Macro pics with Nikon D40x and old 105 macro ais lens

luisgo

luisgo

Member
On december I purchased a Nikon D40x with the kit lens 18-55mm. I wanted to take macro photos of my reef. I tried filters, extention tubes and my kit lens but quality was not that good.

The Nikon 105mm, 2.8 macro AF-S was my best alternative but it was too expensive for me. I started reading and found that it was possible to use a film AIS lens with my D40x with some limitations. The Nikon 105 macro 2.8 manual lens was the affordable alternative, manual focus and no mettering. It was not a problem because I wanted to take pics of corals that don't move and mettering was a matter of trial and error using the lcd display.

Well finally I purchased the lens on ebay and received it today. Here are some pics :D


By luisgon


By luisgon


By luisgon


By luisgon


By luisgon
 
wow, great picts. i am thinking of getting the same lens. if you had to do it over would you spend the extra $$ for the af-s.
 
Congrats on your purchase. I recommend that lens all the time, so it is great to see someone putting it to good use.

The photos came out great. Looks like you could expose them a hair more, but otherwise nice DOF and sharpness.
 
wow, those are great. I too have a nikon D40x and am researching a macro lens. What lens are you using for full tank shots and have you had any success
 
man, I suck.

great shots. can you pass on some tips, please.

You shooting w/ tripod and current off?

Doing any ps or other things? I can't get that kind of sharpness and saturation with my 105 vr/d200.

thanks.

Justin
 
I use a tripod on all of these pics. I use the camera in manual and for non moving corals I set the aperture to f22 and start playing with speed until I get the correct exposure. If there are fish in the photo I try to use a speed of not less than 1/30 sec. For pumping Xenias I set the speed to 1/30 sec. because they are moving like fish.

I also clean the glass, try to take pics looking straight to the glass to avoid any distortion, all pumps off, turn all lights off in the room and take hundreds of pics.

My tank lights are two VHO, one actinic white and one super actinic plus two MH 10K Reeflux. Very white which is good for photos. Automatic white balance.

The lens is manual focus so you need to use your eyes! I have contact lenses but the correct prescription. For macros is better to focus manually anyway.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS3 for post processing. I use it for frames, croping, adjusting sharpness, I like the auto levels in adjustments and play with exposure, image size, etc. Nice program.

For full tank shots I use my 18-70mm Nikon AFS zoom lens. I sold the 18-55mm and purchased an used 18-70mm. I think that is a better lens. For FTS I set the camera to a speed of 1/30 sec and let the camera find the aperture. This way fish will look ok.
 
Thanks for the tips.

Surprised youre stopped all the way down to f22.

Good Idea about turning lights off too, I will try both.

I just ordered a book on photoshop. I think I need to get up to speed on that - seems key to good finishing of shots.
 
WOW Luis Nice pics.... thanks for directing me to this post, will go shopping on the bay for one of these lens right now!!!
 
will a Nikon Micro Nikkor 105mm f/4 AIS lens be a good alternative to the more expensive new models? I also (right now) only need the lens to capture corals and slow moving critters.
 
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