Lens Review #5 – Reluctant Macro Love – Nikon 85mm f3.5 VR DX Micro-Nikkor

I will admit it, this lens was not one I was prepared to love.  It came up for sale recently and was an excellent deal, and as I am a macro lens fan, I couldn’t resist.  My expectations weren’t that high, and I was convinced that VR on a macro would work far better in theory than in practice, but the more I use it the more I like it.

The VR probably doesn’t give you a four stop advantage as claimed, but it will give you a 2-3 stop advantage.  Hand holding this lens with a shutter speed of 1/25^th of a second is not an issue, but it is probably easier to gain these sorts of results at infinity than at minimum focus distance.

So far the results have been good.  It’s as sharp as other good macro lenses, has no real optical flaws and the VR certainly is handy.  Here’s some shots of my daughter’s little fingers.

Recommended?  Yes, however there are a lot of other excellent macro lenses out there.  If you are only ever going to have a DX camera, then it presents extremely well, and there's no other VR Macro lenses at this price point.  If you have a D3 or D700, or an inkling towards full frame in the future, then a Tamron 90mm f2.8 is probably a better bet.

Gerbera Fire

A few weeks ago I spotted a bargain – a Nikon 85mm f3.5 AF-S VR DX Macro for about 1/3 of the new price.  So I picked it up quick and decided to try it out.  It works fine on the D90, and like most macros, AF is a pain when using it for macro work, so it is better to use manual focus.  I tried it on some gerberas in our lounge room, and while the results look good, I found that the VR didn’t work as well as I thought.   While the claim is 3-4 stops improvement, I found that for macro it really was only 1 stop improvement, and users of this and other Nikon VR macro lenses has seen similar results.  

Still, it is a sharp lens, useful lens that is obviously built down to a price.  Would I spend the $500 on a new one?  That’s a  tough call, as there are several other excellent macro lenses out there for a similar price, including the full frame Tamron 90mm f2.8, the Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D and AF-S models.  Shopping used and spending a little more would get you a Tamron 180mm f3.5, a Sigma 150mm f2.8 or a Nikon 105mm f2.8 AF-S VR; all top of the line macro lenses.  However the big differentiator at this price point is VR, and that definitely is worth something.  For me, as I intend to go back to full frame, it has a limited time to spend in my cupboard.