I do a lot of jewelry photography commercially with Sony a7r5 with built in focus stacking and Sigma 105
macro. I sold theSony 90 macro to get the Sigma a few years ago. Now this new 100GM macro is looking very tempting. I need to see a comparison against the Sigma 105. The Sigma is one of the best macro's out there.
I shoot underwater macro with the Sony 90 on an A1. The 90 is sharp but hunts painfully, especially in challenging environments, such as blackwater diving where subjects are usually fast moving and only lit by my focus lights for a split second. I had planned to move on to the Tamron 90, which I have found to have faster AF on the surface, but Mark Galer's comparison indicates that in his testing the new Sony 100 has superior AF. I will wait a few months for more reports on this lens, but I'm close to pulling the trigger.
A lot of competition for this new Sony macro—some of it from Sony itself. Easily overlooked is the Sony 100 STF GM that reaches 1:4 in close-up mode, and 1:2 with the Canon 500D diopter achromat:
Wide open 1:2, full frame, and with crops. The apodization feature of the STF is fully operational at MFD, and the field is free of vignetting and cat-eyes by its design. It doesn't reach 1:1 admittedly.
My 1:1 copy lens on Sony Alpha is the Canon TS-E 135/4L Macro 1:2 with 500D. The field flatness and linear correction is insane, plus you get tilt/shift/rotate movements.
I am tempted by two lenses: this new Sony 100mm macro and the Laowa 180mm f/4.5. The price of the Laowa is awesome and the extra 80mm becomes helpful (I photograph snakes among others), I have been impressed by Laowa optics lately. The disadvantage of the Laowa is that is not AF in macro, only in "normal" however it has the cpu contacts so this helps.In high magnifications 1:2 to 1.5:1 you would probably want to manual focus anyway. The other disadvantage is that on the A1 you can not shoot a full speed (nice for stackings) on the Laowa. Now, lets talk about stackings, the few that have tested the new Sony says it suffers from focus breathing, so stacking with focus might not be the right approach, so it leaves you stacking by distance, so in theory then no improvement over the laowa. I own a A7RV so no speed cap there on the Laowa. The Sony weighs 1.4 lbs (147mm length) and the Laowa weighs 1.1 Lbs and (134mm) so there is an advantage of the Laowa. However, a VERY important thing is OS which the laowa does not have and it helps tremendously when not shooting from a tripod. Still thinking about which to buy.
corposant wrote:
I'm happy with my CV 110mm's manual focus and it can be bought ridiculously inexpensively second-hand.
The Voigtlander delivers stellar image quality, but my main complaint is the 10-point aperture decagon shape when shooting stopped down. I'm hoping the new Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro handles this more gracefully, since it was also a noticeable issue with the FE 90/2.8.
Fred Miranda wrote:
The Voigtlander delivers stellar image quality, but my main complaint is the 10-point aperture decagon shape when shooting stopped down. I'm hoping the new Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro handles this more gracefully, since it was also a noticeable issue with the FE 90/2.8.
The eleven rounded blades in the GM are certainly an improvement over the CV's straight blades. The difference between it and 90G isn't as pronounced, but the GM does keep things rounder. I wish the 70-200GII had the same aperture arrangement, but it's the same as the 90G.
freaklikeme wrote:
The eleven rounded blades in the GM are certainly an improvement over the CV's straight blades. The difference between it and 90G isn't as pronounced, but the GM does keep things rounder. I wish the 70-200GII had the same aperture arrangement, but it's the same as the 90G.
Indeed, the FE 90/2.8 Macro has 9 blades, while the new FE 100/2.8 Macro uses 11, which should improve its rendering stopped down. The biggest culprit remains the CV 110/2.5 with its straight blades.
Here's a sample from Phillip's review showing the polygon shape of the FE 90/2.8 Macro stopped down to f/5.6. Not bad, but not great either:
I'm tempted by this, might move the 200-600 and 110CV on to fund it. Neither of which are getting much use these days. I like to do insect macro, and found focus and microscopic dof to be the frustrations. I want fast AF at macro range, to get moving insects
It's also opened my eyes to the possibilities of the 70-200f4 with 1.4x and 2x TCs, Maybe 400f8 might be better for my use case. It seems the focus on it is similar to this 100mm.
Thanks Sony for nothing... I thought my lens GAS was pretty much done. I had rented the 90Ga few years ago and enjoyed it quite a lot. But the budget didn't allow that purchase at the time and I was not impressed with the build quality or the focusing motors.
For the new 100GM, I think they had me at "macro specific stabilization" and "works with teleconverters". Or maybe "will keep up with the A9iii at 120FPS".
I have never owned a real macro lens - just the 70-200GMii with the Nisi screw on magnifier - so I am really looking forward to this for both handheld insect macro as well as the occasional portrait. It is a little bit larger, but I could also see swapping my FE85 for this in my snowboard pack for landscapes, action shots on the mountain and music shots during apres ski. Plus maybe macro shots or falling snow would be cool if this and the A9iii can lock focus quickly onto a single flake
I started a long ramble about the minimum working distance of the new macro vs some of our existing lenses at the various magnification ratios and decided I was hijacking this thread and didn't want to upset anyone, so started a new post here.
Today, I was able to pick up my new Sony FE 100/2.8 Macro GM OSS from my local dealer in Berlin.
My first impressions are as follows:
- First-class feel and workmanship
- Quiet and fast AF, even in combination with my Sony SEL-14TC 1.4x.
- Very good optical quality, very good OSS, and first-class bokeh
- Also very suitable for use as a telephoto and portrait lens with and without the Sony SEL-14TC 1.4x.
- Please don't expect too much from the AF and freehand in super macro mode above 1:1; this is also the case with my OM System 90/3.5 Pro IS, so MF + tripod is the better choice!
After taking a few test shots, I am very satisfied with this new macro lens. I will be testing its interaction with the Godox Dental Ring Flash and the Godos V100 system flash
in the coming days and weeks, and test shots with my Sony A7RV will follow...🙂
My local dealer in the US called; I had pre-ordered two but only one will come in the first batch because demand is very strong. They said it will ship next Wednesday.
blnmen57 wrote:
- Please don't expect too much from the AF and freehand in super macro mode above 1:1; this is also the case with my OM System 90/3.5 Pro IS, so MF + tripod is the better choice!
Can you elaborate on this?
I think that's the main selling point compared to its rivals ...
j4nu wrote:
Can you elaborate on this?
I think that's the main selling point compared to its rivals ...
I doubt my current approach will be any different, which is to use the high frame rate of the A1II to just compensate. Good IS, fast focus, and a spray of images and you can get exactly what you want with a little culling. That's as much about DOF than anything else, so yeah I wouldn't expect an improvement here, and I think that's what he was implying.
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