Hi Greg:
I've got about 20 years of wildflower photography under my belt, often
with 100 days/year in the field. I had a 50mm and 135mm macro for many
of those years. I almost always used the 50mm f/3.5 or f/2 for flowers
and plants AND a T-32 w/ Bounce Grip 2 (the flash was typically used in
manual mode and balanced at one stop more than the ambient light). Had I
had a 90mm f/2, I'm not sure what I would have used. But IMHO, a 50mm is
great for plants since they don't run away, you get better APPARENT
depth of field, it allows for better balancing of light with a T-32, you
don't get obvious 1/60th sec. (top sync speed) blur from camera shake,
and the field weight is less, and you have sufficiently short distance
to hold a stem if it's windy. My typical f/stop was f/16 on low power
flash with the 50mm vs. f/8 at high power with a 135mm. When you are
hiking all day it makes the difference between carrying only one vs. two
sets of batteries.
The 135mm was great for small animals and insects. Seems to me a 180mm
would be overkill for that subject.
Gary Reese
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