A couple of flies and a new lens

[billtils]

For the last few years I've been shooting insect and flower close-ups using my birding gear. It works well enough but eventualy the call of a dedicated lens became too much and I bought a Zeiss 100mm f2 T* Makro-Planar ZF.2 Lens.

Here are a couple from the first ten shots with it. Am I happy? Yes I am!








It's very early days but the lens has already made a big impression. The build is something else - no plastic and no clicks, everythng just fits perfectly.

It does have contacts to allow the camera to set the aperture but is manual focus so it's time to re-acquaint myself with the foot zoom and body rocking focus fine tune and stop automatically pressing the back buttton focus control every shot.

[DanK]

IMHO, a dedicated macro lens is the way to go. Nice captures.

It all depends on how you work, but I don't find AF all that useful in bug macro anyway. I usually (try to) achieve focus by rocking on a monopod. The critical thing for me is camera control of aperture so that I can have the lens wide open when trying to focus.

People have different preferences about FL, but I opted for the same FL you bought. Longer is better in terms of both reach and background blur (different from DOF), but longer also means heavier, more awkward to focus, and more expensive. I personally think 90-105 mm is a good compromise, and I bought a 100mm.

Also, the magnification from a given length of extension is inversely proportional to FL. You'll get more magnification from an extension tube with 100mm than you would with a longer lens. My most common bug hunting setup is a 100mm lens with a 36 mm kenko tube.

[xpatUSA]

For the last few years I've been shooting insect and flower close-ups using my birding gear. It works well enough but eventualy the call of a dedicated lens became too much and I bought a Zeiss 100mm f2 T* Makro-Planar ZF.2 Lens. <> It's very early days but the lens has already made a big impression. The build is something else - no plastic and no clicks, everythng just fits perfectly.

It does have contacts to allow the camera to set the aperture but is manual focus so it's time to re-acquaint myself with the foot zoom and body rocking focus fine tune and stop automatically pressing the back buttton focus control every shot.

Well done, Bill!

My only true macro lens is a Panasonic "Leica" 45mm Macro-Elmarit f/2.8, which is a really good 90mm equivalent on the G9 with the G9's dual image-stabilization (body+lens) especially with my shaky hands!

I should shoot that combination more often ...