Lens for maximum depth of field

seanm

I am wondering what would be a good-better-best choice for a lens for my D3100 that will allow for the best depth of field when shooting my model trains?

I will be focusing fairly close but not quite all the way to macro most of the time; 4"-6" is a good starting point. I know I can use processing software and knit together several focus settings to get incredible depth of field, but what is a good lens to get that will do some of the work? This will be not in daylight and lighting will not always be the best. A flash recommendation might be good to have here too. I am photographing n-scale trains which are about 4" long and 1.25" tall.

Here are a couple of examples from an Oly c8080 non SLR. I would like better results from the D3100 camera before processing. I am not a photographer, but a modeler who wants to take better pictures, so please be kind (grin).

http://www.pegnsean.net/pics/trains/TBA_SAC_2/details/tn/P1010974.med.JPG
http://www.pegnsean.net/pics/trains/TBA_SAC_2/details/tn/P1010993.med.JPG

Thanks!

-SeanM

Flash

I was sure hoping someone would post an answer to this question, as it's been a common problem of mine. I've got the two kit zoom lenses and can't seem to create shots with good depth of field.

robbo

You should be able to get reasonable shots with the kit lens, using the 55mm end. Focus somewhere around the middle of the subject.
Best results are from a dedicated macro lens - I have a 100mm Tokina which works fine, or a zoom lens such as the 55-300mm. With either of these lenses, you need to be quite a distance from the subject, but you'll get good depth of field without having to bother with focus stacking methods.

Flash

Thanks Robbo, I've been experimenting and it's getting better if I use the "A" setting and increase the aperture. Of course it's a trade-off, as the shutter speed is reduced and camera needs to be more secure.

Marcus

First, I am newbie. I just want to share my experience. Second, to answer your question, if your budget is tight I will recommend you to buy the nikon 35mm f/1.8g for your D3100 (I have both as well). It works quite good for portrait or low-light pictures. Back to the title, if you try to get a lot of DOF, you should set f/x (x= number) as low as possible (i.e. if you have nikon 35mm f/1.8g in order to get more DOF you will set f/1.8). But notice that your pictures will be overexposed. For macro pictures you don't need that much DOF to get background blur, so you should set f/x higher.