Simon,
The hoverfly was taken with a manual focus Nikon 105mm f2.8 Micro but could just as easily have been taken with an autofocus lens. Any of these will get you right inside a flower without additional kit. The big thing with macro is that the more you magnify the subject, ie the closer you focus, the shallower the depth of field - ( zone of sharpness ).

I need to read through the macro forum to see if I can link you some examples.

Don

Hi there Simon, I have a Nikkor 105 mm f2.8 AF micro and also the 70-180 Micro Nikkor. The advantage of the latter is that you can stand off from skittish subjects and re-frame through the zoom. Although it is a slower lens it still rates as one of Rockwell's 10 best Nikkors of all time.

The 105mm macro focuses down to 1/1 (lifesize) so is more than capable of filling the frame with the centre of a flower. If you're going to work at that sort of magnification then autofocus is a bane rather than a bonus and is better switched off. You will most likely be working from a solid heavy duty tripod with everything clamped down tight, where critical focussing and very small apertures are a must, in these sorts of situations VR is useless at best or doesn't work at all. Where VR would come into it's own is if you are chasing subjects such as butterflies etc, handheld; here again autofocus is an hinderance rather than an aid. Far better to prefocus at a certain distance from your subject then sway gently backwards and forwards with the camera and lens until the subject is sharp in the frame, this is where the longer macro lens comes in, you don't need to be so close to your subject which means you are less likely to scare it away.

To give you some idea of image size to lens magnification here's a shot of Scottish Primrose - Primula Scotica, taken on a Tamron 90mm macro at slightly less than 1/2 life size. The flower is approx 2" (5.0cm) tall.

nirofo.

Thanks once again to you all on here for your sugestions and for taking your time to do so.
I looked into Gray's of Westminster don, called them, and after listening also to their advice, I have purchased a 2nd hand 105mm macro. Another learning curve starts also! hopefully by this time next year, I may have some photo's to possibly compete with your hoverfly don? nice part of the country Norfolk, spent some time working over at beccles many moons ago! Andy...your pic's are great! loved Llandudno pier, little morton hall, my fav's gotta be the infrared marble church and the two to the right of it!
Cant wait till Wed's when my len's arrives. Christmas arrived early!
Thanks you everyone!
Simon

Thats a result then Simon :). Enjoy as I am sure you will.

Once you are up and running with it you can post any queries no matter how crazy in the Macro Forum. Plenty of people here that can help you out.

Don

Enjoy the 105 Simon it is a great lens, don't forget to try it as a telephoto as well - landscape and portraits?

Great purchase Simon, all you need now is a heavy tripod to go with it or a steady hand when chasing insects!

Look forward to seeing your shots.

nirofo.

I recommend the excellent 200mm f4 ED IF Ai-S instead. Its just as sharp as the AF version but its lighter and considerably cheaper to buy. Its a manual focus lens so its even better for macro work where AF is often useless.
Its comparatively large working distance is exactly what you need when trying to take pics of highly skittish insects like Flies and Grasshoppers as you dont have to get so close to them.
If your worried about the fact it only does 1:2 macros on its own, dont be, as its works excellently with one or more 52mm Canon 500D Pro quality close up lenses to give either 1:1 and 2:1 macros with virtually no loss of f-stop like you get with extension rings and more importantly no noticable loss in image quality.