[LUX Special] Seen through the Nikkor 105mm Macro Lens

Well nothing is wrong with it. This post isn’t to say I’d broken it…

Some keen-eyed friends of LUX might notice that my 4th Online Gallery is overdue. As that is being prepared, alongside a physical exhibition in Göttingen (which on the background corresponds to an entirely new system through which I organise and sort my photos), I thought I do something different.

Since I purchased it second-hand in September 2022, my 105mm Macro lens has had a unique position in my creative arsenal. It’s heavy, so I have not brought it out more than a handful of times. However, it’s sharp enough to really help me capture unique images when I did.

On the one hand it is a reasonably sharp and fast prime lens for normal uses, on the other the lens boasts a 1:1 reproduction in macro mode – if the subject is held at about 35cm away, 1mm of real world length translates to 1mm on the camera sensor. At my Nikon D810’s native resolution, that means I can resolve as small as 5 micrometers per pixel. Now, this number is still hopelessly macroscopic compared with what many lab scientists (especially physicists) care about, but I see it as enough as a glimpse into the intricate detail of nature, from the frost in the staff room fridge, to the early spring buds on a tree twig.

In the gallery below I show some of the standout photos I’d managed to snap with the lens, in chronological order from the first trial run to today (22 Mar 2026). Some photos will have captions to describe them.

The cover image was the lens seeing itself thanks to some clever mirrors at Phaeno Wolfsburg.

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