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I'm strongly considering getting this lens, at my local camera store they are selling it for roughly $200-00.

I'm looking at getting into photographing insects, spiders and such. The specs for this lens tells me that it's a very good for that as it has the macro feature.

My main subject however is trains, how does this lens perform when shooting moving objects??

The thing is, I was also considering the Canon EFS55-250IS lens which would set me back about $400-00.

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Canon EOS 400D
18-55mm kit lens.

Check out my flickr (link on sig) go to page 3 or 4 there are eagles flying around that were taken with this lens. that shot are not that great but that is my fault did not have the camera set right.

I am in portland right now so I will go down town and take shots of the line rail for you. it will go about 30mph.
Hope this helps.


Nick

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

Does this lens come with IS??

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Canon EOS 400D
18-55mm kit lens.

no
almost all of my shots with the lens are hand held.

sorry have not made it down to the trains yet with the lens.
I will get to it.

nick

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

My concern is that without IS, the lens will shake a bit, do you get that problem??

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Canon EOS 400D
18-55mm kit lens.

I don't have that prob. I think it is because it of it being 16.2 OZ.
If I think I would have the problem I would get a mono and or trypod.

I like to shoot hand held but right now I have a bad left hand (my support hand) so I do have some shake. to help with it I prop up somewhere.

Nick

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

Could some please explain this to me "Max Mag. Ratio-- 1:2 at macro 300mm " what does the 1:2 to ration mean? would be intresting to knw


Cheers

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Alex: not sure. I think that it means that the you can get in a lot closer by 2x. example would be ----- with out macro you would be say 10 inches away. with macro only 5 inches. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Nick

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

1:2 means that the subject is reproduced at half the size on the focal plane, regardless of the size of the sensor or film used. For example, if a bug is 1cm long, a 0.5cm long image of the bug is projected onto the sensor.

1:2 isn't quite macro, but it is quite close. True macro is 1:1(life size) and I believe "micro" refers to magnifications of higher than 1:1. Achieving high reproduction ratios is what macro is all about.

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Graham
Flickr

Ohh yeah that makes sense, thanks for filling in the gaps guy. Its always good to knw. Yeah logicaly thinking 1:1 should be macro because you want the object to be same size as in real life, but again this seems to be a more multi use lens wiht some macro incorperated into it

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graham... considering the cropping factor (1.5x, 1.6x and down to 2x) i guess this lens can be called a proper macro lens. don't know how many peoples can afford a FF camera body!

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"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." Albert Einstein

HNV: 1:2 is 1:2 whether on a APS-C or a FX/FF-body!
The 1cm bug will always fill 0.5cm on the sensor with a 1:2 macro-lens. That this is 1/3 of a APS-C sensor hight or 1/5 of a FX/FF-sensor hight does not matter much as the real Q is about the pixel density of your sensor: A 24MPix FF-sensor will yield exactly the same result (counted in "pixels per bug" ) as a 10 MPix APS-C sensor

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I agree, but how many here can afford a 24 MP FF sensor? a more real comparison u can make from a APS-C sensor and the affordable 5D FF sensor, wich has only 12.6 or so MP... so I believe that the cropping factor does make at least a slight difference here!

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"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." Albert Einstein

I too, am planning on replacing my Tamron 55-200mm with this one.. How is the bokeh? I would mainly be using this for portraits on a tripod, so no IS = no problem to me.

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D40 - Nikon 18-135mm - Nikkor 50mm f/1,8 - SB-600 flash
Nikon Coolpix L3

I love this lens. I have had no problems with it. The bokeh it fine. I never really paid any attention to it really. If I were you, go down to you camera store and see if they will let you take some test shots with it.
If you goto my flickr link--on the 3 or 4 page there is a shot called "Love"
It was taken at 70mm. right now it is the only "portrait" shot I have with this lens.

On a side note-----How would you test for Bokeh I have not a clue

Nicholas

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr