Sony's long awaited macro GM, with teleconverter capability and 1.4x magnification.
Should be a super interesting options for high magnification in combination with insect AF, for example.
1.4x magnification with the bare lens, plus the ability to turn it into a 140mm f/4, make this intriguing for me. Glad they kept the sliding focus ring for MF/AF. May have to budget for it in 2026 before wildflower season.
Especially with the faster focus motors. Should make focus stacking a easier and more precise
Thinking about ordering one 🤔
I do already own the 70-200f4 II which is also excellent. Might have to think about this one
I had had 1:1 macro lenses for many year, from my Canon 100mm f2.8, the Nikon 105mm f2.8, and the Sony 90mm. I lost interest in doing serious macro, I have never done focus stacking for my "macro" shots. Dreamy bokeh is nice but the ultra thin DOF was getting old for me. I sold my Sony 90mm macro and bought the 70-200 F4 GII Macro lens that I use occasionally for closeup stuff.
I may get this new 100mm when the used price drops to $1000.
Sharif Abdou wrote:
Magnification goes to 2.8x with the 2.0 teleconverter. Is that possible? Impressive if true.
The marketing materials really push that idea; but it's hard to say what the optical quality is or how well the lens will still focus on AF mode. Lots of unknowns at this point.
More information will have to come out before we can form a clearer picture.
Unless you are doing serious macro and quite a bit at that, this lens looks superfluous to me. I still have my 90mm macro that I use occasionally and then I do have the G 70-200mm Macro that I use more often. I may look into getting this lens a year or two down the road...
Douglas L wrote:
I had had 1:1 macro lenses for many year, from my Canon 100mm f2.8, the Nikon 105mm f2.8, and the Sony 90mm. I lost interest in doing serious macro, I have never done focus stacking for my "macro" shots. Dreamy bokeh is nice but the ultra thin DOF was getting old for me. I sold my Sony 90mm macro and bought the 70-200 F4 GII Macro lens that I use occasionally for closeup stuff.
I may get this new 100mm when the used price drops to $1000.
Yeah, just like you, I sold my Sony 90mm once I purchased the 70-200f4 macro. Which is much more versatile as a walk around the forest lens
If I hadn't recently purchased the Tamron 90mm macro I probably would have been an early adopter of this lens. I'm frequently hitting the MFD at 1:1 when shooting insects, so the increased magnification and TC compatibility would be welcome to me.
Since I'm not doing big prints I'll probably just stick with my 1:1 lens and a bit of cropping when needed. Nice to see this released none the less.
Douglas L wrote:
I had had 1:1 macro lenses for many year, from my Canon 100mm f2.8, the Nikon 105mm f2.8, and the Sony 90mm. I lost interest in doing serious macro, I have never done focus stacking for my "macro" shots. Dreamy bokeh is nice but the ultra thin DOF was getting old for me. I sold my Sony 90mm macro and bought the 70-200 F4 GII Macro lens that I use occasionally for closeup stuff.
I may get this new 100mm when the used price drops to $1000.
The 135 and 50 GMs already focus pretty close and have lovely bokeh. I would want to see how this handles portraits and more environmental settings, else a 100/1.4 non-macro would likely interest me more.
Was at first happy to see this lens even though I already own the 90mm f/2.8 G and 70-200mm f/4 Macro G II like others here. Just compared it quickly to the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro and am very surprised to see that in the US it’s ~ $400 more than the Canon which I also already own.
My original plan was to sell my Canon but I will have to see how the two compare now before I decide to buy since I really don’t do that much macro work. Sure the Canon is now almost 4 years older but I’ve been pretty happy with my three option already for the little Macro work I currently do.
Can anybody explain what is supposed to be the real advantages of this new Macro over the ones I’ve already listed?
This should be a great lens for someone who doesn't already have a macro, but not sure how appealing it will be for those who would be upgrading from the 90mm Sony. If you really need more than 1x, might as well go straight to a 2x Laowa.
If you are coming from a macro without stabilization, then this there is a much stronger argument to go this route.
My only use for a macro is on the copy stand copying 35mm - 6x7 film, so image stabilization and tele-extender isn’t so important, but should the optics be in another class, I would consider switching from my excellent Tamron 90mm Macro.
RT-- wrote:
I'm sure you know a smaller sensor also makes the lens longer. 🤣
I am not surprised to see errors posted in forums, but I am surprised Mark Galer made such an error in his YouTube review. No great damage done but still surprising.
AGeoJO wrote:
Unless you are doing serious macro and quite a bit at that, this lens looks superfluous to me. I still have my 90mm macro that I use occasionally and then I do have the G 70-200mm Macro that I use more often. I may look into getting this lens a year or two down the road...
Yeah, for your use case, I think that makes sense. It should be a good price on the used market in that time frame.
The 90 G is still good and useful, but since this incorporates the new AF motors combined with Sony's AF subject recognition/tracking, I think it's a solid replacement/upgrade. Mark Galer's video demonstrated this pretty well, but I would like to see dedicated macro photographers use this.
This definitely would be good for anyone that does handheld macro. I'm interested how it would work with Sony's focus bracketing. I'm not very good at handheld stacks. Granted, I hardly ever do it, but if this lens works well with focus bracketing, I'd be ecstatic.
I have the Laowa 90 APO that has served me well for various uses, not just macro, and this new GM lens is very appealing to me.
