Got this neat little baby from a friend who’s migrating to ‘F’ brand the other day. All of her other gears were already sold, except this one. When she gave an offer with a very difficult to resist price (and maybe because she was just so pretty that day), my mind skewed and I spontaneously said “it’s a deal, I’ll take it!”…what a weak man I am :P
Nikkor AF-S 40mm DX Macro, I’ve heard about this lens before. It’s not a popular lens, yet people who had used it raved about it. Long story short, when I got the lens in my possession, I immediately tested it in normal shooting and close up/macro condition. Everything turned out great!! This lens is very sharp even wide-open, and gets sharper stopped-down. Colors are amazing and flare-resistance is good for a non-nano-coated lens. Autofocus is a bit sluggish, but it’s to be expected for a lens with such a long focus throw (and cheap price).
Under normal working distance, this lens can serve as a ‘normal’ lens for my DX cameras (D5100 & D70s). For macro photography, this lens is capable to produce a 1:1 magnification as advertised, but with one caveat. The working distance is very short, only about 3 cm from the subject, so it’s gonna be challenging for moving subjects such as bugs or critters, and sometimes creating issues with lighting placement for your subject since the lens will cast shadow into it if you’re getting too close.
Despite these shortcomings, I’m gonna keep this lens for sure. Since I’m just doing macro photography casually, this little gem fits the bill. I consider this lens as a ‘normal’ lens with the ability to get really close when needed rather than a ‘serious’ macro lens. It definitely gonna help me make more money in the future :)