Which macro lens?Please help!

[Miss_Skelington]

Hi,

I need to buy a macro lens with a ratio of 1:1 for my Nikon D70.

After looking at various lenses, I was advised to look at digital compacts such as the Fuji Finepix S series, since these cameras have a super macro facility shooting at 1cm.

What does this meen, 1cm? Is this a ratio of 1:1? I can´t find the answer anywhere.

I´m interested in the idea of having a second camera, opposed to the lens ( since the 2 cost roughly the same price) but what would you suggest?

I will be needing the macro facility to shoot some medical photography, for example, skin conditions.

What digital compact would you reccomend me that is still excellent in picture quality and with a macro facility of a ratio of 1:1?

Many many thanks:-)

Danielle.

[wulf]

Consider an add-on adapter. £33 (including postage) recently bought me a Raynox DCR-250 from eBay - you can check some of my recent photos to see the level of detail I have been able to get with it. I'm not sure a dedicated macro lens would get me much more detail without becoming a lot more expensive.

Wulf

[Miss_Skelington]

Hi Wulf,

Thanks for your reply

I am looking to spend about 250 pounds ( sorry, I can´t find the pound sign on my German keyboard ) either on a macro lens with a ratio of 1:1 or on a digital compact camera with a macro system that has a ratio of 1:1.

Do you know what digital compacts have this? What do you think of the Nikon Coolpix P5000, the Fuji Finepix S9600 and S9500?

Many thanks,
Danielle

[Saralonde]

Dan Rowe in the third post down on this thread good macro lenses mentions the Canon Powershot A630 as a good true macro camera.

[Miss_Skelington]

Hi,

Does anyone actually know what the 1cm macro is though?? Does this meen it has a ratio of 1:1? I would really appreciate it if someone could kindly shed some light on this for me.

Many thanks,
Danielle.

[NaturesPixel]

I'll take some examples.. i have a sigma 1.1 macro lens for my d80 and i have a minolta P&S with pretty good "super macro" im charging up some batteries for the minolta so ill post them today... if it was me ?? i would get a nice little Nikon 60mm depending on what is being shot...if its live bugs a 100mm is best .. no idea how much these are in pounds tho...

[clockdoc]

Hi,
Can you tell us what lens or lenses you are currently using with your D70? I see where the D70 has a Close-up setting on its mode dial. What have you experienced with this setting? To answer your question about the 1 cm value, here is some info on the Fuji S9000:
"The Macro range is 1 cm to 1 m (0.4 in. to 3.3 ft. wide-angle only) and the Super Macro range in Wide-angle is approx. 0.1m/0.3ft. to 2m/6.6ft., in Telephoto it's approx. 0.9m/3.0ft. to 2m/6.6ft. "

When they mention 1cm, they are referring to the closest distance the front element of the lens can get to the subject. At this close range though you will probably be blocking light from reaching your subject as well as having an extremely small depth of field. You can also use the more telephoto range and shoot from a longer distance. I do not know what the ratio is for these distances.

Is there any reason you can't use the closeup features of your current D70 lens? Are the skin conditions you are shooting relatively flat, not requiring much depth of field? If so you should be able to do well with your existing lens. Do you have any examples you can share. How small an area will you be photographing? Hope this helps.

[jiminyClickit]

Miss_Skelington, Wecome

As an example (closest one to skin disease I have), this clover blossom is taken with an older model Fuji S3100, which starts good focus after about 3 1/2 inches. You could assume the newer ones are better, and if you browse Flickr you can find better examples taken by various brands, models, lenses, etc. Good hunting, but I can't say I'm looking forward to the psoriasis photos!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Miss_Skelington

... Does anyone actually know what the 1cm macro is though?? Does this meen it has a ratio of 1:1? I would really appreciate it if someone could kindly shed some light on this for me. ...

As I understand it, the 1cm is the minimum focus distance: it's how far the camera lens can be from the subject and still focus. The 1:1 ratio is the size of the object vs. the size of the image on the sensor/film. How you'd convert one to the other I've got no clue, but I'd say, find out the sensor size in the camera, bring a ruler with you to the store, take a macro picture and see how many millimeters show up in the frame. If it's around the as the sensor size, you've got 1:1.

[matthewchj]

I don't think there's any relation between the close focus distance and 1:1 ratio