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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2227127, member: 19463&quot;]I hate to be disagreeable but, no, that&#039;s a lie, I thrive on it some days.....</p><p><br /></p><p>Physics-fan is 100% right about those zooms being bad choices.&nbsp; They are made for people who buy a camera with interchangeable lenses and then try to get one lens that does everything poorly.&nbsp;&nbsp; I will never understand this desire.&nbsp; Generally the longer a zoom range is, the more it must compromise at one end or another.&nbsp; Do-all zooms focus closely but do not have the other corrections required for best work at close distances.&nbsp; Macro lenses are made to give their best results at closer focusing distances and provide sharp images out to the corners with a flat field of focus.&nbsp;&nbsp; They are great for shooting a dollar bill.&nbsp;&nbsp; Coins, however, are round and do not use the corners of the lens so you can forgive a lens that has lesser performance in corners or focuses at a slightly different distance in the center than in the corners.&nbsp; I have a 100mm Canon (camera manufacturer brand) macro lens and it is great.&nbsp; I also have a Canon 70-200 zoom that cost about the same and it is very hard to tell the difference except that the zoom lets me be almost twice as far away from the coin when I shoot.&nbsp; Is the slight sharpness gain of the macro worth the convenience of the zoom (used on extension tubes)?&nbsp; It makes no difference to me for coins as I shoot them and I own both so I can choose as the mood strikes.&nbsp; The zoom does better birds and insects.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the &#039;tough love&#039; part:&nbsp; 90% of the owners of good camera equipment nver learn to use them well enough to see the difference between a good short range zoom and a prime macro.&nbsp; If I had it to do over, I might buy a 180mm macro (even more expensive) just to show off I had one but I&#039;m less sure my photos would improve enough to matter.&nbsp;&nbsp; Below is a shot with the Canon 70-200 f/4 zoom on extension tubes reduced to fit here:</p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probushorse.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>and a small part of it cropped from the unreduced image:</p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probushuge.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>If you are a better photographer than I am AND own a better lens your results may be better.&nbsp; If not both, buying a better lens may not help until you do some practicing.</p><p><br /></p><p>This image was made using a 2006 original model Canon Digital Rebel camera.&nbsp; Newer ones will be a bit better.&nbsp; The image below was made with a 1970&#039;s&nbsp; Yashica 100mm macro lens. It was adapted to the Digital Rebel using a Russian M42 to Canon adapter on a home made CY to M42 adapter (two old extension tubes and Gorilla Glue - I kid you not). Obviously this rig only works for macro but it works.&nbsp; Before blaming your equipment, consider the problem may not be the glass.&nbsp; Those with experience in photo will be able to see that this Septimius is not as sharp as the Probus.&nbsp; Those who plan to make smaller images than these, may decide they don&#039;t need the $1000 lens. </p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/sshuge.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Camera sellers make millions selling upgrades to people not ready for them.&nbsp; I suggest using the D3200 with the lens it came with until you understand it well enough that you are ready to make informed upgrade decisions.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>You will have to crop quite a bit to get images that fill the frame.&nbsp; The D3200 has plenty of image quality to spare so you can crop unless you want really huge images.&nbsp; If you can not crop images to your satisfaction, you may want a set of automatic extension tubes:</p><p><a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Kenko-Automatic-Extension-Tube-DG-3-Rings-for-NIKON-AF-Digital-Camera-/231534019994?hash=item35e880c59a" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Kenko-Automatic-Extension-Tube-DG-3-Rings-for-NIKON-AF-Digital-Camera-/231534019994?hash=item35e880c59a" rel="nofollow">http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Kenko-Automatic-Extension-Tube-DG-3-Rings-for-NIKON-AF-Digital-Camera-/231534019994?hash=item35e880c59a</a></p><p>This is the brand I have but there are cheaper that may work as well.&nbsp; Do NOT buy the under $10 ones that lack the electric connections.&nbsp; I have Canon and know nothing about Nikons and the off-brand stuff made for them.&nbsp; The two manufacturer brands are both excellent with fans that unreasonably hype one over the other.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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