Contemplating 100mm-ish Macro Lenses- Advice Sought

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 595

poilu and kram, thanks for your replies. kram, thanks especially for confirming my guesses about how you shoot.

poilu, I can't speak for kram, but all of the people I know who shoot closeup are largely self-taught. I worked out the necessary techniques, including all of the stupid closeup flash tricks, before Blaker published Field Photography in 1976. I bought that book in the hope, well justified, that Blaker knew things I didn't. We all of us have more to learn.

I must not have been clear, although kram's reference to non-zombies make me think that he is closely acquainted with tremor. I certainly am. High magnification photography -- closeup or with long lenses -- punishes the least unsteadiness severely. This is why, once one has a good enough macro lens the big gains in image quality come from improving technique to control motion rather that from getting a marginally better lens. I'm well aware that there are slightly better and slightly worse macro lenses, but good enough means just that.

Note that I didn't mention improving placement of the plane of best focus. This is because when shooting handheld the plane of best focus and the frame wander.

kram, in my experience there are a few magic bullets in closeup photography but a slightly better lens isn't one of them.

Kram · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 1344 Location: Portland, OR

[soapbox] Just to be clear, IMHO, the real magic bullet in photography is the magic in the monkey behind the machine.

The monkey should know the conditions and "rules" affecting his work and should use them to do something creative and perhaps unusual. This is the challenge and also the fun part.

I am not after technical perfection, although I hold myself to a high standard. I am looking to use a lens as a way to express myself, not to fix some sort of technical dilemma. [/soapbox]

Still considering the Olympus 90/2 macro and the Voigtlander APO 90/3.5 APO SL II. Love to hear your thoughts.

Love and hugs,
The MonkeyMan
Twisted Evil

FluffPuppy · Joined: 11 Dec 2011 Posts: 365

Kram · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 1344 Location: Portland, OR

Disguised as a fluffy puppy, Satan temps the MonkeyMan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
Twisted Evil

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 595

Kram, I think we're pretty much in agreement. Technical perfection itself may be desireable -- I aim for it, often miss -- but it is a means to an end. In photography, the end as I see it is to capture the images one wants to capture as one wants them captured. It seems to me that good command of technique is needed to do that, but it certainly isn't sufficient.

Re monkeys, lately I've been getting a lot of "Stupid monkey, why can't you understand cat body language?" from our cats. My slowness to catch on frustrates them a lot.

Cheers,

Dan

FluffPuppy · Joined: 11 Dec 2011 Posts: 365

Kram · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 1344 Location: Portland, OR

This is a good point. It just so happens that I compiled a list of things to sell that would put it within my reach.