Right now my macro photography with a Hoya +4 macro lens is not really as sharp as I'd like!. Maybe it's because I am doing something wrong, or could it be the equipment!? Any advice or recommendations are welcome!Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>Visual Arts> Would I get better pics with a Nikkor 105mm Micro lens compared to an 18-55mm kiQuestion: Would I get better pics with a Nikkor 105mm Micro lens compared to an 18-55mm kit lens with a close up filter!? Right now my macro photography with a Hoya +4 macro lens is not really as sharp as I'd like!. Maybe it's because I am doing something wrong, or could it be the equipment!? Any advice or recommendations are welcome!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: 100% - YES!.!.!.! The Nikon 105 macro is a very sharp and flat field lens!. Any single mm focal length lens is by far, sharper than any zoom!. Prime lenses, them of 1 focal length, do not have to over come many obstacles found in zooms, of any length!. We, as bottom end consumers, never really see the "damage" a zoom is doing to our images until we attach a - prime - lens and shoot some of the same scenes over!. It almost makes you want to cry and toss the zoom out the car window, however, like many other things, we put up with it because zooms ARE so 'handy' and allow our physical load to be much lighter!. The add on 'filters' for close up photography are marginal at best!. To say the do not work would be a lie, but how well!.!.!? Adding yet another layer of glass in front of a zoom only compounds problem in both and magnifies them to horrible levels!. Yes, by all means get the 105 Macro!. Their 60mm 2!.8 is nice too but I sometimes find my self IN my own light because it is rather short!. I have a 120 Macro but it is a very specialized lens, with built in ring light and power pack and is not too "field friendly" so it stays at home for - set shots!.!.!.!. Kit lenses are generally not the better lenses the company makes!. Any company!.!. and they offer them with a "good" camera to sweeten the deal!. They are a starter lens, like one's 1st car!. Not what you want, but it will do, for now!. Your choice is a good one on a lens!. It will do excellent close ups, up to 1:1 (life size) as well as be a general purpose lens, altho a tad of a telephoto in many cases!. Good luck!.!. Remember, the BEST $5,000 camera will look NO better then the lenses placed on it and a $500 camera is the same!. The only thing seeing and actually "taking" the picture, is your lens!.!.!. Bob - TucsonWww@QuestionHome@Com Most kit lenses are pretty mediocre, adding extra glass is never a good idea, this also applies to adding a 'protective' filter which some people advocate, the lens hood will offer more protection without any loss in picture quality!. Brian is right when he says that a dedicated macro lens will improve the quality alot and will enable you to go as close as 1:1, something that measures 1cm in the real world will measure 1cm on your sensor, but at these magnification the Depth of Field will be very small!. Just two things effect DOF, magnification and aperture!. The smaller the aperture (larger the f number) the greater the DOF!. So for good clear macro shots you need small aperture (try f16) this will mean a slow shutter speed depending on the amount of light available, and as you have only the reflected light from a very small area, shutter speeds can be over 1 second!. Added to this as you increase magnification you also magnify camera movement by the same amount!. So for all these reasons a tripod is really required!. One answer to some of these problems is a ring flash, this will give you enough light and 'freeze' any movement as the flashes duration is only about 1/1000th of a second, but these units are expensive!. ChrisWww@QuestionHome@Com The 105mm micro will give better results by far!. You'll probably get better images, other then a micro lens, if you forget the filter and use the lens at 55mm and closest focusing distance then crop the image with software!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The simple answer !.!.!. absolutely!Www@QuestionHome@Com |