TAMRON 60mm f/2 MACRO Lens

[djvkool]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09...ron60macro.asp

guys, what are your thoughts..?? this would be a superb release, f/2 which is wider than any of the MACRO lens out there (most of them are f/2.8), will double as a fantastic potrait prime as well, the thing that excite me most is that it will have much shallower DOF for MACRO works, and not to mention that it needs less light too, which is very useful in MACRO

Price would be around $600 AUD, I think I've got to me one of them

[kiwi]

What doesn't excite me is that it's a DX lens right ?

[djvkool]

yes it is a cropped lens

[Seesee]

Not sure if it's any advantage over the already well regarded Tammy 90mm macro ?.....be interested in hearing other reviews

[arthurking83]

What doesn't excite me is that it's a DX lens right ?

I don't think that's actually a disadvantage TBH!!

Look at it as the new 90mm Tammy macro, which has always been well regarded, it stil works on ALL Nikon DSLR's ever made, and if they've used the DX factor to advantage, the lens should be great from the wide open... f/2 and up!
I'd bet that it has a larger image circle than the DX rating suggests, which could still be more than acceptable for full frame use(on Nikon that is!)

[djvkool]

Not sure if it's any advantage over the already well regarded Tammy 90mm macro ?.....be interested in hearing other reviews

Seesee

one advantage is that the new 60mm has f/2 whereas the 90mm is f/2.8, although the 90mm can be use over longer working distance.

MACRO works in darker areas, yes please...

[ricktas]

I would be interested in learning where people would use f2.0 in macro. When I shoot my fungi, I generally shoot at around F8-F11. The advantage of f2.8 is for the AF system as that uses the lens wide open to lock focus.

Could be a very good lens, but buying it just cause its f2.0 rather than f2.8 is really not going to give you a better result in the real world or macro photography, except when its a really dark environment, and then I use a torch to assist AF...easy and cheap.

[TEITZY]

Seesee

one advantage is that the new 60mm has f/2 whereas the 90mm is f/2.8, although the 90mm can be use over longer working distance.

MACRO works in darker areas, yes please...

f2 is not really an advantage over f2.8 for a 1:1 macro unless you're into abstract kind of stuff where nothing is in focus Certainly may be handy for portrait work though.

Also the WD is 100mm from the front element versus 95mm on the 90mm version. The front element is also recessed inside the barrel by about 30mm on the 90, so in terms of actual working distance, the 60mm will be significantly better.

Cheers
Leigh

[Tannin]

But who uses a macro lens purely for macro? Hardly anyone is my guess. A 60mm macro lens on an APS-C camera makes a great general-purpose short tele and portrait lens, and, yup, f/2 would be handy if thay can do it without sacrificing IQ.

[arthurking83]

And also f/2 or thereabouts wouldn't be that strange as an aperture selection if the field of focus is flat... say a flat leaf on the ground or a currency note on a flat surface.
Besides.... the chances are that at macro magnifications the aperture will be more like f/5 or so anyhow, and only have use of f/2 from approx 1.5 - 2 meters focused distance(no one knows until the lens is in users hands!).

Sure, many macro shots posted here are of the typical 3 dimensional kind where you may want some DOF.. but that's not a rule that needs to be adhered too.

Also if you were to use this lens for non macro imagery, then you can be certain(if the optics are up to it!) that the lens will be good at f/2.8, as you've already begun to stop it down from wide open!