Posted 10/23/2016 10:40 am
Here's Ken Rockwell's review:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/24120af.htm
According to the review, it can focus down to 1.5 feet. That's not great, and likely will limit you to larger coins or medals, and a large copy stand. It will certainly fit a DSLR body, but won't do AF with most of them. It requires a DSLR that drives a screw-AF fromt the body. My D7000 does this (that's why I bought it) and other newer Nikons should as well.
Good thing is it focuses to 1.5 feet at all focal lengths (according to Rockwell) so you would probably just set it at 120mm, which will give you the highest magnification. So probably no worry on zoom creep, as long as 120mm is fully extended.
Edited to add:
At 120mm, the wide open aperture is f5.6. If you add a 2x teleconverter to this lens, it will double its magnification at any given distance. It also halves the aperture, so will be f11. Now, f11 is not too bad for many DSLRs, which will only just start to show visible diffraction (at 100%) around f11. Even if you need to stop-down to f8 on the lens you will still be only at f16. You will likely downsize at least 2x, generally 4x, to publish anything on the web, so f16 becomes effectively f8 from diffraction perspective, so you've good.
The teleconverter I'd suggest is the Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter (2XVMFT). The 2XVMFT not only gives you an excellent 2x teleconverter, but also gives a bit of extra extension to increase your magnification before the teleconverter kicks in. Disadvantage is there will be no autofocus or auto aperture. Both must be done manually, which I recommend doing anyway, so this is only a small disadvantage at worst. Bottom line, if you are shooting mostly larger coins, you may be able to get away with the 24-120, set at 120mm, with a 2XVMFT, and get decent results.
2nd edit...
Here is a 2XVMFT for an El-Cheapo price. Maybe I should start noticing these when they go cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vivitar-2x-...AOSwzaJX8bCL
Now THAT is a bargain!
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/24120af.htm
According to the review, it can focus down to 1.5 feet. That's not great, and likely will limit you to larger coins or medals, and a large copy stand. It will certainly fit a DSLR body, but won't do AF with most of them. It requires a DSLR that drives a screw-AF fromt the body. My D7000 does this (that's why I bought it) and other newer Nikons should as well.
Good thing is it focuses to 1.5 feet at all focal lengths (according to Rockwell) so you would probably just set it at 120mm, which will give you the highest magnification. So probably no worry on zoom creep, as long as 120mm is fully extended.
Edited to add:
At 120mm, the wide open aperture is f5.6. If you add a 2x teleconverter to this lens, it will double its magnification at any given distance. It also halves the aperture, so will be f11. Now, f11 is not too bad for many DSLRs, which will only just start to show visible diffraction (at 100%) around f11. Even if you need to stop-down to f8 on the lens you will still be only at f16. You will likely downsize at least 2x, generally 4x, to publish anything on the web, so f16 becomes effectively f8 from diffraction perspective, so you've good.
The teleconverter I'd suggest is the Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter (2XVMFT). The 2XVMFT not only gives you an excellent 2x teleconverter, but also gives a bit of extra extension to increase your magnification before the teleconverter kicks in. Disadvantage is there will be no autofocus or auto aperture. Both must be done manually, which I recommend doing anyway, so this is only a small disadvantage at worst. Bottom line, if you are shooting mostly larger coins, you may be able to get away with the 24-120, set at 120mm, with a 2XVMFT, and get decent results.
2nd edit...
Here is a 2XVMFT for an El-Cheapo price. Maybe I should start noticing these when they go cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vivitar-2x-...AOSwzaJX8bCL
Now THAT is a bargain!
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at:
http://macrocoins.com
http://macrocoins.com
Edited by rmpsrpms
10/23/2016 7:50 pm
10/23/2016 7:50 pm
