I have the older version of the Nikkor 105mm lens. I've read that the newer version focuses faster and hunts less in low light. I do have a focus light but there are situations where it is not usable (e.g. shooting pygmy seahorses).
Having recently upgraded from a D7000 to the D7100, which has a better focus system, I'm wondering if there would be any noticeable difference in how these two lenses perform on the D7100. Simply put, I'm wondering whether it is worth the upgrade to the newer version 105mm.
Thanks for any input!
AFS lenses focus much faster and hunt less. Perhaps you should rent one to decide if it is worth it to purchase. I have both lenses and like the AFS version much better. They are of different dimensions, so port requirements might be different.
I also own both the new and old versions of the 105mm Micro-nikkor. I have used the AF-S lens only few times underwater and was put off by the fact that it hunted for the focus point much more often than the older 105mm. Time and time again, when I was trying to focus at, or near 1:1, it would whiz right past the focus point I wanted. My attempts to use the new 105 AF-S were on both a Nikon F5 film camera and a Nikon D700. Newer digital cameras may do a better job with the 105mm AF-S. The old 105 is a bit slower focusing, but in my experience not slower enough that I missed as many pictures as I missed when the 105 AF-S whizzed past the focus and I had to release the half-pressed trigger and then try again. I would expect the 105 AF-S might be better at tracking a moving subject once you achieve focus on it. The macro lens I use most is Nikon's 70-180 Micro-nikkor zoom which only focuses to .75x. When I expect that I will be shooting mostly very small subjects that will need more magnification than .75x, I either use the old 105 with extension tubes. Or more recently, I've played a bit with the 200mm Micro-nikkor in combination with Nikon's T5 or T6 close-up lenses. The results with that were very sharp.
Fred
I use the new 105 with a D300 and never use a focus light. I use only autofocus, no problem. It does take some getting used to
