Here's the thing, I'm on a limited budget. I can only afford to get one lens right now. I would like to have a macro lens, but also something that I can take portraits with. The 85mm is said to be a really good prime for portraits, however the 105mm is said to be the macro of Nikon lenses. From what I'm reading it looks like my best bet will be the 105mm for both portraits and macro. Can someone please confirm?
Any macro lens in the 90-105mm range could do double duty... That said, I don't use any of my macro lenses for portraits. Why ? Because they were designed for close focusing. I have the 85mm Nikkor F1.8 if I want to do portraits. Now I know you are on a limited budget, but you don't say what that budget is, nor do you indicate what camera body you are using...
Screamin Scott wrote: Any macro lens in the 90-105mm range could do double duty... That said, I don't use any of my macro lenses for portraits. Why ? Because they were designed for close focusing. I have the 85mm Nikkor F1.8 if I want to do portraits. Now I know you are on a limited budget, but you don't say what that budget is, nor do you indicate what camera body you are using...
While I agree totally... just because they're designed to focus close, doesn't mean they can't be used for portraits. Especially if you're stopping down with studio lighting. What you said about aperture is legit though.
One legit problem with a macro lens is they can be too sharp and revealing for people. Which is why my favourite lens to use for portraits is a wide aperture lens (85mm) as S.Scott suggested. You can get some really nice, semi-soft, shallow DOF shots with it while maintaining sharp eyes.
Here's some samples from my collection that I could find on this computer:
Here's one taken at 1.4 with a Zeiss 85 1.4 (manual focus):
And here's Al Gore (105 2.8 ):
So as you can clearly see. The 105mm 2.8 is a Democrat.
Screamin Scott wrote: Any macro lens in the 90-105mm range could do double duty... That said, I don't use any of my macro lenses for portraits. Why ? Because they were designed for close focusing. I have the 85mm Nikkor F1.8 if I want to do portraits. Now I know you are on a limited budget, but you don't say what that budget is, nor do you indicate what camera body you are using...
And here's Al Gore (105 2.8 ):
So as you can clearly see. The 105mm 2.8 is a Democrat.
I am with Ernesto on this one. The 105 is a great lens for both. Now granted you could do some macro with the 85, if you got some tubes to use with it. But the 105 is a great lens for both.
I have just bought the D800 and I have always wanted a quality Nikkor micro lens so I bought the 105mm, up to now I cannot fault the quality of this lens both for portrait and macro work, although my post processing has come into question (bright white eyes is all I have to say)
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Phyllis Miller 1 post
