DSLR Camera
Out of context: Reply #50
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- scottON0
You can pick up an Olympus E-510 body only for around $550 (10mp, built-in IS, 3.5 fps, live view which is decent for macro work, among other features).
Pick up the Olympus 35mm f 3.5 macro lens for around $300 -
it's no 2.8 but its sharp.
Cons: Olympus is 2x crop rather than 1.5 or 1.6 and it's noisy at 1600 ISO.
Pros: Your hard earned cash goes further body+ lens for potentially less than the D80 brand new retail (body only). If you're using alot of available light - with studio lighting or sunlight, you won't need high ISOs and you can avoid noise this way. Or for still life, use a tripod - this is a necessary investment regardless.
If you have the money, go D80 and dig around online for a good macro lens idea. Ebay should yield some results of old film lenses that will give you some AWESOME bokeh. Old film lenses are cheaper and require manual focus (usually) - lenses pre 1959 will not work on the d80.
All in all - DO NOT get a 70-200 / 70-300 / 80-200 macro or whatever variation you find like this. This is not a dedicated macro lens and only has that as an auxilary function, whereas a dedicated macro lens will give you a 1:1 ratio.
Plus in my experience tamron glass isn't worth it. It's not really an investment if you're gonna accept a lower quality for convenience. Go name brand (you'll notice name brands don't often make the zoom/macro combo lenses).