Got the Nikkor Z 105mm macro

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Morado

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Macro is the one type photography that I have been wanting to learn for a while.

At long last got Nikon's 105mm macro. I am waiting for better weather or for some bug to appear in the house to try macro. In the meantime, I noticed that at portrait distances the lens seems to hunt a lot and be quite slow to achieve focus. Is this common to this lens?

Here are two early shots:

We recently adopted her from one the animal shelters where we live.

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A well-traveled cat. Is the fringing on the side of her face normal?

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Wes Peterson said:
Yeah lens is sharp but slow as a 1 legged dog. I personally would be willing to trade mine for the new tamron 90mm
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Good to know. While I do not expect a macro lens to be be quick to focus, especially at close range, I did no anticipate it being so slow for non-macro shots.

joe43 said:
What camera model and what AF setting are you using? The AF setting can be critical for close up shots. Most of the time, I use or confirm AF with Focus Peaking.
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I am using a Z9. Tried both wide areas and auto-area with eye-detect for the pets. For other things I have disabled eye-detect and used single point, wide area s and L. In all cases the focusing is slow and hunting (almost haunting).

aolander said:
The "fringing" is from the red mat below her face.
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I thought that might be, but I have taken shots with other Z lenses and can't find any like that. But it could well be different time and lighting. I guess I will shoot some more with it and other lenses.
 
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Morado said:
Good to know. While I do not expect a macro lens to be be quick to focus, especially at close range, I did no anticipate it being so slow for non-macro shots.



I am using a Z9. Tried both wide areas and auto-area with eye-detect for the pets. For other things I have disabled eye-detect and used single point, wide area s and L. In all cases the focusing is slow and hunting (almost haunting).



I thought that might be, but I have taken shots with other Z lenses and can't find any like that. But it could well be different time and lighting. I guess I will shoot some more with it and other lenses.
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It's reflected light off the mat.
 
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I just bought it myself and I can confirm that my lens does hunt a bit in low light/indoors. It does fine outdoors though. Happens at both normal or macro level in my case. So sharp though!

I used to own this lens a few years ago and re-bought it this week, I have noticed my new lens is by far the noisiest autofocus of any Z lens I've owned ( I don't recall my other copy being as noisey) but there are lots of people reporting it online as well as the hunting issue so I guess it's common.

In truth, for true macro work you might well find using manual focus (or even rocking back and forth) can be better in many circumstances so I wouldn't worry too much, but I agree the hunting is annoying.

The Tamron 90mm is interesting but I've yet to see any comparison reviews and wonder if I will miss the 15mm at macro level. The 105 is already a bit short for some insects.
 
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Wes Peterson said:
Yeah lens is sharp but slow as a 1 legged dog. I personally would be willing to trade mine for the new tamron 90mm
Click to expand...
I'm going out to shoot small owls at a banding station tonight and wasn't going to take the 105 MC due to thin DOF. Now, I've decided to take it and see how it does. Around the house with lights very low, it snaps to sharp focus fairly quick.
 
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Yeah, I wouldn't necesarily say it is slow either. Just hunts a bit. When it doesn't hunt I find it quite snappy.

Cheers for the heads up on the noise though. I might take it back to the shop to see what they think. The motors are even noisy when turning the manual focus ring which I find a bit odd.
 
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have had the Z105mm lens for awhile and have no issues with it now ! Have had a F mount 105 before and found it noisy and inferior to this Z 105 S. Be sure to use the distance switch on side of lens otherwise will hunt at that critical distance
 
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