Re: Advice on a trade

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

   From: creadick@mindspring.com (Nowell Creadick)
   Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 11:02:27 +0900

   ...  To respond to Ben and echo Dan C's recommendation...I use an
   F2 quite a bit for macro and admire it enough to try to buy ones I
   see that are undervalued in my opinion to save as future
   classics. I think the F2A is the bargain...takes AI and is not
   nearly as expensive as the AS metered one.  I would think you could
   find a nice F2A in the $500 range.  I use the 105 macro mostly due
   to working distance. It sells for around 450.

Hi, Nowell... with all this macro talk about Nikons, since I do a bit
of macrophotography myself, I thought I'd mention to the group my own
preferred setup for it, which is a Leica R6 or R6.2 with a motor drive
and a bellows.  Handheld on the Universal Handgrip, it's actually
pretty handy (though heavy!) in the field if you're using fast film.

You can often find a Bellows-R and a 100/f4 Macro-Elmar for bellows
(the one without the focusing mount) for sale together at a show for
$600 or $700.  They are typically mint or mint- at these prices --
lots of former owners seem to have decided that macrophotography is
not for them.  The 100/4 for bellows is useful because you can focus
from 1:1 all the way out to infinity on the bellows.  The lens is not
among Leica's best, according to lens tests, but I think it would be
very difficult to tell that without lens tests.

There are also the 60/2.8 macro and 100/4 macro with focusing base, if
one doesn't need to get really close and doesn't want a bellows.  If
you don't need mirror prefire, you can get an R3 or an R4s and one of
these lenses in the same price range as the Nikon and a macro lens.
If you want mirror prefire, then you need an R6 or newer model, or an
SL or SL-2 -- the SL, especially, would keep the price for the package
low.

And you can still get any of these cameras repaired by the
manufacturer.  Try that with a Nikon F2.

There's also that 100/2.8 APO-Macro, but that's not cheap...