Food photography & Nikon D90. Questions : 1.Which focal length is convenience but not expensive ? 2.How farthest the distance between my lens and subject (for 1:1 macro) if i use focal length 60mm, 80mm, 105mm, 200mm? 3.Do you think VR is important cause I'm gonna use tripod ? (with VR the lens is too expensive) 4.Which auto-focus mode (auto / manual) is better control for macro photography? Thank you.

All Answers To Questions

1) I don't know what you mean - sorry. 2) a 60mm lens will be around 2 - 3 " away from the subject at 1:1, the 105mm won't just be twice as far away, as you might expect, it will be 4 times further away 8 - 10" and the 200mm 4 times further away than that 32 - 40". 80 or 105mm is good, with 60mm you can get into your own light so to speak, you will have little room to set up the lighting. 3) Academic as you'd turn VR off if the camera is on a tripod. 4) Forget Auto Focus with macro at 1:1 the depth of field is tiny, auto focus will rarely focus where you want it. It's one of the few times that live view comes into it's own and manual focus. Chris

Hi, The answer to 1. depends on your budget. For 1:1, the subject distance = the focal length. I would not use VR on a tripod, focus manually. Generally 100mm lenses will give 1:1 directly, 50mm will give 1:2. The link below is to a DoF calculator which you may find useful. Cheers Charles

If you are using DX Camera, 60mm Macro is the best. If you are using FF Camera, 60mm or 105mm Macros can be use. I would only recommend using the 105mm if you are a season photographer. 60mm has better control in terms of focal length..when you compose your shot. http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fe%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dnikon%2520micro%2520lens%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Delectronics&tag=digitalcamera.07-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957