Macro photo lense, which would you buy?

Question

I need a little advice, I've looked through the reviews and I'm just still not sure between the Canon 40D and the Nikon D300, which would be better at macro photos?

Do all those extra points of focus on the D300 really make a difference?

Answer 1

Either camera would be suitable for macro photography, the extra focus points make little difference, as most macro work is best done with manual focus.  I have a couple of dedicated macro lenses for my Canon, the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro and the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L macro, both are fantastic macro lenses and also decent for portraits.

Answer 2

For macro photography you'll need a true macro lens. In most situations you may find manual focus better than auto focus.

Don't be mislead by zoom lenses with the word "macro" attached to them. In reality, they are close-focusing and you can get some good results but not really macro.

A true macro lens is a fixed focal length - 50mm, 60mm, 90mm, 100mm. It is designed with a flat field of focus which is needed for photographing stamps or documents. It has minimal light fall-off from center to edge and maximum sharpness from center to edge. It will give you a 1:1 (life-size) image. A zoom with close-focusing ability will seldom give you more than a 1:4 (1/4 life-size) image.

Either camera should be fine for macro photography.

Answer 3

Any digital camera will give you good macro pictures provided you know how to use it. If you plan to do a lot of macro photography and need a dependable camera, go with the D300. Its built sturdy and its technology is newer.