![]() The Sony 90mm has somewhat better MF than most AF lenses: you can put it in a linear mode where you choose the magnification and moves the lens, just like with a manual lens But for specifically macro purposes, AF is no advantage, and generally speaking, MF lenses have better MF than AF ones. Of course AF is useful for general and portrait work if you want your macro lens to be a general lens. It’s also easier to magnify the image and get exactly the part you want in focus with manual focus than moving the AF point, using AF, locking it, and then checking to make sure it was correct. Very often you will want to set the magnification and then move the lens to focus, and the danger with an AF lens is that focus may shift, even if you lock it. Auto Focus vs Manual FocusĪuto focus is not really a good idea in the macro range. This is why one of us uses a 35mm and sometimes a 15mm macro along with the more usual lengths (50, 90, 150). Shorter lenses make you feel you are an ant, right there in with the tiny items you are photographing. Longer lenses give you a flattened perspective (think of how a long portrait lens flattens faces, for better or worse). But we should not ignore the fact that perspective plays a part in macro just as it does with normal photography. Focal Length – PerspectiveĪs we have seen the longer macro lens gives you more working distance, and some say that the longer the general. I was lucky that the butterfly wasn‘t shy because I had to get really close fore this image. Since many lenses have a shorter focal length when focused very closely working distance can vary greatly between lenses of very similar focal length. In general lenses with a longer focal length have more a longer working distance. So to capture subjects like insects this is a pretty important measure. The distance between the front of your lens and your subject is called working distance. If the front of your lens gets really close to your subject you might make it flee or cast a shadow onto it. ![]() These are only achievable with specialists macro lenses that generally can only be used in the macro range. The next two magnifications are twice life size (2:1) and five times life size (5:1). The jump to life-size, 1:1 is a dramatic change in the image, it no longer looks the way it is easy to visualise with the naked eye. The series then goes to 1:2, the magnification which is the best some “macro” lenses can achieve. The series starts at 1:5 which is the kind of magnification you might get with a non-macro lens which nevertheless has closer than usual focus. Here is a series of images of a Hellebore flower to give you a sense of the magnifications. There are also lenses with a magnification ration greater than 1:1 which usually can’t focus to infinity. On a 1:2 lens your subject can be as small as 72x48mm (half life size). This reproduction ratio is called life size. A macro-lens with a maximal reproduction ratio of 1:1 used on a Sony a7 series camera will allow you to fill the frame of an object which has the same size as the sensor which is about 36x24mm. The typical measure for how small the subects you can capture will be is the reproduction ratio. Things to consider when buying a macro lens Voigtlander MACRO 110mm F2.5 APO-Lanthar.Things to consider when buying a macro lens.If possible you should always take advantage of the focus limiter. The AF speed is pretty decent as long as the camera does not wish to hunt through the whole focus range. The AF of the Sony 50mm f/2.8 macro does still rely on the classic focusing system driven by the camera (via a slotted drive screw). As you can see in the product images below the lens extends when focusing towards closer distances - this is a quite common characteristic for macro lenses although the more modern Canon and Nikon counterparts manage to keep a constant physical length here. The broad rubberized focus-ring operates quite smooth but it's also somewhat wobbly. The build quality of the Sony lens is good but in relation to its price tag there's too much plastic involved in the construction. aperture is usually too slow to be something else than a compromise solution here. You may argue that the focal length is ideal for portrait photography but its max. Its field-of-view on APS-C DSLRs is equivalent to about 75mm ("f/4"). Lens which can be used for macro and mainstream applications. Naturally it has been redesigned to match the look and feel of Sony Alpha lens series but under the skin little if anything has changed. The Sony 50mm f/2.8 macro is a further survivor from the Minolta era. Special thanks to Konrad Kandler for providing this lens for testing purposes! ![]() ![]() Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2008
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