Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Sony Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1       2       3              6      
7
       end
  

Archive 2016 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro

  
 
Phillip Reeve
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #1 · p.7 #1 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


leetmode wrote:
hey phillip, if you don't mind sharing, where did you get that camera strap from?

It came with an old camera and it is a pain to use but good for testing axial CA



Oct 29, 2016 at 07:24 AM
leetmode
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #2 · p.7 #2 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


Phillip Reeve wrote:
It came with an old camera and it is a pain to use but good for testing axial CA


agh true, well thanks for the heads up!




Oct 30, 2016 at 09:51 AM
arduluth
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #3 · p.7 #3 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro




stevei wrote:
This video shows exactly what I described as the lens "pumping" back and forth when auto focusing in AF-C mode:



It's not really the same as what people normally describe as hunting, as it's only re-focusing over a very small range, but doing it quite rapidly, going back and forth in the vicinity of the correct focus over and over again.


This "focus pumping" is how AF-C works when PDAF isn't supported. Not just Sony, either. Without phase detect distance readings (or Panasonic's proxy, DFD), that's what a CDAF needs to do.

Either Sony doesn't support PDAF for this lens, Sony doesn't support PDAF for certain distances, or the camera and/or lens need a firmware update to fix PDAF. I'd expect PDAF not to work for a new lens like this if the body hasn't been updated to the latest firmware.



Oct 30, 2016 at 09:25 PM
stevei
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #4 · p.7 #4 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


arduluth wrote:
or the camera and/or lens need a firmware update to fix PDAF. I'd expect PDAF not to work for a new lens like this if the body hasn't been updated to the latest firmware.


Thanks, I was running A7R2 firmware 3.00 as I hadn't seen anything specifically listed in the changes for newer firmwares that was important to me. I've updated to 3.30, and AF-C now works correctly with the 50 macro. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me that a firmware update should be required, as I'd expect the protocol between lens and camera to not change over time, but it seems that isn't the case.

I now have a 2nd copy of this lens, and it's better than the first I had. More equal image quality left to right, and I'd say the worst side of the 2nd copy is better than the worst side of the 1st copy by a greater amount than the best side of the 2nd copy is worse than the best side of the 1st copy (shots at f/2.8):



I'm pretty impressed with the optical performance of this lens for a "cheap" lens by Sony FE standards, and now that AF-C is working correctly, it may be good enough at tracking moving subjects to double up as a general purpose 50mm lens.



Nov 03, 2016 at 09:55 PM
arduluth
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #5 · p.7 #5 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


stevei wrote:
It doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me that a firmware update should be required, as I'd expect the protocol between lens and camera to not change over time, but it seems that isn't the case.


It's not so much that the protocol has changed, more that the protocol (or camera architecture) isn't as adaptable as it could be. When E mount was developed, there were no E lenses or cameras that supported PDAF. This came later.

PDAF requires distance information that CDAF does not. My personal guess is that the E mount protocol doesn't support pulling the distance data from the lens directly, but requires a translation table to be embedded in the camera's firmware. This would explain why a new E mount lens would support CDAF on an unupdated camera but not PDAF.

The E mount protocol is extensible enough to have PDAF support added later, but evidently not enough that the camera can just read the translation table from the lens when mounting the lens.

The Contax G cameras are the same way, but have no CDAF system to fall back on.



Nov 04, 2016 at 03:00 PM
Fred Miranda
Offline
Admin
Upload & Sell: On
p.7 #6 · p.7 #6 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


The new FE 50/2.8 Macro did well on DXOMark. They claim it's the third sharpest FE lens to date.

http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/Sony-FE-50mm-F28-Macro-on-Sony-A7R-II-versus-Zeiss-Carl-Zeiss-Loxia-50mm-F2-Sony-FE-on-Sony-A7R-II-versus-Sony-FE-Carl-Zeiss-Sonnar-T-STAR-55mm-F18-on-Sony-A7R-II__1746_1035_1400_1035_1252_1035



Nov 22, 2016 at 11:23 AM
youpii
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #7 · p.7 #7 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


I tried it for a few minutes at the Sony booth in Paris "Salon de la photo". The AF motor was really bad (slow & noisy) but seemed accurate. Felt like 1st gen AF motors on Canon cheap lenses 20 years ago. Nothing like the 90 Macro or the 55/1.8 on my a7r2 v3.30.



Nov 22, 2016 at 06:23 PM
junglialoh
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.7 #8 · p.7 #8 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


Sony 90mm is clearly more desirable for macro and in sharpness and flat image.
But its price and weight are almost twice that make us incline to more portable 50mm macro.



Jan 28, 2022 at 02:32 PM
bemei
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #9 · p.7 #9 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


I'd love Tamron to add a 50mm macro to their other excellent small and cheap macro lenses for FE mount.


Jan 29, 2022 at 12:34 PM
QuietOC
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #10 · p.7 #10 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


matthewm wrote:
Seems that this lens loves being shot at shorter distances, but gets a little wonky with longer distances, especially with busy backgrounds. Not sure there's a whole lot of value in this when the 50/1.8 can be had for $199 and you can pick up a set of Meike AE Extension Tubes from Amazon (which, despite being plastic and cheap work VERY well) for $20.

Yes. The FE 50mm F2.8 is a macro lens--optimized for close focus. It is very flat field at high magnification. By my test chart size the corners are a little out of focus when the center is in focus. The FE 50mm F1.8 is flatter field on my test chart, and the F1.8 certainly has much nicer background rendering even at F2.8. But F1.8 is pretty awful at high magnification.

You might check out one of the primes than do half life size magnification without extensions. The Tamron 35mm F2.8 for instance. It is still not a macro lens.



Jan 29, 2022 at 12:52 PM
DavidBM
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.7 #11 · p.7 #11 · In stock! Sony FE 50mm f/2.8 Macro


I’ve found this little guy super useful over the years. It’s pretty sharp at all distances and very light. I’ve used it as a macro and landscape lens when hiking, and also as my film “scanning” lens.

But the bokeh at portrait distance sucks (not uncommon with 1:1 macros, but this may be worse than. Averages) and the build quality isn’t inspiring (though I’ve had it since it came out and it’s fine) and lastly it lacks the super useful clutch and linear magnification setting mode of the 90.

So one of my hopes for the next coup,e of years is a new G or GM 50 macro. And a remake of the 90 wouldn’t be unwelcome too.



Jan 29, 2022 at 03:38 PM
1       2       3              6      
7
       end




FM Forums | Sony Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1       2       3              6      
7
       end
    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.