60mm lens advice

[buleetu]

hi guys

this is not an underwater question but i know u guys will help me out if u can anyway

im just wondering if when i take a landscape picture with my 60mm lens focused at infinity am i getting a good picture,the 60mm lens is for close up work right, but i have also taken some photos of mountains and things, is the picture not gonna be as sharp with this lens as it would be with a normal wider lens



thanks guys

 

[John_B]

.....

 

[buleetu]

...... whats that mean

 

[Mariozi]

the quality will be good, as these lens are great lenses.
normal (non-micro) lenses have less glass elements, which normally accounts for better quality, but I would say it is imperceptible at normal ranges of printing.

 

[John_B]

"....." means that I replied with a couple of paragraphs of Canon-specific advice and returned later to realize I wasn't posting in the Canon Corner forum, that this was the main Underwater Photography forum. :doh: SB doesn't let you delete posts, so that's as close as I could get.

So let's try this again:

1. Which lens and camera body are you thinking about?

2. What would be the purpose of going this route? Are you trying to find a "good first lens" that will meet your primary needs (i.e. macro or underwater macro) until you can save your pennies to buy something better later for landscapes?

3. Are you aware of the limitations of macro lenses? When you mention landscape photography and "focused at infinity", are you trying to get classic landscape-type shots or are you just shooting from a distance?

Macro lenses are obviously designed for close-up shots, but the better ones will also do double-duty as a portrait-type lens. One school of thought says that you don't need a good prime (non-zoom) lens if you have that focal length in a decent macro*. The Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro that I use on dry land would be fine for portraits and also gets very good shots at infinity.

The real issue will be that macro lenses have narrow angles of focus: the one I use is about 25^o, a friend's 100mm is 24^o, and I've rented a 180mm (for insect shots; tripod and focusing rail required) with less than 14^o. As a reference point, my 50mm prime is about 46^o and the kit lens that comes with the cropped sensor Canons (the Rebels and 10D/20D/30D/40D/50D) and Nikons (the D40/D40x/D60/D90/etc.) are in the 74^o to 78^o range.

So a decent macro lens should focus at infinity just fine, but you aren't going to get that same wide scene that you are "seeing with your eye" when using that lens. Whatever width you do get is strictly due to lack of zoom/focal length. In that case, even the kit lens might be preferable, assuming a small aperture (i.e. larger f/stop number) and an appropriate shutter speed relative to available light.

HTH

John_B

* I disagree, only because I use a 50mm f/1.4 prime in low light situations or where the two stops make all the difference in the depth of field/bokeh (artistic blur) for the shots I'm trying to get. If you don't shoot those kind of shots, then the prime lens could very well be redundant.

 

[scottfiji]

hi guys

i have also taken some photos of mountains and things, is the picture not gonna be as sharp with this lens as it would be with a normal wider lens


thanks guys

absolutely, the 60mm lens is a very sharp lens throughout its range, you'll have no problems taking sharp photos at infinity focus.

Of course, for maximum sharpness proper technique is very important, which means a good tripod, mirror lockup, remote shutter release. For more details on proper technique just pick up any book on landscape photography from your bookstore.

hope this helps,
Scott

 

[buleetu]

thank you to everyone,

scott fiji, i have a d70, when u say mirror lockup do u mean bulb setting on the nikon, the mirror lock up function is for cleaning the sensor on my camera

after reading the info on ur website about the af 60mm i went and bought it, i got some excellent underwater pictures on my recent trip to egypt

i only had my other 18-70mm lens with me on the holiday and i hate the corners of the pictures with that lens and aw unless i wanted to walk miles away from a person to take a shot i was stuck using that lens instead,

so any of my big mountain pictures i take with the 60mm lens are going be good sharp pictures?

just wanted some of ur ideas on it

 

[Larry C]

The 60mm Nikkor lenses take excellent landscapes. The sharpness will depend a lot on your f-stop setting. With a higher numeric f-stop, you should get good edge to edge clarity. With the aperture open wider, the lens will give you a very nice blurred background if you have foreground objects in focus. For the sharpest overall pictures, focus between foreground and infinity with a high f-stop. Try about f22 if there is enough light, otherwise open it up just enough to get the light you want.
If you lock up the mirror (as for cleaning) and use a remote trigger or self timer (you can get a remote on e-bay for as little as $5-they're kind of sketchy but they work). You can raise the f-stop and use slower shutter speeds. This will give you nice saturation and depth of field, but you need a good steady tripod and you can't have any people or wildlife in the shot, unless you want a motion blur for artistic purposes. Locking the mirror and using a remote or self timer keeps you from jarring the camera with your shutter finger or having it shake when the mirror snaps up to take the picture (normally it is down during preview so that you can see through the viewfinder. You need to check your composition, then lock up the mirror and take the shot)

 

[scottfiji]

thank you to everyone,

scott fiji, i have a d70, when u say mirror lockup do u mean bulb setting on the nikon, the mirror lock up function is for cleaning the sensor on my camera

after reading the info on ur website about the af 60mm i went and bought it, i got some excellent underwater pictures on my recent trip to egypt

so any of my big mountain pictures i take with the 60mm lens are going be good sharp pictures?

just wanted some of ur ideas on it

like I said, the 60mm is a sharp lens, so taking big mountain pictures will not be a problem. Larry also gave lots of good pointers.

The D70 does not have mirror lockup for shooting, only for cleaning the sensor.

 

[buleetu]

it has a bulb setting though, its the same thing i think?? it keeps the mirror up as long as the shutter is pressed,is it the same??