Nikon Macro

I'm looking to get a Nikon (fit) macro lens to fit my 300. I will be photographing orchids and insects mainly. Can anyone recommend or comment on any suitable lens, examples and anecdotes would be good too.

Thanks in advance

I have the Tamron 90 mm macro lens ( £340approx) which is worth looking at and produces nice pictures. The Nikon 105mm macro (£650 approx) is quite expensive but you do gain distance from bugs etc.
Don't know much about the Sigma 105mm macro (£380 approx)

So it really depends on how much you want to pay

In a photo mag the Nikon came out top, with the Tamron 2nd, followed by the Sigma if thats any help.
An alternative is reversing rings, but I can't help much with those.

Bazza

Data on 5P Piece with Tamron 90 mm macro

Taken 6" away
2.23 sec exposure in exif, on camera 3 sec exposure. With mirror lockup - indoors - with remote cable shutter release- no flash
F36
ISO 100
Spot metering
As taken , no editing exif files left for any more info

Image shack size 800x600

Hope this is of some help JR

bazza

i have the Sigma 50mm1:2.8 DG Macro and am really impressed with it, got a very good review at the time i bought it. im sure i have posted some macro shots from it on hre if you do a search.


found one

http://www.yophotographer.com/page.php?t=4577

and another
http://www.yophotographer.com/page.php?t=4565

Grant

Maybe showing unedited pictures may give JR a better idea of what the lens can achieve, which is why I posted as direct from camera and lens.

But they are lovely pictures all the same.

Oh an that dust on mine I have removed with the Artic Butterfly

Bazza

The Nikon 105mm I can recommend very highly. It's excellnt for all sorts of things - and I can't go anywhere without it. It's fast becomign my preferred lens. I really can't fault it. It has a useful little tool, where you can manual focus override - which is exceptionally helpful. I can't recommend it highly enough.

There are a fair few pics I've put up that were taken with it (I think you can do tag searches? you'd know more about that than me ) - but one of my favourites is this:



and here's a link to a thread with more pics i took with it.
http://www.yophotographer.com/page.php?t=7006

hope that's of come help - if there's anything specific you want to know about the lens, please ask, and i'll try to help!

xx

The Nikon 105mm is probably one of the most respected macro lens Jack - I'd love one!

If you can't stretch that far, how about the 60mm? It's great too, but you have to get closer to the subject which can be a pain re light sometimes.

My vote goes to the 105mm!

The sigma is ok too - I had a chance to play with one recently, the only thing I would say about it is just that the image quality is not *quite* as good. Depends how far you want to go with macro I suppose. It's long been a passion of mine, and something I seriously want to do - so it made sense for me to go for the best I could get at the time (I'm sure there's even better - but I couldn't find it if there was!). You strike me as a man who is a bit perfectionist about his images thus I would say if you can, save for the nikkor 105 - it's fantastic!

xx

ETA - I also have some orchid photos... but they're dire, so not much help I'm afraid not the lens's fault I hasten to add

Sorry - thought I'd add some more pics that may help:
















xx

ETA - Once again, I need to add that the lens is sharp as a knife, but photobucket hates me at the moment! *weep* If you want to see the full size images, let me know, I can email you one or two

Thanks all for your contributions - I will have a budget of £500.