60mm Macro Lens
I had previously blogged about our trip up to see the tulips, but I only briefly touched on another aspect: the macro lens.
For the tulip trip, I rented a 60mm macro lens from Glazer’s camera so that I could get some good close-up macro photos (I did).
Very cool lens. I discovered very quickly that autofocus was useless. I guess this is standard for a macro lens, since the key thing about how a macro lens works is that it has an absolutely humongous focusing range. With autofocus, just a slight move of the camera would cause it to cycle all the way out to infinity and then back to the object 8 inches away (quite a long cycle). So maybe it wasn’t working right, and maybe it was. In any event, I used exclusively manual focus for all the photos I took with this lens.
The photos were very sharp, and it was actually (somewhat surprisingly) a great walking-around lens for the rest of the day (and at the Japanese festival on Sunday also). A little too telephoto for some things, but still it’s now on my list of lenses to buy. I just need to compare it to the 105 macro to see if that one is more or less useful for my style. Need to talk to Michael. 
Michael said,
May 4, 2006 at 11:44 am
When I shoot true macro shots with the 105mm (which has the AF-S internal focusing system) I use manual focus 100% of the time AND a solid tripod/head! With any macro lens that I’ve read about, you’ll likely experience the same behavior of searching for focus in very close range. The 105′s AF-S system is super fast (and very quiet) when using the lens for non-macro work like photos of people or objects in the distance. I remember the 60mm being fast when used a regular prime lens too, although it doesn’t have AF-S.
I remember when I shot with the 60mm macro lens I did use the manual focus and found it to be “easier” (i.e., less ‘touchy’) then the 105mm. That’s not to say the focus ring on the 105mm feels very smooth! I just say “easier” simply because the magnification is less with the 60mm. With the 105mm, when you’re shooting ultra close macros it takes lots of patience… and a good camera support.