prime/macro - Same? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

03/16/2007 01:32:21 PM · #1

Noob question:

Looking at lenses today. I am into ALL photography at this point but what is really capturing my interest is the 'closer' shots taken of objects or peoples' faces.

Is a prime a lense that is set for a certain distance (Meaning you must be within a very specific range to get the right focus) whereas a macor does allow for some zooming, but it's still limited to a short range (Since it's macro)?

I'd love a link to a detailed explanation on all the types of lenses and how they work but a search here revealed no such link. Reviews are great, if you know what they are talking about.

petrakka

03/16/2007 01:50:03 PM · #2

A prime is a fixed focal length lens (it cannot zoom in or out)
Most macros are primes, but they allow for close focusing.

If you get a prime that is not denoted as a macro/micro ...then you will not be able to focus nearly as close.

Falc

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

03/16/2007 01:57:44 PM · #3

Ok, a prime lens has a fixed focal length, that is it will not be able to zoom in or out. It will be able to focus from infinity down to pretty close to the camera, typically a few inches to 2 or 3 feet. Anything closer will be out of focus range.

A macro lens typically has a setting which allows the lens to focus just that little bit closer. They usually are primes too. There are special macro lenses which alow the lens to get to a few milimeters of the subject but will not focus to infinity (canon mpe-65).

Nullix

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

03/16/2007 03:05:31 PM · #4

There are mainly 2 types of lenses:

Prime
Zoom

Prime lenses are fixed field of views. With 24mm being wide, 50mm being normal, and 100mm being narrow.

With zooms, you can change the field of view from wide to narrow.

Both types of lenses have a limited front focus. You can only bring objects so close to the lense before it will be unable to focus on it.

A macro lens, is able to focus closer than normal lenses.

You can make any lens able to focus closer by adding extention tubes. Of course, you loose the ability to focus out to infinity with these tubes.

With a specialized macro lense, I think you still have infinity focus (I'm not certain since I use extention tubes -- poorman's macro).

Hope this helps.

03/16/2007 03:07:40 PM · #5

with the 1:1 macro lens you have infinity focus - not sure about the higher magnification macros - but would guess you lose infinity with those.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM for Canon

03/16/2007 10:11:41 PM · #6

Let me add to my noobness and ask 'what does infinity mean in the case of focusing?'

Ubersteiny

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

03/16/2007 10:30:52 PM · #7

Originally posted by heavyj:

Let me add to my noobness and ask 'what does infinity mean in the case of focusing?'

ususllay beyond 30ft.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM for Canon

03/16/2007 11:20:19 PM · #8

So if someone says that a lense has infinity then it can focus on something 30ft or more away?

Again, sorry for the noobness

Ubersteiny

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

03/17/2007 12:05:46 AM · #9

Originally posted by heavyj:

So if someone says that a lense has infinity then it can focus on something 30ft or more away?

Again, sorry for the noobness

almost all lenses focus to inifity
the inifity mark is a horizontal 8 pretty much and its what you focus to for landscapes and all

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

03/17/2007 03:11:27 AM · #10

OK...

I want to be able to do 2 things with a lense. I don't know whether I should start saving money for 2 lenses, or whether 1 lense will do the trick. I want to take close up shots of food layed out on a table, the kind of shots you might see on the menu of a restaurant or in a cook book.

I'd also like to take pictures of faces, close up, or just upper or lower body shots. What kind of lense would suit both my needs? Or would 2 seperate purchases be best?

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

03/17/2007 03:18:32 AM · #11

As long as we are discussing macro lenses from a newbie perspective, let me throw in some more detail:

in traditional photographic terminology, a lens that can focus close enough to provide a life-size, 1:1 reproduction ratio (more on that in a moment) is considered a "true macro lens". Many consumer zoom lenses are labeled "macro" indicating close-focusing abilities, but as a rule they only go down to 1:2, half life-size. Lenses that can go larger-than-life, say 2:1, 3:1, 5:1 are "extreme macros". Extreme macro lenses are very specialized and rarely can achieve infinity focus. True macro lenses, at least the good ones, are all very sharp, crisp lenses, with optics optimized for close work and rendition of detail. They also all can be used as a general-purpose prime, being capable of being focused out to infinity like any normal lens.

About that 1:1 reproduction ratio, to explain exactly what it means it's helpful to revert to film. If you shoot an object at 1:1 (life size) this means that after you have processed the negative you could overlay it on the object you photographed and it would be exactly the same size. So in digital terms, this means that the image recorded by the sensor is same size as the image object being recorded.

And THIS, of course (because the sensors are tiny, relatively speaking) means that when you look at the image on your screen or print it out, you are actually viewing it at a much greater magnification. If your sensor is 2 inches on the long side and you make an 9x10 print, you're seeing the object at 5x magnification with great detail. Make it a 16x20 print (easily done with a dSLR) and that's 10x magnification.

It's also worth noting that for a given sensor size and a given reproduction ratio, regardless of the focal length of the lens the image as seen by the sensor will cover exactly the same amount of the subject.

R.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

03/17/2007 03:22:28 AM · #12

Originally posted by heavyj:

For this you don't need a true macro lens. A very good lens for this kind of work, at a reasonable price, is the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, one of the most popular lenses at DPC. It has near-macro performance; it will focus to 1:2, which is very close. It's much more versatile to work with than a prime lens, because when you are working close you can zoom in or out a tad to frame things up just so; working with a prime lens, you'd have to move the whole tripod, and it gets time consuming. I have both the Tammy and a true macro, and I use the Tammy a LOT more for closeup work for the above reason.

R.

R.

splidge

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

03/17/2007 06:22:04 AM · #13

Originally posted by heavyj:

Let me add to my noobness and ask 'what does infinity mean in the case of focusing?'

Just to add a bit more technical detail; when you focus a lens what you're really selecting is the angle of incoming light that will be focussed to a point. If an object is close to the lens the light from any one point on that object will vary over quite a large angle; the further away an object is the smaller the angle. Infinity focus means that _parallel_ rays are focussed to a point (i.e. 0 angle). Of course anything sufficiently far away will describe a tiny angle indistinguishable from 0 and hence infinity focus works for anything more than a few feet away.

splidge

super-dave

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

03/17/2007 07:04:11 AM · #14

i have nikon's 105mm prime macro lens ... it's a good lens for macro work and it's also great for portraits and studio work. wider angle lenses tend to have distortion and the 105mm looks very natural.

it's a good multi purpose prime lens.

03/17/2007 11:38:38 AM · #15

The lense I was looking at was this one by Sigma
SIGMA LENSE

It's within MY price range at about 250 USD. I'm not about to go out and buy this just yet, but I might hint to my wife to get this for me around my birthday (June 1st for any member wishing to make my birthday a happy 1 lol)

03/17/2007 01:31:44 PM · #16

i have the 105mm version of this lens - it's a fine lens. with the 105mm you'll have more working distance than the 50mm. meaning to get the same shot you don't need to be as close to the subject with the 105mm. good for living things that don't like humans...

Message edited by author 2007-03-17 13:32:09.

03/17/2007 01:36:54 PM · #17

Also more money...I'll have to save. I need a wideangle lense and a prime or macro then I think I'm finished (Until I see something I like)...

03/17/2007 01:42:26 PM · #18

if you're not looking at doing close up work. the 50mm f:1.8 is a fine prime. the 105mm and the 50mm are the only lenses i have been using since november. although i'll be making some purchases soon. sigma wida angle 12-24mm ( i think ), and 70-200 f:2.8 - most likely.

03/17/2007 01:51:13 PM · #19

Originally posted by soup:

When you say the 105 do you me this one CLICK ME

03/17/2007 02:10:44 PM · #20

yeah - i paid under $400 for it a couple years ago.
there is an older version lacking the DG coatings you could probably find used for cheaper.

03/18/2007 06:14:01 AM · #21

Originally posted by soup:

yeah - i paid under $400 for it a couple years ago.
there is an older version lacking the DG coatings you could probably find used for cheaper.

Unfortunately we don't have ebay here in Japan. We have Yahoo Auction and it's all in Japanese. Japan is quite behind when it comes to scams and internet security/privacy. They're only JUST realizing that places like Myspace can be dangerous...

Looking for a used lense might be hard. But I will try!!