Macro vs Micro

Trust the big guys to try and change the world, one idea at a time. Nikon does not produce macro lenses they produce micro lenses. These micro lenses perform the exact same function as macro lenses (extreme closeups with tight depths of field) but that's not the point. The point is .... erm .... I've no idea what the points is. Some marketing flash of brilliance (aka more money) that just escapes my simple mind at the moment.

Nikon produces some of the best lenses on the planet (their Nikkor line) and whether it's a macro or a micro lense I really could care less. What I want is a lense that will let me get 10 cm away from my subject and take a nice crisp photo with a super-model thin depth of field.

Wood Eye? You Bet I Would!!

Ack, bad pun aside for some reason this macro ... erm ... "micro" shot of a weathered wooden plank, part of the actual wall on the Vancouver Seawall walk in the West End, reminds me of an owls eye.

Macro photography is a brand new tanget on my photographic journey and in upgrading to the very new Nikon D80 digital (the coolest camera I've yet owned) I decided to go one step furthur and snagged the Nikkor AF 60 mm, F/2.8D Micro lens.

Macro photography will take a good amount of practice and even in my early "oh my god this is just too cool" infatuation phase a bit of pragmatism is sneaking in. Given that at f/8 your depth of field is measured in just a few centimeters (that's an inch or so for my American brothers & sisters) macro photography just begs to be done on a tripod. While shooting this pic today I noticed that even with continuous focus running after the first focus the image would start to magically blur as my center of gravity shifted a few cm. Slap me if, after a few beers, I announce now is the time for some point-and-shoot-micro photography. Yeah .... right.

English Bay Beach - Sept 26 2006

As you can see there's no snow on the mountains yet. In fact that particular part of Vancouver's beauty is still two months or so away. Still loads of time to get down to the beach for some serious tanning four days before the start of October and the arrival of our annual 6 month monsoon season.

With this shot I'm using a macro lense to do the work of a wide angle or zoom telephoto. The photo looks good. The image is nice and crisp and even unprocessed the white balance on the shot is a respectable 6 out of 10 on my overly fussy wb scale. I don't expect the new lense will take over for my 18-200 mm zoom DX VR (vibration reduction) Nikkor but in a pince the result's no too bad.