Sigma MACRO 150mm F2.8 for Portraits??

f-rider

I'm looking seriously at the Sigma MACRO 150mm F2.8. I know it is a great macro lens and have looked at many examples of the macro shots. But I also want something to shoot portraits, fashion model head shots and the like. I haven't seen many examples of portrait shots with this lens.

Anybody use this for portrait work? Do you have any examples? Or other recommendations that would accomplish the same things, i.e., macro and portrait?

TIA

--Doug

Elaine

I haven't used that macro lens, but I've used the Tamron 90mm 2.8 for portraits. I love the results, but macro lenses can be SLOW to focus. Depending on how much the subject is moving, this can be very frustrating. I recently switched to Canon and acquired the 85 1.8. This is so much better for portraits than a macro lens, IMO, because it can grab focus fast and doesn't have to travel the full length (or partial length) to try, try again to lock focus. Unless you're wanting a dual purpose lens (macro and portrait) or unless you are used to manual focusing most of the time or unless your subjects will always be well lit and not moving much, I'd consider something else for portraits. That's my .02!

EDIT: Maybe someone else can comment on this idea, but would a non-macro lens (like the 85mm) coupled with some extension tubes be another way to get dual-purpose out of a lens? In other words, get a lens better at portraits and use extension tubes to make it into a decent macro?

gluwater

The macro lenses focus slower than other lenses because the focusing ring has farther to travel from infinity to min focusing distance. Other than that I don't see any reason not to use the 150 for portraits. I used to use the 100 macro for headshots and it worked well. The 135 f/2 would be better suited to portraits though, it is such a sweet lens .

Elaine, you could use the 85 with extension tubes and/or a close up lens like the Canon 500D. The downside of this is you will not gain true macro capabilities (1:1 image ratio) and a true macro will be sharper at those close distances. Non-macro lenses are generally not as sharp at their min focusing distance.

Elaine

gluwater wrote:

The macro lenses focus slower than other lenses because the focusing ring has farther to travel from infinity to min focusing distance. Other than that I don't see any reason not to use the 150 for portraits. I used to use the 100 macro for headshots and it worked well. The 135 f/2 would be better suited to portraits though, it is such a sweet lens .

Elaine, you could use the 85 with extension tubes and/or a close up lens like the Canon 500D. The downside of this is you will not gain true macro capabilities (1:1 image ratio) and a true macro will be sharper at those close distances. Non-macro lenses are generally not as sharp at their min focusing distance.

Thanks for the info!