The 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR is one of Nikon's most highly regarded lenses, with exceptional performance in nearly all areas. The lens focuses down to 4.9 feet reaching a peak magnification of about 1:6 by it's self. On a Nikon DX (APS-C) sensor, this is about a 4” x 6” rectangle. With the right accessories, this lens performs especially well for macro photography in two ways; usable fast auto focus and exceptional bokeh (quality of the out of focus rendition).

Auto focus and VR

Although auto focus always has limitations for macro use, with the right accessories, the 70-200mm's auto focus is quite fast and reasonably accurate for macros. I use auto focus most of the time when shooting close-ups with this lens. I find it necessary to use the continuous servo auto focus mode when doing close-ups.

Vibration Reduction works with close-up lenses and extension tubes with the correct electrical connections, however, the stabilization effectiveness decreases as the magnification increases, mostly due to camera movement in relation to the plane of focus. I always keep VR on when shooting macros unless I have the 70-200mm on a tripod, which isn't often. I find that NORMAL VR mode generally works the best for close-ups.

Bokeh

The out of focus rendition of this lens is simply outstanding. Although it's often easy to achieve pleasing detail-less backgrounds when working at higher magnifications, the 70-200mm does it in more of a pleasant natural looking way than any other lens I've used, especially when its desirable to keep some distinction of shape or pattern in the out of focus regions.

Extension tubes

The 70-200mm works well with 20mm to 36mm's of extension. Less than 20mm does not give enough magnification to be very useful, and when over 36mm is used the setup becomes cumbersome and edge sharpness starts to be severe. The only extension I tend to use with the 70-200mm is a single 20mm tube. I find this to be a great setup for photographing easily approachable hummingbirds, dragonflies and large butterflies in flight. It's very easy to obtain sharp close-ups with this setup.

Due to the complex optical design of the 70-200mm, extension only works well when the lens is zoomed to the longer end of the range. When zoomed to the shorter focal lengths, the focus range is extremely restrictive; with the point of focus actually being inside the lens when over 40mm of extension is used with the lens zoomed to 70mm. Infinity focus is not possible with extension tubes.

I have the Kenko extension tube set that includes a 36mm, 20mm and 12mm and I find them to be of decent quality. VR and auto focus (My Kenko extension tube set supports both the AF-S style and the older screw-driven style auto focus) work fine with these tubes.

Close-up lenses

I've had good success with a 77mm close-up lens on the 70-200mm. The only 77mm close-up lens I would consider buying would be the double element Canon 500D. Nikon does not make any 77mm close-up lenses, and all the others I could find were single element versions. The single element close-up lenses lack the overall and edge sharpness that double element types such as the Canon 500D has. The Canon 500D comes in a nice small clear plastic case.

There is no light loss when close-up lenses are used, unlike using teleconverters or extension tubes. The lens can not focus to infinity when a close-up lens is used.

The 70-200mm with the 500D can reach about half lifesize when the lens is zoomed to 200mm. With the 500D, the 70-200mm has a minimum focus distance of 14 inches from the front element and a maximum focus distance of 20 inches from the front element. Center sharpness with the 500D is very good. Edge sharpness is ok, although not as good as most dedicated macro lenses.

Thanks for reading!