Originally posted by crispic Thank you, that's very informative. I'm currently looking for a second hand macro lens, though it is often hard to find reviews for old lenses. Perhaps you (or someone else) has some recommendations?
If you are looking for AF-Lenses, then you will have hard time finding a bad one. The whole thing about which lense perform best is overestimated - at least in that price range that you are looking at. In fact the the difference lies around 10% so i wouldn´t worry about that.
to clear your conscious, just look for some macro lenses reviews on forum, read some people liking and disliking them, and end up not knowing, what to choose.
as i wrote before, please READ some magazines or tags about macro shooting. the topic is enormous. it is hard to bring all the techniques that can be apropriate for you.
some examples:
Macro lenses with AF
Magn.<=1:1
pro - easy, no need in specific knowledge, biggest Depth Of Few that you can get in macro (bigger magnification = smaller DoF).
contra - none. at least in my opinion
what do you want to shoot - still objects or alive?
for still the 50mm macro is more than ennough, easy and fast to work. for alive objects a 90mm with a flash would be prefferable.
close-up filters
Magn.<=1:1
enlarging filter which are screwed on any lens.
pro - can be used on zoom lenses, AF, easy to use, cheap.
contra - Image Quality loss, but still usable on primes.
manual macro tubes or bellow
Magn.<=>1:1
are put between the body and the lens.
pro - can be used with most Manual lenses (AF bellows and Tubes are pricey), can provide greater magnification, cheap.
contra - light loss, mostly used with tripod, manual working.
Reversal Rings(Retro Rings)
Magn.=>1:1
A bayonett ring which is screwed on lense filter, so you can flip it. 50mm prime gives you ca. 1:1 magn. 28mm provides 2-3times magnification.
pro - really cheap, easy way to get supermacro, no IQ loss, no light loss.
contra - Small DoF, manual working.
For manual working you will need a old prime lense, no matter which one - you can buy old pentax lens with aperture ring or get a good m42 lens and put adapter on it. It is preferable to have a lens with A-M switcher or even better a A-M pin on the side, which automatically closes your aperture. Because of shallow DoF you will focus with aperture wide open and just before shooting, close the aperture.
And manual working means manual working - sometimes even the metering will work wrong, so you will need to compensate it, or work with Live View.
I´ve compared old M sigma macro to tubes, reversed prime and some enlarger- lenses on bellow there was no differance in IQ, all performed preatty well, the only thing that was a bit different is the DoF. it seemed on theMacro lense it was slightly greater. still on the magn. 1:1 it is to hard to judge.
first - magn. 1:1, Pentax FA50mm 1.4, reversed
second - magn. 3:1 Pentax Fa50mm 1.4, reversed on 65mm macrotubes and flash.