After spending a number of days shooting with the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens, I wrapped up by field testing today at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory. What follows are some images of butterflies captured with the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

I used the Movo 21 mm extension tube for most of the images in this article. I also shot a few frames with a combination of the 21 mm and 10 mm Movo tubes.

I must confess that I didn’t really enjoy shooting the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens with extension tubes. I found that the tubes forced focus too close to the subjects. I missed quite a few shots as the butterflies flitted away when I had to move in close to them to acquire focus. Having to work in very close quarters was awkward. I didn’t even bother trying to stack all three Movo extension tubes as I would have likely not been able to focus at all.

Of all of the 1 Nikon lenses I have used with extension tubes my favourite by far is the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6.

While I quite enjoyed using the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 for a lot of other subject matter, macro-type images isn’t an area of strength for this particular lens.

Focusing was fast and accurate as would be expected.

Compared to the 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 the 10-100 mm is a bit challenged in terms of overall image quality. At times I got a fair bit of fringing with my images.

This mainly occurred when trying to capture close-up images of single blossoms and flower buds.

I shot at a range of apertures from f/5.6 to f/8, experimenting with depth-of-field.

I did get some usable images with the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 and Movo extension tubes, just not as many as I would have liked.

Being forced to consistently focus at very short distances away from subject matter tended to produce very similar looking images. I found I had a lot more latitude when using the 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 lens.

I did capture a few usable images of plants…

including a water droplet on a leaf.

Overall, I felt restricted, and most of the frames I was able to capture were of butterflies on flowers. I just couldn’t get the amount of extension tube magnification effect I wanted with the 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens. While the comparatively short minimum focusing distance of this lens was an advantage when I was shooting at Bird Kingdom, it ended up being a negative when using extension tubes.

The 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 lens feels more at home outdoors…

where owners will readily appreciate its flexible focal length range.

This ended up being one of my shortest visits to the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory in recent memory.

I was in and out of the facility in about two hours. I captured what I could and got bored with the lack of variety in my images.

Over the next few days I’ll be working on my hands-on review of the 1 Nikon 10-100 mm f/4-5.6, and should have it published by early next week.

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Article and all images Copyright Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication of any kind, or adaptation is allowed without written consent.