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anyone use Nikon 28-105 in macro mode?

Started Nov 19, 2021 | Questions thread
John K Veteran Member • Posts: 9,870
Re: anyone use Nikon 28-105 in macro mode?

Peter in Canberra wrote:

John K wrote:

Peter in Canberra wrote:

I just got the Nikon 28-105 lens.
In normal mode (with a little calibration on my D7500 - -7) it seems to focus well and give sharp images.
However when I tried it in the macro mode for jumping spiders I found the results underwhelming in comparison to my Nikon 85 micro lens. Looks like focus isn't accurate enough and soft. These were hand held and maybe I am missing the VR that the 85 has. Though I though I had shutter speeds (1/200, 1/320) high enough to combat shake.
anyone have similar or different (eg 'great for macro') experiences?

Most zoom telephoto lenses are designed to be sharp toward infinity, and your 85mm micro (which is actually a macro lens) is designed to be sharp at its minimum focusing distance.

Also keep in mind that as the mag increases and the working distance drops the 1/fl formula for calculating how fast the shutter needs to be to compensate for camera shake breaks down. The higher the mag the higher the shutter speed you need to combat motion, and it is the reason why a lot of macro shooters (those of us that actually shoot at 1x and higher mag) use a flash for hand held shooting.

thanks John

I was using the SB-400 flash with a (business) card inserted as a bounce card. I've found that if I do that and set to manual exposure I get 1/320 shutter and that works well enough with the Nikon 85 f3.5 micro lens. I realise that is very basic compared to the ring flashes or flashes on arms that other people use.
I haven't tried shooting off a tripod in macro mode yet - for the jumping spiders I am often up against a wall and tripod doesn't work (ie fit) well.

Just make sure that the light is large in the subject's field of view (get it close), and that it is even. Black glossy surfaces are the worst, but if the light is well diffused then even tricky scenes will still look good.

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Also known as Dalantech
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