Mamiya 645 Macro lenses comparison/question

[stephen_scardamalia]

Ok, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the seemingly endless

options and numbers involved in macro photography.

 

I'm looking at the 80mm Macro lens with N spacer vs the 120mm Macro

lens. The specs I've found say both the 80mm w/N spacer and the 120mm

offer 1:1 magnification, and minimum focus distance is similar at

14-15". So at first I'm thinking, well, obviously the 120mm has the

advantage as it's a longer lens... but... 1:1 is 1:1 isn't it? That

ratio describes the image size on the film, so if both lenses are

capable of 1:1, then my final product will be the same... right?

 

Just trying to get clear. Thanks for your help!

 

Stephen

[tree]

I expect that the 120mm macro is going to give you a sharper image than an 80mm with spacer, on the general principle that the dedicated optics in the 120mm will be sharper. So while the magnification will be the same, the quality of the resulting image will (probably) not be.

[bueh]

But don't forget that 80mm is wider than 120mm (not much, but still). So the results will not look exactly the same. In general, the wider the lens, the more 3D-like the macro shots will look like.