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Sony Fe 90mm F28 Macro G Oss Review

Summary

Highly Recommended awardSony's FE 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS is a very proficient macro lens which also doubles up as a light tele-photo. It produces very sharp images with very lilliputian field-curvature - although for optimal results it should exist stopped downwardly to f4.0 when shooting at closer distances. It too produces a pretty soft Bokeh and has almost no color aberrations. Its feature set is overnice - including the option to switch manual focus between linear and non-linear gearing. It may be more expensive than Sigma'southward more contempo 105mm f2.viii DG DN Macro Art and also a footling less precipitous but all-in-all the Iron 90mm f2.eight Macro Yard OSS still earns a recommendation.

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Bank check prices on the Sony Iron 90mm f2.8 Macro at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Wex or Calumet.de. Alternatively get yourself a re-create of my In Camera book or care for me to a java! Thanks!

Sony Fe 90mm f2.8 Macro review
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Intro

The Sony Fe 90mm f2.8 Macro One thousand OSS was the first macro lens for E-mount corrected for total-frame mirrorless cameras, upon which it'll deliver upwardly to 1:1 / 1x magnification from a altitude of 28cm. It was announced in 2015 and followed by the Sony FE 50mm f2.8 Macro in 2016. Macro lenses with focal length effectually 100mm are pop for macro photography and full general-purpose use as they offering more working distance than shorter focal lengths. This makes information technology easier to lite your subject and less likely for small critters to shy abroad. Sony added optical SteadyShot (OSS) image stabilization to the lens, a focus limiter, an AF-lock push button, and a dual MF mechanism: When you go out the focus-ring in the front position the lens has the usual focus-past-wire functionality with variable gearing for very precise focusing. But when you lot full the focus ring back it switches to linear gearing which allows for faster focus action.

The Sony Fe 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS is listed at 960 EUR / 1100 USD / 850 GBP.

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Facts from the catalog

Allow'due south compare the Sony FE 90mm f2.eight Macro Yard OSS ("Sony" for short) to the Sigma 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Art ("Sigma Art"). As usual I've rated the features with a [+] (or [++]), when it'southward better than average or even state of the art, a [0] if information technology's standard or merely boilerplate, and [-] if in that location's a disadvantage.

Size (diameter 10 length): At 79 ten 131mm (3.1 x 5.2in.) plus 51mm for the lens hood (94mm diameter) the Sony is of similar size as the Sigma Art at 75 x 136mm + 57mm lens hood. Both are non small lenses. [0]

Weight: 602g (21 oz.) plus 43g for the lens hood. The Sigma is 708g + 47g lens hood. [+]

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Eyes: The Sony is a pretty complex design with fifteen elements in 11 groups including ane aspherical and two special dispersion elements. This is similar to the Sigma Art (17 elements in 12 groups) ). The Sigma Art has fluorine-coating on the forepart chemical element to repel water, dust, and dirt and brand cleaning easier – which the Sony seem to miss. [+]

Closest focus distance is 0.28m (0.92ft.) with a magnification of 1:ane which is what you lot come to await from a macro lens. This results in a working altitude of just 0.13m (0.4ft.). The Sigma Art achieves the same magnification at a slightly larger working distances. Both lenses practice non extend while focusing and the Sony achieves a magnification of i:10 at a distance of ane.07m (3.5ft.), the Sigma Fine art at 1.24m [+]

Use with teleconverters: No. The Sigma Art probably could exist used with Sony's teleconverters (endeavor before you purchase). [0]

Filter-thread: 62mm, just like the Sigma Fine art. [+]

Image stabilization: The Sony has optical stabilization unlike the Sigma Art which relies solely on the congenital-in sensor-shift stabilization Sony A7 / A9 / A1 camera bodies provide. [+]

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Auto focus: Built-in AF drive-by-wire. Manual-focus override is by only turning the dedicated focus ring if the focus ring is in the forward position (marked "AF"). The focus ring has a variable gearing in this position which allows for very precise manual focus when turned slowly and is a boon when shooting macro photos. Pull the focus band towards the camera (marked "MF", come across above) the focus activeness switches to linear gearing (covering the complete focus range in 140 degrees) which makes polish focus pulling for videographers piece of cake and is much faster. In this way the Sony shows focus altitude plus magnification. Both the Sony and the Sigma Fine art likewise have an actress button on the lens which can be assigned many different functions (e.g. AF-lock) plus a focus limiter switch offering three position as you can see beneath. [+]

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Discontinuity: The Sony has no aperture ring unlike the Sigma Art which has a de-clickable ring with i/three stop clicks. Focusing does not change the aperture-value of the lens, then even at a magnification of one:1 the lens withal shows f2.8 although it clearly darkens past 2 EV. That means that the effective aperture of the lens is f2.8-f22 at infinity and f5.half-dozen-f44 at minimum object altitude. The Sigma Fine art is the same in this respect. [0]

Lens contour: The lens comes with a lens profile for vignette-, CA- and distortion-compensation which can be controlled from the photographic camera. That's the same as with the Sigma Fine art. [+]

Covers total frame/FX or smaller. Aforementioned with the Sigma. [+]

Cost: 960 EUR (incl. xix% VAT)/ 1100 USD / 850 GBP. The Sigma Art costs 749 EUR / 799 USD / 699 GBP. [0]

The lens comes with a soft pouch. The plastic lens hood is included and is reversible for transport. [+]

Sealing: yep, a condom grommet at the lens-mount plus farther special conditions-sealing throughout the structure, just like the Sigma Art. [+]

The score in the "features-department" is 0[-]/four[0]/x[+]. The Sony FE 90mm f2.8 Macro M OSS offers a nice feature prepare. Noteworthy are the optical image stabilization and the dual focus action.

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Alternatives

There are lot of macro lenses for Sony cameras. Simply if you want autofocus and a light telephoto accomplish there are really only iii native mirrorless designs for E-mount:

  • Sigma has the 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Art from 2020. The lens is similarly sized only almost 100g heavier than the Sony. And at 749 EUR / 799 USD / 699 GBP about 20-25% cheaper. The lens has a de-clickable discontinuity ring but no optical prototype stabilization.
  • Sigma also has the 70mm f2.eight DG Macro Fine art from 2018. The lens has a slimmer build and is a bit lighter than the Sony and at 500 EUR / 570 USD / 450 GBP also much cheaper. But information technology extends when focusing shut and has a 22% shorter reach which probably also translates in shorter working distances at comparable magnifications. And it does not offer optical image stabilization or an AF-lock button.
  • From Tokina there'southward the FiRIN 100mm two.eight FE Macro, an original mirrorless design from 2019. It costs 540 EUR / 600 USD / 580 GBP. Information technology'southward a bit lighter and shorter than the Sony but extends when focusing. And it does not offer optical image stabilization or an AF-lock button.

Hither is the bending of view that the Sony Fe 90mm f2.8 Macro 1000 OSS produces compared to the Sigma 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Fine art:

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Bending of view on Sony A7R II (FF) body: Sony FE 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS (left), Sigma 105mm f2.eight DG DN Macro Art (right)


Focus

Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the aforementioned subject after repeated focus-conquering) of the Sony FE 90mm f2.eight Macro G OSS is pretty proficient (measured 98.7% in Reikan FoCal) with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. In that location is virtually no focus variation whether the lens focuses from a closer altitude or from infinity and I detected very little hunting. The lens focuses in effectually 0.6 sec from infinity to 1.07m (one:10 magnification), which is only a little faster than the Sigma 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Art at 0.7 sec.

The focus ring is 30mm broad. Its metal surface is structured for meliorate grip and can exist operated with one finger. When y'all switch the focus-band from AF to MF focus distance is immediately ready to the last position in MF. That might be disturbing at times. Merely I think for macro piece of work you'd use the MF position to quickly get the lens to focus and then switch to the AF position to manually fine-melody focus on your subject area. AF-operation of the lens in photo-mode cannot exist heard from the outside and if you record video with the built-in microphone AF is as well silent.

As you pull focus, you'll notice quite some focus breathing: the paradigm became ix% less magnified when I adapted focus from infinity to 1.07m. This is visible and could be distracting when shooting videos.


Image stabilization

To test the effectiveness of the image stabilization with the Sony Iron 90mm f2.8 Macro G OSS on a Sony A7R II photographic camera trunk, I did a series of 120 test-shots hand-held with shutter speeds from 1/100 of a second downward to i/vi sec at 4.5m altitude. I used the shots at 1/100 sec with SteadyShot=off equally reference of how good my hand-holding was at the fourth dimension of the test and Reikan FoCal did the task of evaluating the sharpness of all shots.

Here's the results: With SteadyShot switched on the combo produced results downwardly to ane/25 sec (two stops) with a clearly higher rate of sharp shots than at 1/100 sec with SteadyShot=off. At ane/12 sec (3 stops) average quality became comparable. But at 1/6 sec (4 stops) results became very erratic with merely a third of the shots usable. This is an advantage from the prototype stabilization of iii stops.

I cannot judge how effective Sony'due south OSS is at closer distances but it might be meliorate than image stabilization based purely on sensor shift. As y'all get closer to your subject the upshot of milk shake is multiplied by the magnification and y'all should arrange shutter speed appropriately even with OSS – or utilize a tripod.

Adjacent check out my quality results!

Check prices on the Sony FE 90mm f2.eight Macro at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Wex or Calumet.de. Alternatively get yourself a copy of my In Camera book or treat me to a coffee! Thanks!

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Source: https://www.cameralabs.com/sony-fe-90mm-f2-8-macro-g-oss-review/

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