![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/blog-2008-photography-pict4643-sigma150mm.jpg\" "\\"blog-2008-photography-pict4643-sigma150mm\\"")
Having picked up a used 50mm f1.8 prime lens for cheap from my colleague and also resurrected my 20 year old 70-210mm lens, the last lens to finish up the series was to be a macro lens.<\/p>\nHaving picked up a used 50mm f1.8 prime lens for cheap from my colleague and also resurrected my 20 year old 70-210mm lens, the last lens to finish up the series was to be a macro lens.<\/p>\n
I haven’t got into macro photography<\/a> before, as firstly I’m not big on insects; and secondly, I’m not big on flowers either.<\/p>\n Still, Ling is quite the amateur horticulturist, and she readily points out the names of various flora wherever she go. And she really does know her stuff. She can tell from a glance whether the leaves are really doing well or not while ignoramus fellows like me think that as long as it’s green, it’s healthy. So I figured why not give macro photography a go, since it’s something to learn and I imagine Ling will be fascinated with closeup pictures too.<\/p>\n After doing (a lot of the usual) research, I finally decided between three macro lenses. There was the very <\/em>popular and well-received Tamron 90mm f2.8<\/a> which has quite a cult following among photography enthusiasts, the very slightly less well-known Tokina 100mm f2.8<\/a>, and finally the Sigma 150mm f2.8<\/a> which isn’t quite in the same class as the first two given its substantially longer reach, heavier heft and better build and thus substantially more expensive. The Sigma lens<\/a> was the one I got eventually too. As good as the Tamron and Tokina lenses are\u2014heck actually most of the macro lenses available are all great\u2014the fact that I’d probably go full-frame at some point in my life was in my mind, and a 90-100mm would give less reach then without the cropped sensor.<\/p>\n So I picked up the lens from Orient Photo after Sunday morning service on the 20th July (Reverend Philip Lim made a few opening jokes which I’ll blog later too), and mounted with my D300. The body with lens sure weighs quite a bit. Heck, the lens even has its own tripod collar. In fact, now I worry for my Benro travel tripod. Fortunately, there’s a weight hook that I can use. Here’s a quickie test shot I did yesterday before Ling helps me send the D300 for sensor cleaning.<\/p>\n And another shot from a restful cat that was lazing in the shade in Punggol Park while we walked around taking pictures of flowers.:)<\/p>\n The larger and sharper versions are here<\/a> and here<\/a>. It’s an interesting lens and seems as good as it’s been reviewed and raved about. The flower shots at Punggol Park didn’t turn out so well though, so there’s still plenty to learn.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having picked up a used 50mm f1.8 prime lens for cheap from my colleague and also resurrected my 20 year old 70-210mm lens, the last lens to finish up the series was to be a macro lens. I haven’t got<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3201\/2685152764_940c377efb.jpg?v=0\")
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![here<\/a>. It’s an interesting lens and seems as good as it’s been reviewed and raved about. The flower shots at Punggol Park didn’t turn out so well though, so there’s still plenty to learn.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having picked up a used 50mm f1.8 prime lens for cheap from my colleague and also resurrected my 20 year old 70-210mm lens, the last lens to finish up the series was to be a macro lens. I haven’t got<\/p>\nRead More Onion layers<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-cameras","category-recipes","tag-d300","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-14-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3031\/2683993579_8dedf5ec13_b.jpg\"){kind=link}