Hi guys,


so the dilemma is what macro lens to get for a Nikon? I currently have a Nikon D70s and a D200 although am thinking of selling the Nikon D70s to buy a Nikon D40with 18-50mm or a Nikon D80 body. The trouble is that I dont have a huge wad of cash, as ive just splashed out for my new course of uni open learning and also a nikon 18-200mm lense so im pocketless nearly!

what i need to know is what lense should i get for close ups of jewellery for weddings and also children shots? is it advisable to go tamron or sigma? ive never used tamron but have used sigma lenses and found them not too bad.

i was thinking of a sigma 105mm but any other ideas id appreciate it and a place to buy them that would ship internationally! (UK)

thanks guys

Neither. Get a set of high quality diopters. Make sure they're 2-element diopters. They're also called close-up lenses. Expect to pay close to $100 for each of them. If it's a set of 3 for $30, they won't be very good.

Nikon has their 5T and 6T -- they're 62mm threads. Canon has some that fit 77mm threads, I think.

I've done lots of commercial work using these (as well as reversed lenses) and it works very well. For babies, it's a little tricky because you lose infinity (and further than about 2 feet) focusing. For that, a macro lens would be useful, but I use the 5T on an 85mm lens for baby parts images.

hmmm great idea i never thought of that. have you got any sites that sell these things? i was tending to think along the lines of an actual lense but you may have pressed me towards your route. i got the 18-200 because it was driving me crazy changing between the 18-70 AF to 70-300 VR all the time so wanted a mid range, and i just got a 50mm but im also looking for a wide angle lens. at one of the places i work my boss has a 13-35mm nikon lens which i think is really good, claritys excellent etc. but have you got any ideas on anything that is a good price in this end? ofcourse i cnat afford the top quality factor at the moment so im looking for second hand, or good equivalents!

I know B&H has them, but I don't know if it'd be worth the shipping to UK. Again, expect to pay about $100 for each of them. Most people go with the Canon 500D -- they have it in a few different filter sizes. It seems that Nikon isn't making their 5T and 6T anymore. Hoya seems to have some good ones, but they're more expensive -- like $200 each. They also have some cheap ones, but they're not as good. But, they could be good enough for what you want to do.

Like any threaded filter, get them as big as your biggest lens (like 77mm) and use a step-up ring for your smaller lenses.

Good quality set of extension tubes will do the trick also and are much cheaper than a new lens. I use them all the time for ring shots. Just remember to stop the lens wayyyyyy down.

This is a bad idea, especially the D40. There's nothing wrong with what you're shooting with. Invest in something that will make you more money. You'll do a fine job with the bodies you already own. Switching to a D40 or D80 will not make your photography noticeably better to your clients. You can upgrade your D70s later when you've got money burn, not when you're stretching your budget.

For the macro lens, I suggest saving for the 105mm micro VR. It not only works great as a macro lens, but also as portrait lens and a low light ceremony lens.

thanks guys for the advice,

thanks josh, i know about the camera and i dont really want to part with the nikon d70s although it has a noise problem, ive tried taking it for repairs but i get serious noise issues in any condition that doesnt involve sun! i never had that problem with any fujifilm i had before nor the nikon d200 and canon 350d i use at one workplace in bad lighting conditions. its not the iso, exposure or anything, ive tried it and cleaned the ccd the way it should be done and all the lenses. tried them on the d200 int eh same conditions and the photos are fine, so my conclusion was the camera. therefore i decided to change the camera for that reason. the d80 is too expensive at the moment and the d40 tbh doesnt seem to much different from it anyway, it isnt as good as the d70s in my opinion but it is a newer upgrade solution for my work.

the VR lens is really nice, costly especially as i dont plan to use it that much, not now that i got a nikon vr18-200mm lens. i was thinking of a simple sigma 105mm. or even if someone would explain the difference between a fixed and a zoom macro lens, as iom alittle puzzled on that as ive been used to portrait and sport photography for charity work and never really a macro lens, and i used a 10x extension lens for the fuji s1 i had before. it wasnt super dooper but did the job that i wanted.

everyone else has recommended the extension tubes to me, but they seem to be better quality than the one i used.

thanks for the advice, keep it coming. im still brainstorming!!

I find that extension tubes are more difficult to use than diopters. They're probably better quality (because there's no extra glass to go through), but I seriously doubt anyone could tell the difference in real-world applications. Really. I've yet to have anyone be able to tell the difference without scrutinizing the image of a test pattern. The only time the diopters are crummy is if you don't get high-quality, two-element ones. If it costs about $100 or more, you can be pretty sure it's a two-element one.

You lose light with the tubes, not with the diopters. You (often) lose AF, too, with the tubes, but that's not a big deal because you're probably manually focusing, anyway.

With tubes, you need to remove your lens, mount the tube, and then mount the lens on the tube. With a diopter, you just stick it on the end of your lens. No problem with dust on the sensor because of that.

Like I said, I've had great luck (salable images) using the diopters and the convenience is terrific.

Why not send the D70s in to Nikon to get checked and repaired? You should do that anyway before selling it, so what can it hurt? You'll probably get your old friend back in perfect working order. I really think you'd be disapointed with the D40. And have you held one? They're tiny!

First off I would warn against the D40 because of its lack of Autofocus drive. With a D40 you can only use AF-S lenses. That would make any lenses such as the 50mm 1.8 or 1.4 useless, unless you want to manual focus everything. I would agree that you should stay with what you have unless you wanted to upgrade to the D80 or pick up a second D200.

As for macro lenses i own the Tamron 90mm 2.8 Di lens. I am very happy with it. I used to have the nikon 105mm 2.8 and chose the tamron over it. It produces very sharp images and has a beautiful bokeh. If i had to reconsider getting it though i probably wouldn't have picked it up. I only use it for 1 shot during the entire wedding. If i had to go back i would have like to have picked up a fisheye instead or saved the money.

John you got my thoughts in a nut shell.

the d40 i think is good but the major bummer is the whole new lens thing! great for a new buyer but not when you have a wee bundle of lenses, most not compatible automatically and tbh im not into alot of manual focusing as i use manual for shooting anyway and then the lense, equals more time = missed shots in my preference.

and the 1 shot wonder is practically all i need for that in respect, so thats why ive been looking for the cheapest but best quality method, although i do, do alot of food photography for restaurants, hotels and chefs etc. so the macro would be useful.

what was the tamron you got? everyone sends me links for b+h, they dont ship outside the US.

thanks for all the advice, i think ill either get an extension or a third party lense.

aside from the lens issues, if you were to get the D40 you would also have to get new cards as it does not take CF.