Sorry if I was not quite clear. Although I sometimes used the term
'close-focus', my real focus (ha, ha) was on reproduction ratio,
efective magnification on film. None of the lenses you mention have much
in the way of 'macro' capability. Since manufacturers seem to have
proclaimed 1:4 to be macro (although it was1:2 before marketing people
got a hold of it), let's use that as the entry point.
35-70/3.5-4.5 cf, 70mm - 1:6
AT-X 35-70/2.8 70mm - ~1:8
Zuiko 40/2 @ .3m 40mm - 1:5 (so the AT-X 24-40/2.8 will be worse)
35-80/2.8 80mm - 1:8.6
Zuiko primes 35mm - 1:5.8
Zuiko primes 24mm - 1:6.3
Anyway, you get the picture (ha,ha), None of these lenses gets even to
the fringes of macro land.
Some other examples:
Tamron 35-105/2.8 105mm - 1:7.3
Zuiko 35-105/3.5-4.5 105mm - 1:5
Zuiko 50-250/5 250mm - 1:5.8
Tokina 50-250/4/5.6 250mm - 1:1.4 !
Zuiko 65-200/4 200mm - 1:3.3
Tamron 65-300/3.8-5.6 300mm - 1:1.55 !
Lots of 3rd party mid- zooms 1:4
Only 2 of these lenses get into real macro territory. None of the Zuiko
primes that are no labeled macro focus closer than about 1:5 without
extention tubes. This is not meant as any derrogation of Zuiko lenses.
On the contrary, Oly focused on other aspects of performance on 'normal'
lenses and produced many excellent macro lenses, the broadest and best
overall line of anyone, I believe.
jamesbcouch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>You are absolutly right, many zooms do focus very close. My experience
>with f2.8 zooms (only a few) is that they focus closer than the average
>Zuiko zoom. None seem to have any "close focus" feature as many "lesser"
>zooms do. Most wide angle to mid range Zuiko zooms seem to focus in the
>.8 meter range. My Zuiko 35-70 f3.5-4.5 with it's 'close focus' feature
>will focus to .45 meters. My Tokina ATX 35-70 f/2.8 focuses to .6
>meters, and my Tokina ATX 24-40 f/2.8 focuses to .4 meters. The Zuiko
>35-80 f/2.8 will focus to .6 meters as well. (62x41cm. at 35mm and
>31x20cm.at 80mm) For comparison purposes the Zuiko fixed 35 focus to .3m
>(21x14cm) and the 24s focus to .25 meters (23x15cm). There are some
>zooms that have very good close focus abilites, but in general if close
>focus ability is important a fixed focus or macro lens is your best bet.
>
For me it depends on what you are photographing. for most natural 3D
subjects, the macro zooms are excellent, as only the center of the image
is anywhere near in focus. at those repro ratios, DOF is very shallow.
For macro of flat stuff, true macro lenses are the only way to go. a lot
of primes don't have particularly flat fields, esp. at close focusing
distances.
The other thing to notice with repro ratios on zooms is at which end of
the zoom range it occurs. With the 35-70/105 Zuikos and many other
similar 3rd party designs, it is at the wide end, resulting in quite
short distances from the front of the lens to the subject. With all the
f2.8 zooms you and I mention and with the Tamron and Tokina 80-200/2.8s,
closest focus distance is at the longest focal length. I'm just trying
out a Tokina SZ-X 35-200/4-5.6 that has its special 'macro' focusing at
200mm, giving 1:4 with great stand off distance.
Moose
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