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What is your ideal flower and garden lens, and why?


enboe

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I'm on track to visit the Epcot Center 2018 Flower and Garden Festival in 3 weeks.  Assuming the new 75 Noctilux doesn't arrive before then, I'm interested in a discussion on the ideal lens for flower and garden photography.  I'm thinking the 50 APO, with an emphasis on single or few plant compositions vs my usual 28 for entire landscapes.  The Thambar is a little too adventuresome to use for the whole week.  

 

What would you take?

 

Eric

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Eric, a lot depends on access to target plants and their sizes. For similar work I would use my X Vario with 28-75mm zoom lens. That gives me valuable flexibility. A case could be made for the 90mm Macro lens which would cover many scenarios.

 

In the past I got excellent results with a 35mm in situations where you are competing with crowds of visitors, such as at Chelsea flower show.

 

I find that I need to stop down at close ranges in order to produce a desired depth of sharpness. So a fast lens is not essential unless light levels indoors are dire. I would build on your own past experiences and equip yourself accordingly.

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I use 28 or 90 mm ,sometimes, a 50 on my Leica, 28 is good for gardens, 90 best for detail shots.

 

I have use 70-200 mm with my Canon and extension tubes fro macro with the Sony A7R 

 

Most of my flower shots are at Bellagio Hotel displays, gardens at tourists places and in my garden- rose bushes, fruit trees blooms like apricots, tulips to bloom in spring....I will be in Japan for the cherry blosson end of March and I will be using the 28 and 90 on the Leica M10, 16-35, 55 and maybe even 55-210 on the Sony A7R.

 

Good shooting.

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When my 75 Lux comes home from service it will be my preferred lens for things like flowers and butterflies. The relatively long focal length combined with the relatively short focus limit (70 cm) makes it ideal for this usage.

Edited by evikne
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I like the APO Macro-Elmarit-R on my SL 

 

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135 4.0 plus bellows or short focus mount.   90 2.8 and 65 3.5  .  These are all small and use same universal focus mount or bellows so no need to lots of weight.  

 

100 2.8 APO if you have live view, i.e. M10 or 240.  Then skip 135,90,65.

 

35 for wide views if you expect to use it.  

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The Summicron 75 Apo is quite good at this.  Same image scale as the 90 Macro Elmar at closest focussing, but (in my opinion) nicer, less ´clinical´ drawing:

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Edited by elgenper
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And another:

 

 

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