| Not only macrophotography.....by epsylon_lyrae |
Nikon D80
Nikkor 50mm AF-D 1.8
Nikkor 18-55 Vr
Sigma 180 macro
Sigma 12-24
Nikon MC-DC1 cable
Nikon DG-2 Eyepiece Magnifier
Coolpix 5600 (little compact camera)
I mostly use natural light.
I use the D80 integrated flash when needed, especially as a fill-in flash.
Another way I use to get enough light is do long exposures with one or more white papers as reflectors.
My experiences. Sigma180 macro: a very good lens, nice and sharp and with nice bokeh. I use this lens with manual focus (auto focus is quite slow)and for this the eyepiece magnifier is perfect.
Nikkor 50mm 1.8: very cheap and really good, it's very sharp (from about f4 to f11), has almost no CA or distortions and at f1.8 you can achieve some creative effects like this.
Nikkor 18-55 VR: it's considered a standard kit lens, it's my most recent lens and I'm very happy with it.
It's a very sharp lens with quick and precise auto focus, and the vibration reduction is very useful.
Nikkor 18-135: the kit lens I got with the D80, I never liked it. It's not sharp, has bad distortions, horrible magenta/cyan CA.
After less than 1 year auto focus failed....and the manual focus is almost unusable.
Sigma 12-24: I had big problems with this lens, It arrived with a bad defect, CA (quite normal on edges in this type of lens) was very strong even in center of frame where it should be absolutely absent.
The Sigma assistance was also terrible...it was a long time before they even admitted the defect then when they returned the lens (after over 5 months) the defect was only reduced but not eliminated!