#Nikon macro lens manual

Meaning that with almost any lens you can expect there to be a degree of difference in sharpness between the center and periphery. Few, if any, lenses perform as well at the corners as they do in the center – at least when used at wider apertures. It’s also important to differentiate between the sharpness of a lens at its center vs the edges. While depth-of-field of course becomes deeper at smaller apertures such as f/22 or f/32, bear in mind that, with most lenses, sharpness tends to deteriorate again once you stop it down beyond about f/16. However, some truly excellent lenses will still deliver incredible sharpness even when used wide open. Typically a lens will perform best in this area when the diaphragm is shut down two or three stops from maximum aperture.įor example, many of the lenses we look at in this guide have a maximum aperture of f/2.8, so we might expect them to perform best from around f/4 onwards.

#Nikon macro lens manual

as a macro lens, rather than for other styles – the lack of AF will make little difference to you, simply because macro photography usually calls for manual focusing anyway.Īs macro photography is all about capturing details that can’t easily be seen with the naked eye, it should be obvious that image sharpness is of maximum importance when selecting a macro lens. In any case, if you will be purchasing the lens primarily to use as it was intended – i.e. Try not to let the lack of autofocus put you off though, as when all things are considered it really is a great lens and comes very competitively priced.Īnd if you don’t mind focusing manually, the 100mm would also work very well for portraits or product and food photography too.

The fact that Samyang’s 100mm f/2.8 ED Macro is a manual-only lens will undoubtedly discourage a lot of potential users. There’s no noticeable color fringing at any aperture. Wide open at f/2.8 images are very sharp and contrasty at the center, with just some slight softness towards the corners.Īnd by f/4 the corners are already much sharper. Nine aperture blades mean bokeh is very smooth and attractive, with background light balls remaining circular throughout the aperture range. Of course, some Nikon purists will turn their noses up at anything other than a Nikon own-brand lens.īut in this case it would be a mistake in sticking only to Nikon’s offerings over the Tamron, you would be paying out a lot of extra money for no significant advantage. For this reason the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 USD Macro takes our top spot as the best macro lens for Nikon FX cameras right now. On top of which, it comes at a highly competitive price for such a great quality piece of glass.Ĭonsequently, anyone in the market for a macro lens that ticks all the boxes and yet doesn’t break the bank will struggle to find serious fault with the Tamron 90mm. Otherwise though, the lens is well-built, supremely sharp, and optically very sound. Be aware, however, that some users have complained that the Tamron 90mm doesn’t truly provide an aperture of f/2.8 when used close up. The lens comes with a plastic lens hood and takes 62mm filters. This makes it a great option for nature and wildlife photographers.

In terms of sturdiness and build, this newer model is much better than the older plastic AF version of the lens, as both the lens barrel and mount are made from metal, and the whole thing is weather sealed. In this case though, you can easily switch to manual focusing operation, achieved by a quick turn of the satisfyingly-large focus ring. However, on the downside, autofocus can be prone to hunting slightly when used in live-view mode.Īnd while quiet, AF is not totally silent. The 90mm’s image stabilization works extremely well, even when used very close up.Īnd autofocus, too, performs excellently overall.