<p>I love my 100 mm Tokina macro. One thing about them is their solid build quality and it wasn't a fortune. It's easy to push/pull from auto to manual focus, which is something you will learn that you will have to do often in macro work. I would agree that anything that is a true macro lens will serve you well--Sigma, Tamron, Nikon or Tokina. Once you have an actual dedicated macro lens and see how superior it is, you won't know how you ever did without it.</p>