Ianpalmer wrote:
Hello fellow members. I just pull the trigger and purchase the Nikon 105 MM 2.8 Macro lens. What are some of your experience with this lens. I currently shoot with the D-7000 planning to upgrade soon. Either 7200 or a full frame. Let m know thanks.
I shoot Canon gear now, so am obviously not using the current versions of the Nikkor 105mm....
But I've used vintage versions of it in the past and it's a legendary quality macro lens. You should find it fantastic. Macro lenses around 90 to 105mm focal length are a good compromise of good working distance from your subjects, yet still reasonably hand-holdable.
Like any macro lens, you'll have to experiment with balancing shallow depth of field against using a very small apertures that cause loss of fine detail due to diffraction. Might want to learn about using "focus stacking" (check out Helicon Focus software website for more info).
If you got the VR version of the lens, don't expect too much from the image stabilization at the lens' highest magnification levels. It's just limited how much stabilization is able to do, at high mags... though it can be quite effective when using the lens for lower magnification shots or non-macro purposes. Monopods and tripods continue to be very useful accessories for macro work. Macro flash is another way to deal with the challenges of high magnification work.
Some folks use the 105mm and other macro lenses for portraiture, too. Personally I think many of them are actually too sharp for that purpose. Even a 17 year old model with "perfect" skin who's just spent an hour with talented make-up artist is likely to need some retouching. Your mother-in-law might really hate portraits of her made with a macro lens. (And I believe there's a Nikkon 105mm "DC" specifically made for portraiture, instead of macro... I sometimes use a Tamron 60/2.0 macro/portrait that has larger aperture than most macro lenses and is a little more forgiving, too, but is a crop-only/DX lens.)
Have fun learning to use the lens. Overall it's a fantastic macro lens.
If you're brand new to macro, it's a huge and diverse specialization with a lot to learn. There are some great books out there by a number of authors that I highly recommend. If you can find it, start with John Shaw's "Close-ups in Nature", which is as close as you'll get to a macro "Bible". But there are more excellent books from Jim Brandenberg, Mary and Joe MacDonald, Nial Benvie, Bryan Peterson, Heather Angel, Jim Zuckerman and more. Many (most? all?) of these are nature and wildlife photographers... but the same macro principles and techniques apply to shooting most any type of small subject.