Macro Lens

The macro lens is most common among wildlife photographers. They use this macro lens to take sharp, detailed, close-up photos of small birds, animals, plants, insects, flowers and other electronic objects. A macro lens is mainly designed for taking close-up photography. This type of lens allows the photographer to take photos with more details. Macro lens can focus much closer to the object than the normal lens. A macro lens is useful for all type of purpose not only close-up photography. Many professional uses Macro Lens as a portrait lens to take lots of details in ultra-shape focus.

The Focal Length of the Macro Lens

Macro Lenses have fixed focal length and they are known as prime lenses. There are different types of fixed focal length in macro lenses. The most commons are 50mm, 100mm, 180mm. These values mainly depend on the manufacturer.

The focal length ranges between 50mm- 60mm are smaller, lighter and they are also available at very cheap prices. This lens has some problems while taking the closer photograph of a butterfly as they are easily scared away. To take close-up photography in this lens the distance between the object and lens should be smaller.

The focal length ranges between 150mm to 200mm are heavier, larger, and they are also very expensive. As they are expensive they offer more features. This lens offers more working distance as we can take close-up photos from a long distance. The narrow depth of field of the lens allows us to throw the background further out of the focus so that we can capture more stable pictures.

The focal length ranges between 90mm to 100mm provides good features within the budget of all professional so they are the most popular choice among photographers.

Magnification Ratio

The magnification ratio is one of the most important properties of the macro lens. This is also known as the reproduction ratio. Magnification ratio gives us the idea about how much the subject will be enlarged in the final photo. 1:1 ratio is known as life-size or standard as at 1:1 magnification ratio the camera is positioned at the closest focusing distance. At this magnification ratio, the size of the object and the size of the image will be equal.

If a macro lens can’t achieve 1:1 magnification then it is not considered as a true macro lens. The focal length ranges between 100mm to 200mm are mainly capable of achieving the magnification ratio of 1:1. Some of the lengths also can achieve 5:1 magnification ratio.

The focal length ranges between 40mm-50mm offers the magnification ratio of 1:2 which means the image size will be half of the subject.

Image Quality and Sharpness of Macro Lens

Normal camera lenses mainly focus by moving the entire optical elements. This results in a noticeable reduction in optical quality when photographers try to take pictures from long distance for close-up photography. To avoid this problem professional uses Macro lens. It gives high quality, high sharpness. The macro lens uses a floating optical element which adjusts the lens geometry which results in pinpoint focusing, better contrast and high image quality even from a long distance.

Some macro lenses have also vibration reduction system which allows photographers to shoot at slow speed. They can also shoot without a tripod. Macro lenses have usually wider apertures than that of normal lenses. Wide apertures give an excellent low light performance.

Focusing Mechanism

Macro photography camera has an autofocus system. This autofocus system gives high sharpness, better contrast for long ranges photography. There is two main autofocus mechanism in the macro lens- the traditional screw is driven type and the silent type. The silent type autofocus mechanism lowers the chances to scare nervous subject than that of screw-driven type.

The older version macro lenses have a manual focusing mechanism. These lenses need a tripod to take stable photos. There are some lenses which focus only by moving the inner part. So we can take photos from very close and there very less chance of scaring nervous subject with very less movement of the lens.

FAQs about Macro Lens

Q.1 Write the magnification ratio of a true macro lens.

Answer:  There are many macro lenses available with the magnification ratio of 1:2 and 1:3 but the magnification ratio of a true macro lens should be 1:1.

Q.2: Write two uses of the macro lens.

Answer: Macro lens is useful for taking close-up photos of various objects such as animals, birds, flowers, insects, electronic objects etc. Professionals use a macro lens as a portrait lens also.