I know a guy who got a macro lens and then ended up selling it. Said it wasn't worth the trouble (and dollar investment) carrying it around all day for just a couple shots.
I'd say if all you're going to use it for is ring shots, it's probably not worth it. If you're going to also shoot details as well as use it for personal and other work, they are pretty cool lenses.
Superb sharp images, useful for detail shots and ring shots, fun with flowers and insects in your spare time, also handy at 'normal' distances - what's not to like?
Main reason not to get one is if you're budget-constrained. Otherwise, it's very handy to have one in the bag
I got the 105mm VR mainly for ring shots, the extension tubes works great too but the 105mm seems to give a little extra.
The other reason for having the 105mm is to use along side the 70-200 or in case the 70-200 packs up. You can do some cool close up shots of eyes etc as well as using it for portraits.
But if I had the money again I would use it towards a combo of the 85mm f/1.8 & 28mm f/1.8 or the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4, I would get more use from them and just go back to using an externion tube.
D. Diggler wrote:
I know a guy who got a macro lens and then ended up selling it. Said it wasn't worth the trouble (and dollar investment) carrying it around all day for just a couple shots.
Agreed. My 135L + some slight cropping is more than enough for me. No client is going to buy a big canvas for a ring shot, so for me it's not worth the $800+ investment.
I actually use a little cheapo canon lens that I removed the front element from. It's insanely tight macro, and you have to be literally 1/2 inch from the rings to even get the shot, but it's so dramatic that I like to use it. It has a focal plane of about 1-2mm, so it's really hard to pull focus with manually, but the results are rather gnarly, I feel.
imaginephotoaz wrote:
I actually use a little cheapo canon lens that I removed the front element from. It's insanely tight macro, and you have to be literally 1/2 inch from the rings to even get the shot, but it's so dramatic that I like to use it. It has a focal plane of about 1-2mm, so it's really hard to pull focus with manually, but the results are rather gnarly, I feel.
I wouldn't get the 105vr Macro. I had it and I can't really recommend it.. I use the Sigma 105 2.8 Macro which is about $300 used. The 105Vr is bulky and for some reason not as sharp as the Sigma!
Yep, that's probably where I read it once, then I found the lens in an old camerabag my wife had laying around, it came back to me, and voila, cheapo ultra macro. cheers
When I was using Nikon I at one point had the 105VR and I found it terrible for portraits because of how slow to focus it was. I also usually used it in a manual focus mode for ring shots because it hunted so bad. I ended up selling it and going with an old 55mm f/3.5 AI Macro lens which is small and very sharp. Not sure ultimate if I am going to keep it and use it on my 5d3 with an adaptor or look into a different lens, but since I only use it for ring shots it needs to be small and not take up much room in the bag.
After quite a bit of thought and pricing, I decided to get a full set of extension tubes and try to get comfortable with using my 85mm 1.8G with them for the small number of macro shots I need to do during the wedding day.
cheers