Camera lens

[mark smyth]

Does anyone use a Sigma 105mm macro lens? How good is it?

[ranunculus]

Hi Mark … I use a 17-70mm Sigma Macro for most of my work and have no problems whatsoever with this excellent lens.

[Jupiter]

I also have a sigma 17-70mm and I agree with is a very sharp lens, but the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX scores a little low on sharpness, which would put me off. I urge caution! Each and every lens model is a seperate entity and you can't judge all Sigma lenses (or Nikon or Canon) by one. Even the engineers don't know how good a lens will be until it reaches production and is tested. Read the reviews and keep looking... that's my two bobs worth.

[brianw]

We stopped using bobs in 1971. You changed even earlier. Has the saying stuck?
Agree on lenses. Judge every lens as an individual. A manufacturer has a reputation but try it out first if you can. That's the trouble with buying on line now. Old fashioned dealers had their good points too.

[Allan Jamieson]

You can buy quite a few different versions of this lens to be honest, the newest version has image stabilisation too. I've got a Sigma 105mm EX macro lens and can assure you that I've taken thousands of pictures using it on my Nikon D800 and it is very, very sharp if used correctly!

You can't really compare a specialist macro lens to a standard zoom either. A macro lens is optimised to work at its very best close up and personal. Saying that I've used mine at infinity too and found it very good there too.

If you are intending to use this kind of lens you need to use it tripod mounted to get the very best out of it, hand holding it is kind of hit and miss when you are working in bare mm depth of field most times. Live View really helps too, so that you can focus exactly where you want and see the impact that changing your lens aperture makes on depth of field. Ideally, if your camera has it lock the mirror up before taking the image and use either a remote control or electronic cable release. A reflector will help bounce light around too, very useful in garden photography to eliminate deep shadows.

Most macro lenses are pretty good, in that kind of focal length you also have the Nikon 105mm lens and the Tamron 90mm lens too, both very good performers. It just comes down to what you prefer really but I've got a few more Sigma macro lenses too and the best performing one that I have is the newest version of the 150mm lens. It gives you good working distance from your subject and its focal length helps also to throw the background out of focus, which makes the main subject matter stand out that bit better.

[Jupiter]

Mark, take note of Allan's first hand experience. I reckon that's a good review. I have a Nikon 105mm f/2.8G and I love it, but it wasn't cheap!

[Allan Jamieson]

Only other point to make is that you are usually better off using this kind of lens manually focussed, hence Live View to determine what is and isn't in focus. Also try to keep your ISO as low as possible, somewhere around 100-200 is ideal for best image quality, or a bit higher ISO if it is windier and you are getting motion blur. It might sound a bit complicated but all of this soon becomes second nature!

[ian mcdonald]

Mark, have you considered trying a Bridge camera?

[Peter Maguire]

The problem I find with using a bridge camera for macro work is that they have a very limited range of aperture settings. This is overcome by the effect of the smaller sensor giving a greater depth of field at a given aperture when compared with the larger sensor of an SLR camera - there is a scientific explanation for this, but optics being part of physics at school, made my eyes glaze over. I just accept it as a fact of life. 

The upshot is that you can get great depth of field with a bridge camera in controlled conditions - Ian's Bulblog photos are evidence of this. However very often it is difficult to get the the background out of focus, which is often desirable to concentrate your attention on the subject, and this can be a problem when photographing plants in the wild.

[Maggi Young]

Has Ian Young got a bridge camera?  Who knew? 
(Note to self - might need to pay more attention to the Boss)

[johnralphcarpenter]

What's a bridge camera? And which is the best one for macro photography? My camera claims to be fully automatic, hence the out of focus pictures I post from time to time.

[Maggi Young]

I think it's a sort of halfway house between a point and shoot camera and an SLR, Ralph, hence the bridge  nickname.   If you search the forum (from the button fourth from left in the row at the top of the page) for "bridge camera"  you'll find some  mentions of them in various threads.
 There'll be a photographer around any time now to give you the proper answer, I'm sure!

[Graeme]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sigma-105mm-f-2-8-ex-dg-os-hsm-macro-lens-canon-dslr-cameras-346-58-amazon-2320509

I am not sure if you ever look at this site but I have had some cracking deals on outdoor coats/boots and all sorts of other items

had a look at this on amazon and oddly enough there is a new one at £339 +  a bit of postage as well

[ian mcdonald]

There are several good sites explaining how bridge cameras work and the different results from different cameras. The Panasonic Lumix FZ 1000 has a good rating for overall performance but I expect other people have other views. It has turned this poor photographer into an average one so it has done what I wanted.

[Peter Maguire]

Has Ian Young got a bridge camera?  Who knew?  [/quote]

Maggi, he used to have one I believe. The Fuji Finepix one he used in the early days of the Bulblog. Whether he still uses one.... I could be wrong. 
Of course back in the early days of the Bulblog, the term 'bridge' camera had not really become widely known. If asked these days what they are, I say that they look like a small, lightweight SLR (single lens reflex) camera. Of course with SLRs, the lenses can be taken off and changed, say to a macro lens. If the lens comes off your bridge camera you probably dropped it and it will need to be repaired.