Macro And A Zoom Lens

By Mike Moats

I did some test to see exactly how tight of a shot I could get with my Tamron 17-35 wide angle zoom and my Tamron 70-300 telephoto zoom. Both lenses are just regular lenses, and not listed having any macro capabilities. I compared the two zooms to my Tamron SP 90mm 1:1 macro. Here is the set up with the 70-300. the minimum focusing distance was 44 inches. If I move in any closer then 44 inches, it won't focus.

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This is the shot with the 70-300 and as tight as I can shoot on this shell. The area that I was able to capture was about 7"x10". So not too bad, and it diffidently could be used for some larger subjects in close-up photography.

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My 17-35 wide angle lens was able get me tighter on the subject at it's minimum focusing distance.

In order to get this shot I had to move in really close with the 17-35 lens, and the minimum focusing distance was about five inches from the front of the lens to the subject. So you can do some fairly tight close-up photography with this lens but you will have to work in very close to the subject to do it.

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Now I tried it with my 90mm macro, and I reached the minimum focusing distance when the front of the lens was about six inches from the subject. Now look how tight of a shot I have. It measured at 7/8th of an inch by 1 and 3/8th of an inch. Pretty tiny area.

Here is the minimum focusing distance with the 90mm macro lens.

So if you have a wide angle lens you will be able to do some fairly tight close-up images, and if your shooting larger subjects or covering a larger area, you could get by with the 70-300 in a pinch. But for the true macro work you need that macro lens.

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Comments

[Dick Beery]

What about using extension tubes with the 70-300?

[Mike Moats]

Dick, yes you could add an extension tube or tubes to move in closer with the zoom lenses, I was just curious to see how close we could get without adding and any devices.