Macro Lenses

[Buceph]

Sorry for flooding the place with questions. What's the difference between a macro zoom 80-300mm, and a normal zoom at 80-300mm. Is it just that they can focus better a closer ranges? Meaning they would work just as well for a normal long range shot?

[eric s]

Without knowing exactly the lens you're refering to, I'd have to say:

Can focus closer to the subject than the other one.
Can work at smaller fstops/apertures than the other one.

Often, macro lenses are much sharper than non-macro lenses. But I don't know how well that holds for the cheaper zoom macros. For fixed focal length macro lenses, it is almost always true.

Beyond that, probably not much.

Eric

[Nagasaki]

A macro lens should be able to focus close enough to give a 1:1 size shot. That is the subject area is the same size as the sensor. Most macro zooms actually shoot down to 1:2 or 1:3 that is the subject area is 2 or 3 times bigger than the sensor. A non macro zoom will not get anywhere near as close. Given the same quality lenses the macro lenses will work just as well at normal shooting distances as non macro lenses. You should generally expect to pay a little more for a macro lens of similar quality to a non macro lens.