Macro lens

Dear All
I am planning to buy Nikon 105/F2.8 VR Macro lens
How is performance ?
some one using may give some feedback
Thanks in advance
Harshad

Harshad:

I have owned the lens for a while now and have used it to photograph flowers in a botanical garden, small butterflies in my field, and tiny gray tree frogs, all with what I think have been excellent results.

The image attached here by way of example is of one of the frogs, which measures less than an inch in length. In this case, I used the lens on my Nikon D200 with an SB-800 TTL strobe.

I highly recommend the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR lens.

Norm Dulak

less than a inch , Fantastic image , can you share any image of butterflies , My main use will be butterfly<O:p</O:p
Thanks a ton for image & info<O:p</O:p
Harshad

Harshad, if you want lens-specific examples, go to fredmiranda.com. They always have a lot of 'show me your best XYZ lens shots' threads. Search for this lens. You will get a mix of photos...street, portraits, dogs, cats, sports, nature. But that will give you a good idea. The site has lot of user reviews of many lenses as well.

Hi Harshad, I have a 105mm macro lens, not a Nikon so cannot comment on that, however I would say that if your main subjects are butterflies, and if they are as 'flighty' as ours in the UK, you may find that the short working distance with a 105mm lens scares away your subjects too easily, I certainly often wish I had gone for a 180mm macro which gives a greater working distance between lens and subject, something to think about :)

Tell

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harshad Barve

less than a inch , Fantastic image , can you share any image of butterflies , My main use will be butterfly<O:p</O:p
Thanks a ton for image & info<O:p</O:p
Harshad

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Harshad:

Here is a link to a butterfly image I captured recently with the 105 lens and posted on the Macro forum: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=42955. Tell might have a point though about a longer lens for butterflies, so that you don't spook them so easily.

Norm Dulak

amazing quality Norm , thanks a ton for link
now I have food for thought :)
Harshad

Harshad, I may recommend Sigma macro lenses, the only non Nikon lens I use. I have had the 150 and use the 180 now, they are affordable and extremely sharp lenses. I chose it over the Nikon. If you go to the macro Gallery, check out anything Alfred and I have done lately, all's been done with Sigma macro. The same lens Thomas Herou from Sweden uses for his flies and IOW winners.

Harshad, one more vote for sigma 180 macro. I used to have canon 100 f/2.8 macro. I realised that 100 was not enough reach for butterflies. I switched to the sigma 180 macro (which did not cost too much more than the canon 100) and found it to be a beautiful piece of glass. well-built as well. It was on a film camera...so on a crop camera, 100 mm will give you a better reach....but 180 will be best for butterflies. Especially the small Lycinid family butterflies (grass blue etc.) that are so common all over India.

180 all by itself and with 1.4x is good for large mammals too.

fantastic lens allround, optically it is fantastic. I live in the UK and use this lens for butterflies, moths, dragonflies etc.

it works great with the 1.4x, 1.7x and 2x teleconverters

here is a gallery of my butterfly shots taken with this lens

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theaper...7621950698434/