Macro Lens Selection

Question

Folks,

I'm planning to buy a macro lens for my Nikon D80 and came up with lots of confusion among the 105mm & 150mm.

Could any body please suggest me the best bet as a beginner in Macro?

Many Thanks,

Bikram

Answer 1

Stock answer, but applicable to your question...  Consider the basic 60mm macro (micro) lens, unless you want VR.

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I'm not sure where you draw the line at being "affordable," but I recommend a Nikon lens.  It's true that you will need to spend $760 to get an AF-S lens, but manual focusing is no big deal.  For about half that price, you can get the Nikon 60 mm macro (micro) lens and you will be very happy with your macro results.  This is the sharpest lens I own.  For critical macro work, you will end up focusing manually anyhow, so just save your money and get the 60 mm lens.  The 105 mm offers the same magnification, but allows a little greater working distance, which might be more comfortable for you if you are shooting animals or bugs, but that's about it.

Here are my macro samples taken with the 60 mm lens.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=7189769@...

The 60 mm lens is also useful in non-macro photography as well.  On a Nikon DSLR (except for the D3), it will have a 1.5X crop factor, making it the equivalent of a 90 mm lens, which is right in the classic portrait range.

Some of my non-macro shots made with the 60 mm lens:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=7189769@...

Answer 2

My personal favorite is the 105mm macro lens. I just think the 150mm length is a bit unwieldy.