Ok I find this all very confusing Im not knowledgeable on cameras at all. If someone could please help me that would be great if not I understand . I have a Nikon D3000 Camera and was wondering what extension tube or lens to buy to zoom in on the gems and make good photos. I really don't know if the guy at the camera shop is trying to get me to buy something to expensive he recommended the Nikon AF-S 40mm/2.8 Macro lens.
If you have $700, get the Nikon 105mm macro lens. It is a fantastic piece of glass, and works as a prime portrait lens as well, and if you decide you aren't into it anymore, you can resell it for a significant fraction of the purchase price.
I've got a D7000 (before that it was a D40) and have used alternatively a 18-70mm zoom and a prime 108mm f2.8D (manually focussed) lens for my gem shots.
It was a pain with the D40 as the depth of field for those shots is pretty shallow and even though the 108mm had the mechanical auto-focus, it wasn't reliable or sensitive enough to get the right picture. So it was a lot of manually-adjust, snap, adjust, snap... and out of 10 shots I'd get one that was pretty good.
With the D7000 I use the LiveView feature through ControlMyNikon software directly connected to my PC and I get perfect shots every time. It also works with the zoom, but I usually only use the zoom for quick free-hand shots when I'm not trying to get a perfect photo.
You can pick up a used 108mm f2.8D for $400-$500 on craigslist or ebay, depending on how lucky you are.
Hope this helps!
-Allan
_________________ Allan Aoyama http://www.omnifaceter.net <- Omnifaceter is back online!
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