Close up photography is an area I’ve always had a passion for.
In my early twenties I dreamed of owning the Canon EF 100mm Macro. This was regarded as the lens for close up work. For me it too much money to purchase. So I bought a set of Hoya 52mm close up lenses which I used with my Canon EOS film camera, shooting still images. Using the close up lenses I was able to achieve some fantastic results.
20 some years later I did buy the Canon EF 100mm Macro, a true macro lens, including stabilization, super quick auto-focus, razor sharp with tremendous possibilities for shallow depth of field. This is one of the great lenses. However, using it isn’t particularly easy to use, certainly if you’re shooting moving images; the lens was designed for still photography. Regardless, in the right hands this lens can produce beautiful results.
My passion for close up work recently took a new turn when I purchased a Nikon lens, discontinued some 10 years ago, which is absolutely staggering in its photographic abilities. Read up on this lens, the Nikon 70-180mm Macro at http://tinyurl.com/zublb .
This lens is unique in that it is the world’s only variable focal macro zoom lens. That means you can focus within a few inches of your subject, anywhere within the range of 70-180mm. You don’t need to move the camera to reframe, which is what needs to be done with a fixed focal length macro lens.
Check out the movie above. This was filmed with the Nikon 70-180mm using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera (EF). The 2.3 crop factor makes this lens the equivalent of 161-414mm in 35mm still photography terms. That’s a pretty long reach for a macro lens. Note: the footage was shot RAW and exported as ProRes before editing in FCPX. The shots are ungraded.
The Nikon 70-180mm macro lens is one of a kind, and only available by searching far and wide for places selling the lens used. Discontinued in 2004, this lens doesnt come cheap. It is certainly one of a kind.
In my early twenties I dreamed of owning the Canon EF 100mm Macro. This was regarded as the lens for close up work. For me it too much money to purchase. So I bought a set of Hoya 52mm close up lenses which I used with my Canon EOS film camera, shooting still images. Using the close up lenses I was able to achieve some fantastic results.
20 some years later I did buy the Canon EF 100mm Macro, a true macro lens, including stabilization, super quick auto-focus, razor sharp with tremendous possibilities for shallow depth of field. This is one of the great lenses. However, using it isn’t particularly easy to use, certainly if you’re shooting moving images; the lens was designed for still photography. Regardless, in the right hands this lens can produce beautiful results.
My passion for close up work recently took a new turn when I purchased a Nikon lens, discontinued some 10 years ago, which is absolutely staggering in its photographic abilities. Read up on this lens, the Nikon 70-180mm Macro at http://tinyurl.com/zublb .
This lens is unique in that it is the world’s only variable focal macro zoom lens. That means you can focus within a few inches of your subject, anywhere within the range of 70-180mm. You don’t need to move the camera to reframe, which is what needs to be done with a fixed focal length macro lens.
Check out the movie above. This was filmed with the Nikon 70-180mm using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera (EF). The 2.3 crop factor makes this lens the equivalent of 161-414mm in 35mm still photography terms. That’s a pretty long reach for a macro lens. Note: the footage was shot RAW and exported as ProRes before editing in FCPX. The shots are ungraded.
The Nikon 70-180mm macro lens is one of a kind, and only available by searching far and wide for places selling the lens used. Discontinued in 2004, this lens doesnt come cheap. It is certainly one of a kind.
