Macro lens for nikon d80

vulkan75 · 25-10-2006, 4:47 PM

Ok ok,now I know what you guys meant ,when you said This photography game eats money

.

Im now in for a macro lens for my d80,and i want to get nice and close.....creepy crawlys etc.so what should be in my shortlist for a good close up lens?.

Is it worth getting a ring light whilst Im at it?.

answers on a postcard please

Nash__ · 25-10-2006, 5:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vulkan75

Ok ok,now I know what you guys meant ,when you said This photography game eats money

.

Im now in for a macro lens for my d80,and i want to get nice and close.....creepy crawlys etc.so what should be in my shortlist for a good close up lens?.

Is it worth getting a ring light whilst Im at it?.

answers on a postcard please

Tamron Di 90mm MACRO is pretty damn good at £200 - £300.
I use on a D70 for a while - nothing better in the price range - hope this helps

Yandros · 25-10-2006, 7:29 PM

The good news is that by all accounts there's virtually no such thing as a bad macro lens. They are all specialist low volume lenses, rather than consumer grade tat, so all are optically top notch. If you're going bug hunting you'll want at least 90mm.

Here's a review of the two prime candidates by one of the heavy hitters in the Nikon community (he writes the definite ebooks on the Nikon DLSRs).

http://www.bythom.com/105AFSlens.htm

Sounds like if budget is a factor, the Tamron is a no brainer.

I went for the Nikon 105VR, and I have to admit that it's an amazing bit of kit. As stated in the review, the VR is of limited use at 1:1, as it only stabilises you in the X-Y plane, and the Z axis is still all over the place. When you're looking at a depth of field of a fraction of a mm, this is not so good. You've also got the problem that bees etc laugh at your puny low shutter speed that VR permits. At less ambitious distances though it's superb, and I could well believe the quoted 4 stop advantage.

If you're serious about macro work, lighting is critical. For a start a 105VR+hood casts a huge shadow if you're foolish enough to use the built in flash, and I'd imagine the Tamron will be the same. If you're doing studio/lightbox work, you'd be able to make to with improv lighting and reflectors, but if you're bug hunting handheld in the field, some proper macro lighting would seem sensible. Have you looked at the funky new Nikon SB-R1? It's on my christmas list

chris1210 · 25-10-2006, 8:03 PM

The new Sigma 70mm got a great review in this months Practical Photography... cant afford the Nikon 105 myself, so will probably get the Sigma when the time comes.

alfienoakes · 25-10-2006, 8:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nashmon

Tamron Di 90mm MACRO is pretty damn good at £200 - £300

Had one of these for about a week now to go with my D80. Just over £200 from Hong Kong. I am a complete novice with both the D80 and the lens so couldn't really give a professional opinion on how good it is. I'm fairly happy with the results so far.

vulkan75 · 25-10-2006, 9:41 PM

Hey lads thanks for the sugestions

.

I had looked at the nikor 105 but i dont think im going to spend that much at the moment.Nice link though yandros,intresting review.

That Nikon SB-R1 looks brill,i wonder if it would be effective with potraits.

The Tamron Di 90mm MACRO looks like an ideal lens for me to fool around with for the time being and I handnt looked at that in my research so far.Its certainly in the price range I had in mind anyway.

Nashmon, I wonder if you could post a couple of pics ,to give me an idea of what king of result I could get with the tamron.if anyone else wants to post some macro work ,please let me know what lens you used.

Thanks for now boys

ilweran · 25-10-2006, 10:07 PM

Wasn't that fantastic photo of a lacewing that was posted a few weeks back taken with the Tamron 90mm?

While we're talking about macro stuff, anyone know if the Sigma EM-140 DG Ring Flash is any good?

PaulBoy · 26-10-2006, 6:06 AM

Vulkan75 - magslad has just bought the Tamron should you want another opinion but it appears to be the best buy unless you won the lottery recently!
btw I find it really useful to search Flickr for pics taken by lenses I'm looking at buying - put "Tamron Macro" or "Tamron 90mm" in & you'll get thousands of pics
HTH - Paul

vulkan75 · 26-10-2006, 7:05 PM

Hi paul thanks for that tip,I'll try the flicker search now.

The lens seems to be a reasonable price from hong kong with a certain auction site

unless anyone knows of a good uk supplier.

chow

PaulBoy · 27-10-2006, 5:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vulkan75

Hi paul thanks for that tip,I'll try the flicker search now.

The lens seems to be a reasonable price from hong kong with a certain auction site

unless anyone knows of a good uk supplier.

chow

vulk - the 3bay HK dealers will not guarantee no VAT etc but onestop-digital do so I'd get it from there if you go down the HK route

btw I presume you already have a tele zoom like a 70-300? If not might be worth looking at the Sigma & Tamron ones as they have macro capability - you wont get as good results as a dedicated macro lens but for the occasional shot the results can be pretty decent (I posted a couple of examples using the Tamron on this thread recently)
HTH - Paul

Magslad · 27-10-2006, 9:08 AM

Quote:

magslad has just bought the Tamron should you want another opinion

Hi vulkan

Got this lens a few weeks ago when I was out in Hong Kong. Haven't had too much time to play with it yet but very pleased with the initial results. Did a fair amount of research prior to deciding on this one and couldn't find any bad comments about it so I don't think you'd go wrong with it.

Quote:

The lens seems to be a reasonable price from hong kong with a certain auction site unless anyone knows of a good uk supplier

PaulBoy is right about onestop-digital if you go down the HK route. Of course it's even cheaper if you actually buy it out in HK: mine was just under £150

, so you'd only need to buy 5 or 6 new lenses to save the cost of the flight

toadoftoadhall · 27-10-2006, 7:43 PM

Check some of these macro images.

Try and get a Raynox 150 clip on lens, it seems to be magical, and only about £18

toad

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/s...&page=10&pp=20

vulkan75 · 28-10-2006, 6:16 PM

well Im going to buy the tamron, the 90mm I think

although for a hundred quid the other one is tempting too.

Toad.

can you post a link where I can purchase the Raynox 150 clip on.It might be worth a play with for that price.Nice pics on the thread link you posted by the way.Thats what Im hoping to achieve.