tripleC
Senior Member
Looking for a macro lens. Does anyone have any preferences. Would like third party because of lower cost than Nikon. I have D5500 Thanks
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Thoughts on macro lenses
- Thread starter tripleC
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Iain G Foulds
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... TripleC: Found the Tamron 90/2.8 to be excellent, and a great price. Good luck!
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... "The difference between a good picture and a mediocre one is a question of millimeters- small, small differences." Henri Cartier Bresson
tripleC
Senior Member
Thanks Iain.. Lens gives very nice bokeh
bjn70
Veteran Member
There are lots of good ones available, and the third party makers each have several different versions to choose from. If you want to autofocus on your body you will need to find a fairly recent Tamron or Sigma. Autofocus is not as useful for macro so you might be fine without it in which case you can find good bargains on older Tamron lenses for instance. You can even find good prices on older manual focus Nikon macro lenses.
Someone else mentioned Tamron and yes the Tamron is one of the sharpest macro lenses you can find anywhere.
draacor
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woody allen
Well-known member
Tokina 100mm f2.8 Macro all the way.
David Lal
Forum Pro
You have not said what kind of macro subjects interest you and apart from Full Frame no respondents have asked you, nor stated their own interest.
That undermines the worth of the responses.
Almost all macro lenses are good but focal length (and concomitantly working distance) is important. A stamp, coin or bit of jewellery will not sting, bite or run away so you can use something like a Tokina 35mm, Nik 60mm and come really close to the subject.
Living creatures that can hurt you or take fright are another matter. You need a decent amount of working distance and for that I'd recommend the Sigma 150mm or Nik 200mm. Increased working distance is useful when it comes to lighting the subject
For general purposes, the Tamron 90m is well-regarded as is the Sigma 105mm, probably the Tokina 100mm as well.
There are other approaches to macro such as extension tubes, bellows and add-on dioptres. Each with different advantages and disadvantages.
Me? I have Tamron 90, Sigma 105, Sigma 180 as well as Novoflex bellows and Kenko extension tubes.
tripleC
Senior Member
Thanks to all for your suggestions.. Will look at reviews of those mentioned. Type of macro I 'm interested in is inner watch workings, very close flower details,anything with small detail, occasional insects, etc. Mainly general things I see, so subject distance is not that critical .
AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G. Extremely lightweight and balances well with the D5500. Also low price, new it is cheaper than most of the third party suggested lens used. As subject distance is not your main concern 40mm will be just fine. Extremely sharp, flat field and with live view on the D5500 you can zoom in for focus.
CaseyJ
David Lal
Forum Pro
OK. Good. Thanks for the clarification. You still need to think about how you will light your subjects - and I hope you are not going to tell me you will rack the ISO up really high and use available light: results of that are awful in my opinion.
Flash is the way to go. At least two flashguns inclined at 45 degrees, or one flashgun and a reflector but then bringing that light to bear can be awkward with a short working distance.
Good luck anyway.
It is hard to get a macro lens which isn't excellent. All of the lenses mentioned here will do a great job for you. I use the Tamron 60mm f/2.0 macro. I bought it mainly as a portrait lens -- it is common to buy macro lenses for this dual purpose. This lens makes a particularly good portrait lens (as well as an excellent macro lens) because the 60mm focal length is 90mm full-frame equivalent (a classic portrait portrait focal length) and the fast max aperture gives good background blur. The disadvantage is that as a macro it doesn't give as much working distance as a 100mm or more lens, but for the macro applications you mention (no bugs) this is not an issue. I bought mine used -- keh.com has them used for under $300.
As a macro lens...
As a portrait lens...
dwa1
Senior Member
Hard to make recommendations when we don't know your subjects or the lighting conditions. With that said...
I love my Sigma 150 f2.8 non-OS macro. It is built like a tank. The IQ is superb and it has smooth, creamy bokeh (as another photog once described it).
I also have the Tamron 90 f2.8 non-VC macro. However, since I bought the Sigma several years ago, The 90 stays in the cabinet.
I use my Sigma 150 for many of my wildlife subjects - especially for butterflies and other nectaring insects. I've even done some BIF with it - despite the slow AF. The "newer" OS model is supposed to have slightly faster AF and an easier-to-clean finish.
If you want to do a lot of insect close ups, you may want to even consider the Sigma 180 f2.8. Sometimes with insects, you can never have enough reach. However, your 24mp D5500 should give you enough cropping reach.
Good luck with your analysis, search and acquisition and I hope this helps.
Wayne
tripleC
Senior Member
Yes I plan To use Flash. Since I am just starting out it will take a while to get every thing I will need.
tripleC
Senior Member
I think I will get one ( whichever) in the 90 and above range just if I need working distance at some point. Thanks for all the responses.
tripleC
Senior Member
Has any one bought/used a refurbished or international (gray) macro lens. How did it work out
David Lal
Forum Pro
Yes. My Sigma 180mm was grey market. No problems whatsoever. Bought it, what, ten years, ago in central London. Lens still works very nicely so would do that again although these days I tend to favour lightly used secondhand kit (from a dealer).
I started doing macro with a D5200 before moving to the D500I've the Sigma 105mm, The SIgma 150mm, Nikon 60mm, Venus Optics 60mm, I had but sold the Nikon 40mm and also have a Sony 90mm for my Sony mirrorless body.
I found the 40mm useless compared to any of the rest and ended up selling it. I had only bought it to experiment with extension tubes to get 2:1 instead of 1:1 I found it was so short that sometimes the front element would fog up a little from heat from your hands or breath when holding the camera on cool mornings or hot days.
Have also a few buddy's with the Tamron 90mm and for some reason I really dont like it compared to other Macro lens's. I've handled it and messed about with it just for some reason did not like it.
After using all of the ones mentioned my favorite is the Sigma 105 2.8 I've personally found it the easiest to use and loved the image quality over the others. When shooting in Natural light without flash at 1:1 Its got a good balance of working distance vs the shutter speed/ISO/Aperture balance you go through with macro when not using a flash and also shooting handheld.
I did want to get a Tokina as they are build like Tanks but never got around to it.
The Venus Optics or should I say LAOWA that they now go by is a very neat lens! its a Dumb lens as in there are no connections to communicate with your camera and fully manual. It offers the ability to shoot up to 2:1 I use it mainly when doing Studio Stacks on a Stackshot macro rail for more of the detailed shots where subjects are not moving. It can be frustrating to use as when you stop down the lens is stopped down so before you take the shot so your optical viewfinder goes very dark. Also metering and exposure is harder to judge.
~B
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David Lal
Forum Pro
You are obviously enormously experienced so I found your comments very interesting and especially the conclusion about the Sigma 105mm which is also my favourite macro lens!
These days I am into supermacro which to me means a reproduction ration in excess of 2:1, very often in excess of 3:1 which I achieve by reverse coupling a Tokina 24 onto the nose of the Sigma 105.
Somebody else mentioned flat-field, extremely desirable for some subjects. For that I use Rodenstock enlarging lenses initially intended for medium format film negatives. I made the adaptors to mount onto Nikon F-mount cameras myself. Very, very nice results but of course absolutely no automaticity, not even the diaphragm.#
Just a little example here of what I do:
Eyes of a (live) wasp. Sigma 105 + Tokina 24 + various flashguns. Manually focus-stacked.
Just on a humble D70. Wasp flew off unharmed after its photo début.
Dont think I'd enjoy getting that close to a Wasp that is still alive! as a Kid I was terrified of them and in my 40's they still creep me out and I get nervous! 
My stuff is completely amateurish and crude compared to a lot of the experienced macro photographers, I've barely got anything shot this year and still struggle getting subjects lit for the studio work. I just went through this brief period of madness where I was obsessed with buying macro lens's any chance I got! I would like to start using a Microsope objective at some point but my skill level is just not there at the moment. I get so far reading up on things then get lost in the Techo Jargon when people start talking about mounting them to a tubl lens to get everything to focus as exact distances etc. If I'd gone Canon instead of Nikon I'd be able to use the MPE65 at some point if I ever come across one for a bargain price I might get one and mount it to my Sony camera.
I do really enjoy using Zerene Photo stacking software. Here's a Handheld stack of a fly on the lid of my Rubbish Bin with Natural light using the Venus Optics 60mm. I missed parts of the eye and moved too quick towards the middle of the wings so missed a sliver of details. I've also tried using a Raynox 250 on top of my macro lens's but found the darn thing impossible to use when trying to hand hold.
My stuff is completely amateurish and crude compared to a lot of the experienced macro photographers, I've barely got anything shot this year and still struggle getting subjects lit for the studio work. I just went through this brief period of madness where I was obsessed with buying macro lens's any chance I got! I would like to start using a Microsope objective at some point but my skill level is just not there at the moment. I get so far reading up on things then get lost in the Techo Jargon when people start talking about mounting them to a tubl lens to get everything to focus as exact distances etc. If I'd gone Canon instead of Nikon I'd be able to use the MPE65 at some point if I ever come across one for a bargain price I might get one and mount it to my Sony camera.
I do really enjoy using Zerene Photo stacking software. Here's a Handheld stack of a fly on the lid of my Rubbish Bin with Natural light using the Venus Optics 60mm. I missed parts of the eye and moved too quick towards the middle of the wings so missed a sliver of details. I've also tried using a Raynox 250 on top of my macro lens's but found the darn thing impossible to use when trying to hand hold.
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