Diff. betwn 60mm macro and 60mm regular lens

[Shari]

My friend and I are newbie photographers with Nikons and we love to go out and take pixs together. She likes to take macro and I'm more landscape or portraiture. I have my 18-200mm zoom with me and she has a 60mm macro lens. Why is it that her pictures look better than mine when I am set at 60mm on my zoom? How are the two lenses different? Shari

[RexK_Cozumel]

well the 60mm micro nikon lens is a prime lens which means that the quality of the lens is going to be much higher. When you make a zoom lens you have to make some sacarifices which means that you lose a bit of image quality.

[Shari]

Originally Posted by Shari

My friend and I are newbie photographers with Nikons and we love to go out and take pixs together. She likes to take macro and I'm more landscape or portraiture. I have my 18-200mm zoom with me and she has a 60mm macro lens. Why is it that her pictures look better than mine when I am set at 60mm on my zoom? How are the two lenses different? Shari

Thanks Rex, so you are saying the two lenses are the same except for some loss in quality? Is that the only difference? Is there any other reason people would go to the expense of buying another lens when they already have a zoom?
Shari

[daft_biker]

Originally Posted by Shari

Is there any other reason people would go to the expense of buying another lens when they already have a zoom?
Shari

Other than superzooms like a 18-200 being a serious sacrifice in quality the maximum aperture on prime lenses is usually faster. f/2.8 would be fast for a zoom but slow for a prime lens these days.

Fast zooms also tend to be very big, heavy and expensive where something like a fast 50mm is small, light and cheap.

[PhotoNewt]

Originally Posted by Shari

My friend and I are newbie photographers with Nikons and we love to go out and take pixs together. She likes to take macro and I'm more landscape or portraiture. I have my 18-200mm zoom with me and she has a 60mm macro lens. Why is it that her pictures look better than mine when I am set at 60mm on my zoom? How are the two lenses different? Shari

As others have correctly pointed out the difference is the optical quality compromises needed to produce an acceptable image on such an ambitious zoom.

A zoom lens when compared to a prime lens (single focal length such as the 60mm) at similar setting, usually have more chromatic aberration (color bleeding in areas of sharp contrast), sperical aberation (distortion), lower sharpness and/or color contrast. In excahnge for the lesser quality you get the convenience of wide focal range on a single package.

I own several zooms, I usually choose either professional grade models which have extra elements to correct some of these potential deficiencies or shorter zooms (my "street" zoom is an old EF 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5) which usully have less compromises do to the reduced focal range.

You can still take very good pictures with a "consumer quality" zoom if you understand its weak points and how to avoid them. You can read an in-depth review of different lenses here or here.

Also, the best quality of a lens can be achieved by "stopping-down" one or two stops from wide open. If your lens maximum aperture for example is f/5.6, for maximum image quality you will need to reduce the aperture to f/8 or f/11. For my "street" zoom, an aperture larger than f/5.6 usually leads to soft focus and poor color contrast.

This photo was taken with the EF 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 "street" zoom, this lens is considered of consumer quality and cost me about $75 used.

Canon 20D, 70mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 100

This lens is not be my choice for low light photography do to the low maximum aperture (for decent results I need f/5.6 at a minimum) or extensive landscapes with high contrast do to higher than acceptable chromatic aberrations (weaknesses). However is a compact lens with minimal distorsion and useful focal range for street photography (strengths).

[Shari]

Thanks Daft_biker and PhotoNewt for your informative answers! The amount of information there was amazing! This is the first time I have ever posted and it has been very rewarding. I am thrilled that people with greater wisdom and experience than I are so willing to share. Thanks again!

[PhotoNewt]

Glad to be of assistance.