Nikon D7000 manual 377

Chapter 11 ■ Working with Lenses 377

VR a rather specialized tool for macro work. Some 99 percent of the time, I shoot close-ups with my D7000 mounted on a tripod or, at the very least, on a mono- pod, so camera vibration is not much of a concern. Indeed, subject movement is a more serious problem, especially when shooting plant life outdoors on days plagued with even slight breezes. Because my outdoor subjects are likely to move while I am composing my photo, I find both VR and autofocus not very useful. I end up focus- ing manually most of the time, too. This lens provides a little extra camera-to- subject distance, so you’ll find it very useful, but consider the older non-G, non- VR version, too, if you’re in the market.

■AF Micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4D IF-ED. With a price tag of about $1,300, you’d probably want this lens only if you planned a great deal of close-up shooting at greater distances. It focuses down to 1.6 feet, but provides enough magnification to allow interesting close-ups of subjects that are farther away. A specialized tool for specialized shooting.

■PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D. Priced about the same as the 200mm Micro- Nikkor, this is a manual focus lens that offers both tilt and shift capabilities, so you can adjust the perspective of the subject as you shoot. The tilt feature lets you “tilt” the plane of focus, providing the illusion of greater depth-of-field (the actual DOF is just distributed differently), while the shift capabilities make it possible to shoot down on a subject from an angle and still maintain its correct proportions. If you need one of these, you already know it; if you’re still wondering how you’d use one, you probably have no need for these specialized capabilities.

You’ll also find macro lenses, macro zooms, and other close-focusing lenses available from Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina. If you want to focus closer with a macro lens, or any other lens, you can add an accessory called an extension tube, like the one shown in Figure 11.16, or a bellows extension. These add-ons move the lens farther from the focal plane, allowing it to focus more closely. Nikon and other vendors also sell add-on close- up lenses, which look like filters, and allow lenses to focus more closely.

Figure 11.16

Extension tubes enable any lens to focus more closely to the subject.