommend that you buy a dedicated macro lens rather than a zoom lens that has the designator "macro" pinned to its description. The dedicated macro lenses will give you a 1:1 (sometimes a 1:2) image ratio but, the "pseudo macro" zoom lens will only achieve a 1:4 or so image ratio.

Another factor in choosing a macro lens is the focal length. A 90-100mm focal length bridges the gap between lens to subject distance and weight. A longer lens, allows you a further distance between lens and subject which is handy when adding supplementary lighting and very handy when shooting figgity insects and small reptiles. However, the lenses in the focal range of 150mm plus are often heavy and quite expensive.

If your wife is shooting with a crop format camera, she "might" be happy with a shorter focal length lens of around 50-60mm...

I would not worry about getting other than Nikkor lenses. Just about every macro lens on the market, even third party lenses, produces excellent results. There are manual focus only lenses available but, even though shoot many macros in manual focus mode, it is nice to have auto focus available.

My first macro lens was the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 which is a nice compromise between focal length, weight and price. This lens also makes a great portrait lens on either full frame or crop cameras.

[xpatUSA]

One think, that I might mention... I would recommend that you buy a dedicated macro lens rather than a zoom lens that has the designator "macro" pinned to its description. The dedicated macro lenses will give you a 1:1 (sometimes a 1:2) image ratio but, the "pseudo macro" zoom lens will only achieve a 1:4 or so image ratio.

Good point.

For watch table-top shooting, I used this 60mm f/2.8 'G' model on a Nikon D50 long ago:

https://www.imaging-resource.com/len...nikkor/review/

Worked very well for me especially as to detail capture.

[William W]

There have been similar questions asked concerning buying a gift for a loved one. I agree that you need to let us know what camera your wife has and what subjects she is interested in: and I also agree with the advice Richard wrote.

My main advice for these types of "I have decided to buy THIS present for a Photographer" question - is to UN-decide the choice of lens: by all means give us more information and seek advice, you'll get good advice here, but, I would get you wife involved in the choice of the lens - and involve yourself with her, in that choice.

WW

[DanK]

I do a great deal of macro work, and I entirely agree with Manfred and Bill. The question can't be answered well without knowing what camera your wife is using and, even more important, what sorts of macro work she might want to do. Most modern macro lenses are very sharp, but they differ in other respects that make some better for specific uses than others.

[tclune]

One valuable piece of information about macro lenses that is very hard to find is the working distance (sometimes called standoff.) This is the distance between the front of the lens and the focal point at maximum magnification. Thom Hogan recently produced a list of working distances for macro lenses on Nikon cameras, which can be seen here. FWIW

[DanK]

One valuable piece of information about macro lenses that is very hard to find is the working distance (sometimes called standoff.) This is the distance between the front of the lens and the focal point at maximum magnification. Thom Hogan recently produced a list of working distances for macro lenses on Nikon cameras, which can be seen here. FWIW

Good point. Both minimum focusing distance and minimum working distance are shown for some lenses in the-digital-picture reviews, e.g., . I just looked up one lens on the B&H site, and they included the MFD, which is unfortunately not as useful as the MWD.

In general, longer focal lengths have larger MWDs, but as Hogan's numbers show, that isn't the whole story.

[William W]

. . . I just looked up one lens on the B&H site, and they included the MFD, which is unfortunately not as useful as the MWD.

Agree entirely.

Wanted to add that, for a rough estimate of MWD one can subtract the Length of Lens from MFD; both those figures are typically included in the lens's data.

If we want to be closer to the mark, then subtract just a little bit more (let's say 20mm) to accommodate an approximation of the Flange Distance implication.

Not accurate to Ted's Micrometer, but pretty close for assessing the differences of different lenses.


WW

... are you reading these replies leowu?