Opinion regarding Nikon 70-180 macro lens please

Hi, I am in a process of getting a dSLR setup, most likely the D70 and I am looking at a few lens choices. Beside the 60mm macro and 105 macro, how useful is the 80-170mm macro lens. I guess it is going to be equavalent ot 105-280mm. I am not concerned about the quality of prime lens vs zoom lens as such since I will end up with prime lens as well but just wondering if the versitility of the zoom lens is worth the hazzle of having a bigger lens, extra port extensions and increase point of failure and how well does the zoom lens perform, auto focusing wise etc. I saw some stunning pictures taken with this lens but some people also seem to be totally against it.

This is also assume that there will be port/zoom/focus gear available for the lens with the D70 housing. Thanks for your help.

It would be interesting to know which ports you would need to use with a sea&sea housing.

Cheers

I recently got the 70-180 and also the specific subal port for it which allows me to switch from manual to autofocus u/w and vice versa. I am heading to a trip to Burma and will report my experiences thereafter.

Just got back from Burma , it was great!

Manual focus though handy is less important to me than being able to adjust the zoom.

Cheers

how was the visibility in the banks? any big fish seen? some tips for me?

thanks

Any tips on how to get the tripod collar off?

Cheers

Vis was about 20m , not great.

See full report @ damnam.org/forums

Best tip , always dive with 2 cameras.

Ther is so much WA and Macro on every dive.

Cheers

THe 70-180 Macro is an extremely useful lens. It's great without a diopter for subjects from largish fish protraits down to about 1:1. Wit a diopter, it really shines for very tight macro.

The AF is decent, but most people switch to MF for super macro.

Nexus and Aquatica both have port setups for this lens and they have both announced housings for the D70. Ikelite does not support this lens.

Craig also shoots the 70-180, but he is in Malaysia right now.

Cheers

James

Here's a photo of my Aquatica housing with the extension for the 70-180 Micro:

It adds 1 o-ring to the setup. The same amount of o-rings that you have to add to the housing for the 105, the 12-24DX, the 17-35, etc. So the reliability "concern" isn't really a factor.

Cheers

James

Thanks for the input. Right now I am thinking of Sea and Sea housing mainly because of the local support/available dealer. Sea and Sea does have ports available for the 80-170mm lens for its D100 housing so I don't think there should be a problem with D70 housing (I hope).

To start, for the macro side, I am leaning toward a 60mm macro lens and a 70-180 rather than the 105mm macro as I think having just a prime lens equavalent to 157mm is probably a bit overkill and not too useful except in some specific situation.

I just returned from Hawaii where I shot all my dives using the Nikon 105mm lens. I was quite happy with the lens and the shots I could get. It would have been hard to get the fish portraits of shy butterflies and triggers with any other lens. I could stay back so as to not scare the fish and the AF worked great.

Cheers

James

Hmmm, I thought with 105mm, if I want to take a picture of something 4-5 inches long, I would have to stay quite far back so it won't be quite as useful. My feeling would be that with a 70-180, I would be able to shoot anything from half an inch to 2-3 inches without having to move too far away from the subject and my strobe would still be in range for the picture. I guess I still have lots to learn.

No, you are correct, it's just that you can take photos of things that are 4-5 inches long with the 105 but you have to be about 2-3 feet away.

I took this photo of a yellowmouthed grouper using the 105 and two strobes:

And on the same dive, I took this closeup photo of a creolefish eye:

The difference is that I was much closer for the second shot.

You could also get both of these shots with the 70-180. The difference when using the zoom is that you can compose differently. Instead of moving back, you can zoom out. Or you can zoom out, focus, take a shot, then zoom in (without having to refocus) and take a tighter shot.

Cheers

James

Thanks for all your help. There are going to be a lot to learn for me, upgrading from the Oly C5050 to D70. At least I still have a few months to familiarize myself with the camera before any housing will become available.

I've used the 70-180 almost from the day it was introduced - first on F5 in Seacam and more recently also on S2 in Ikelite with port adapter that allows me to use Seacam ports on it. If the 70-180 seems a bit too tight with flat port, try using it with a smallish (2.5~3" radius) dome. This widens the view even more than the theoretical flat/dome difference because the lens angle of coverage widens as it focuses closer and the dome port forces it to be in the close focus range. What you loose is a bit of magnification at minimum focus. With film the .75x drops to about .4x, but the ability to shoot larger fish wiht it is well worth it in many situations. With the S2 the magnification at minimum focus with a dome is fairly close to that of the lens behind a flat port with film. If you aren't using this lens, you are missing one of the most versatile set-ups you can take underwater. For me, the only drawback is that the viewfinder isn't as bright as with a 2.8 macro lens.

Fred Dion at Underwater Phototech in Derry NH can take off the tripod collar.

divegypsy

Thanks for the tip about the domeport. Right now, I am planning to use the 80-170 with Sea and Sea housing and its flatport. Wish I knew about using a port adaptor on Ikelite housing. I wanted to get Ikelite housing initially but changed to Sea and Sea becasue Ikelite does not have any port for the 80-170. Could have save a lot of money going through Ikelite

Any good sources for this lens? I haven't been able to find it at B&H, Adorama, etc.

You can find them occasionally on E-Bay.

I'm going to wait and see if Nikon comes out with the rumored AF-S version of this lens.

Larry

I live in Thailand and the 70-180s are still quite easy to find. In fact, 3 of us just bought the same lenses for our D70s a few weeks ago.

!

That is good news. These lenses are hard to find new here in the states. Some stores still have old stock of them laying around, but otherwise, it's Ebay only.

I got one on Ebay and had my local camera repair shop remove the tripod foot.

Sincerely,

James Wiseman