Macro photography

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Yesterday I was working in my greenhouse, digging old dirt out to replace it. Suddenly I saw these big spiders(big for Estonia) running around and thought I should try take some photos. 

  I have a Tamron 18-200mm (macro) lens. I got this lens while I was traveling around in Japan. I wanted to get something cheap that I could use in most of situations and this is what the customer service guy recommended.

  For the money I paid for this lens, it's pretty good. The image quality can't be compared to some of the  more expensive lenses, but it's usable in most cases. Stock photography site Alamy.com has some strict requirements for the images you can upload. With this lens I could pass all the requirements easily. 
  The autofocus is a tad slow and not the most quiet one, but I mostly use manual with this lens anyway. This lens doesn't have the VC(vibration compensation), so shooting at the longer focal lengths will be shaky and it's better to use a tripod.
  You can lock the focal length at 18mm. This way you can prevent unwanted zoom or damaging the lens. The front of this lens is kinda heavy and if not locked down, it will extend when carrying it around attached to your camera.
  It does have color fringing  and vignetting, but it's not that bad. I don't know the most extreme cases, but mostly, I can use some software to remove it.

  Overall, this lens is alright for what you pay. If you can, save for some more expensive and advanced lenses(possibly with VC to shoot in longer focal lengths). Always think what you want to use a lens for before you buy, because if you know what you want to photograph, you can choose the best lens for the money you can spend.

  This turned pretty much into a review I guess :) Anyway here are some photos I took yesterday:

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro vc usd and sp 70-200mm f2.8 di vc usd

 My stock photography site on Alamy.com

 Yesterday I went to see Tamron lens presentation. They showed the "90mm f2.8 macro VC USD" and "SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD" lenses.
 Both of the lenses make great quality images. They are very sharp in the middle and go softer around the edges. The build quality of both seemed very good and both have the vibration compensation(which is very nice).

 I took few shots with both of them and I have to say that I really liked the 70-200mm lens. The 90mm wasn't for me. Don't know why, but it just didn't feel right in my hands. They both have really great quality, but the 70-200mm is heavy and fits nicely into my hand. I think that the weight gives better balance when shooting, although I have small Nikon D3100. It just felt so much better than the 90mm. I really recommend you try out these lenses if you have a chance.

 The prices for these lenses are pretty crispy(for ordinary user like me), but what other to expect from lenses of that quality. The 90mm starts from about $750 and 70-200mm $1500 in amazon. Here in Estonia I can get the lenses for about 800€ for 90mm and 1650€ for the 70-200mm...

 Again, if you have a chance, try out these lenses. You'll love them!

Here are few photos I took(these are straight from camera):

 SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD

70mm
F2.8
1/50
800 ISO

 SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD

160mm
F2.8
1/50
800 ISO

90mm f2.8 macro VC USD

90mm
F3.5
1/60
800 ISO










If you are interested in stock photos, visit my stock photography site on Alamy.com