Can someone explain Macro photography is exactly and what equipment options do I have. Does the apeture of a lens have anything to do with closeup photography. Most lenes I see advetised as Macro lens have a f2.8 apeture. I understand these are "faster" lenes but how does it help with closeup photography. Is Macro the correct term, as I thought macro meant "wide angle", as in a 24mm or 28mm lens. I'm on a limited budget and am considering mulit-coated closeup lenes or maybe extension tubes, but have read elsewhere these provide bad photos. I have a Nikon N50 and Quantaray 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.

-- Kevin Lowman (kevin.lowman@mci.com), March 31, 1999

Answers

"Macro" (or "micro" in Nikon parlance) refers to close-up photography in which the image on the film approaches or reaches 1:1. This ratio refers to the size of the object in real life (say, one inch) and the size of the image on a piece of 35mm film (in this example, also one inch).

One of the best and easiest to use pieces of equipment for macro is a dedicated macro lens, such as the Nikkor 105 f2.8 Micro or the 60 f2.8 Micro. These lenses are optimized for sharpness at close focusing distances. The relatively fast f2.8 aperture makes the image you see through the viewfinder brighter and easier to focus, although to gain more depth of field, you will often want to stop down considerably.

The other essential macro tool is a sturdy tripod. When focusing on such small objects as a butterfly, leaf, or small flower, most of us simply cannot hold the camera still enough to get a sharp picture and maintain good depth of field by hand-holding the camera.

Depth of field at close working distances is amazingly shallow, so stopping down to small apertures and using long shutter speeds are generally required.

The Nikkor 105 f2.8 Micro is my personal favorite, not only because it is a wonderful close-up lens, but also because it has become my favorite portrait lens for pictures of babies and children, or of almost anyone with a perfect complexion. No other lens seems to capture the beautiful delicacy of children's faces as well for me.

The 105 f2.8 Micro runs about $600, and if this is out of your budget for now, a set of close-up lenses can provide an inexpensive and satisfying stop-gap while saving for a true macro lens. Usually, with close-up lenses you move the camera until the image comes into focus. While this is not as handy as a macro lens, it can provide interesting and detailed close-up images of small objects.

-- Mark Hubbard (mhubbard@internews.org), March 31, 1999.

Kevin, go here:

http://www.ultranet.com/~pwilson/

-- Marcus Erne (cerne@ees.eesc.com), April 01, 1999.

Can anyone recommend one for the Canon AE-1P camera? Macro lens that is?

Thanks. Please respond to me directly.

-- Deborah L. Von Cannon (shutterbug@voncannon.com), August 24, 1999.

Marcus, thanks for mentioning my site but it's currently down. I changed ISP's(moved to a town where cable modems are available) and haven't had a chance to get the site back up. Once it's winter time and I'm not outside I'll do it.

In the meantime, I anyone can email me and I'll send them the html directly.

-- Paul Wilson (pauldwilson@mediaone.net), August 25, 1999.