Sony E-mount has had perhaps more lens development than any other mount in history. Want an autofocus 35mm lens? You easily have 20+ options to choose from in that focal length alone. I review nearly 100 lenses per year, and many of them are for E-mount. But I realized about two years ago how few autofocusing macro lenses I have reviewed on E-mount. The last autofocusing macro lens that I reviewed on Sony was the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DN Macro…in 2020! Before that was the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro lens. That means for four years we have hundreds of other lenses but no AF macro lenses. I finally asked Tamron last year when they were going to make one, as back when I was exclusively reviewing on Canon EF, Tamron was perhaps the main third party player in the macro space. My Tamron contacts didn’t have an answer for me at that point, but, about a year later, I got an email from them stating that (finally!) the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III VXD 1:1 Macro was on the way. It’s now here, and I think it is the macro lens a lot of people have been waiting for. It’s cheap ($699 USD), has fantastic autofocus, and is just brilliantly sharp. I want one! Find out why in my video review shared below or read about it in my text review. You can also just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
I’m doing this review on Sony E-mount, as mentioned, but Tamron is also releasing (for the first time) simultaneously on Nikon Z-mount, where it will also be extremely welcome.
Here’s a look at the overall selling features of the new 90mm Macro, or what Tamron codes the F072:
Full-Frame | f/2.8 to f/16
Short Telephoto Prime
VXD Autofocus System
1:1 Magnification
9.1″ Min. Focus
Focus Limit Switch, Focus Set Button
BBAR-G2 & Fluorine Coating
Moisture Resistant Construction
That’s pretty standard stuff, but it is the execution here that is fantastic. This is a lens that just works, and I love the images that it produces.
And, a 90mm lens is useful for all kinds of things, including making for a fantastic portrait lens.
It also made for a gorgeous landscape lens, delivering beautiful color and contrast.
A good short telephoto macro lens is so much more than just a macro lens, and there’s a reason why I have recommended such lenses to those who were debating about a macro lens or a portrait lens; a good macro lens does all of those extremely well. Enjoy the photos!
Keywords: #withmytamron, Tamron, 90mm, Tamron 90mm Review, Tamron 90mm Macro, Macro, Tamron 90mm Sony, Di III, 1:1, VXD, Travel, Tamron 28-200mm, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sony E-mount has had perhaps more lens development than any other mount in history. Want an autofocus 35mm lens? You easily have 20+ options to choose from in that focal length alone. I review nearly 100 lenses per year, and many of them are for E-mount. But I realized about two years ago how few autofocusing macro lenses I have reviewed on E-mount. The last autofocusing macro lens that I reviewed on Sony was the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DN Macro…in 2020! Before that was the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro lens. That means for four years we have hundreds of other lenses but no AF macro lenses. I finally asked Tamron last year when they were going to make one, as back when I was exclusively reviewing on Canon EF, Tamron was perhaps the main third party player in the macro space. My Tamron contacts didn’t have an answer for me at that point, but, about a year later, I got an email from them stating that (finally!) the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III VXD 1:1 Macro was on the way. It’s now here, and I think it is the macro lens a lot of people have been waiting for. It’s cheap ($699 USD), has fantastic autofocus, and is just brilliantly sharp. I want one! Find out why in my video review shared below or read on in the text review.
Thanks to Tamron USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
I’m doing this review on Sony E-mount, as mentioned, but Tamron is also releasing (for the first time) simultaneously on Nikon Z-mount, where it will also be extremely welcome.
Here’s a look at the overall selling features of the new 90mm Macro, or what Tamron codes the F072:
Full-Frame | f/2.8 to f/16
Short Telephoto Prime
VXD Autofocus System
1:1 Magnification
9.1″ Min. Focus
Focus Limit Switch, Focus Set Button
BBAR-G2 & Fluorine Coating
Moisture Resistant Construction
That’s pretty standard stuff, but it is the execution here that is fantastic. This is a lens that just works, and I love the images that it produces.
And, a 90mm lens is useful for all kinds of things, including making for a fantastic portrait lens.
It also made for a gorgeous landscape lens, delivering beautiful color and contrast.
A good short telephoto macro lens is so much more than just a macro lens, and there’s a reason why I have recommended such lenses to those who were debating about a macro lens or a portrait lens; a good macro lens does all of those extremely well. Let’s dive into why that is…
Tamron 90mm Macro VXD Build and Handling
Let’s parse out the “Tamron speak” in the 90mm F2.8 Di III Macro VXD lens.
Di III = Designed for Mirrorless
VXD = Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (the Linear autofocus motor)
Macro = a true 1:1 macro lens
I think the Di-III designation is becoming increasingly meaningless for the simple reason that essentially all current lens design is on mirrorless, with DSLRs seeming to be done at this point.
The new Tamron 90mm Macro is a moderately sized lens that is slightly smaller and lighter than its two chief competitors – the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro and the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DN Macro. It measures 79.2mm (3.1″) in diameter and is 126.5mm (5″) in length. Macro lenses like this tend to be a little longer because they are internally focusing.
By comparison, the Sigma lens is 135.6mm in length (+9mm) and the Sony is 130.5mm (+4mm). The Tamron employs a 67mm front filter thread that is a match for the vast majority of its lenses over the past five years. They have very intentionally tried to standardize filter size where at all possible to allow filters to be shared across their lenses.
The weight is 630g (22.2oz), which undercuts the Sigma by 80g but is slightly heavier than the Sony (+28g).
The design language is similar to a number of recent Tamron lenses, though you can tell that this isn’t one of their premium lenses in that the materials don’t feel quite as plush. The lens shell is primarily engineered plastics with a rubberized focus ring. The lens has a satin finish with some sculpting here and there along with a raised bank for the switches and buttons.
The raised control bank has two elements: a function button whose value can be assigned either through the camera or via Tamron’s Lens Utility software (more on that in a moment). There is also a three position focus limiter, allowing you to choose the full range, eliminate the macro range (0.7m to infinity), or to select just the macro range (0.7m and closer).
There are a variety of functions that can be set in the software itself, everything from a preset focus position to switching between AF/MF to even establishing a proper Astro/infinity focus point. The nice thing about being able to use the Lens Utility function to assign this value is that you can program a function specific to this particular lens rather than using the default value from the camera. This lens has no AF/MF switch, for example, and that happens to be one of the choices that I could set the button to accomplish.
Very importantly for a macro lens, you have a lot of specific control over how the manual focus ring functions. You can choose which direction it moves, whether it is linear or non-linear, how long you want the focus throw/rotation to be, etc…
You can also do direct firmware updates through the software, ensuring that your lens stays future proof. That degree of customization is great, and I would definitely call this an advantage for the Tamron lens.
The focus ring is raised from the lens barrel a bit in a section of the lens that flares out, making it more ergonomic and visually pleasing. Manual focus emulation is quite good, and the quality damping gives the impression of being a real manual focus experience. It is pretty typical to employ manual focus at macro distances, as depth of field is incredibly tiny and manual focus is really the best way to put focus where you want.
Tamron has included a fairly deep lens hood with the 90mm Macro. It is more than half the length of the lens itself.
You’ll note that Tamron has equipped the hood with a filter window, which is rare for them. The purpose of this is to allow circular polarizing filters (often used to reduce reflections in macro photography) to be easily accessed and rotated. They probably felt this to be necessary because of how deep the hood is.
Tamron has really been nailing weather sealing, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s a rubber gasket at the lens mount that suggests at the weather sealing inside, and Tamron also shows a total of 6 other internal seal points along with a fluorine coating on the front element to give further protection. A fluorine coating not only helps protect the front element from scratches but also makes it water and fingerprint resistant and thus easier to clean. This is a professional grade lens ready for professional use.
Tamron has elected to not include their VC (Vibration Compensation) in the 90mm Macro. That’s a departure from their last 90mm Macro (released in 2016). They are clearly banking on most Sony and Nikon shooters having a camera equipped with camera-based stabilization. I didn’t really have any issues with either my Sony a7RV or Alpha 1, and, if I had the Nikon version, I like the stabilization in my Z8 even better. The Sigma 105mm also doesn’t have stabilization, leaving the Sony 90G as the only option in the trio equipped with lens-based stabilization (though it also comes at a $400 premium over the Tamron).
Somewhat unusual for the 90mm Macro is that the aperture iris has 12 rounded blades. The intent here is for the lens to maintain a very circular shape when stopped down. Here’s a look at specular highlights with the lens stopped down to F5.6:
Minimum focus distance is 23cm, or 9.1″. That puts you fairly close to your subject, but not right on top of it. Maximum magnification is of course 1:1, or 1.0x.
Good macro lenses don’t just provide high magnification, but are corrected in order to give a very flat plane of focus. You can see from this shot that detail is good all across the frame.
Depth of field is incredibly small at this level of magnification. Even stopped down to F5.6 you can see that just the tips of these screws are in focus.
Using an even blade count like this will produce a 12 bladed sunstar.
All in all, this is a very nice package. I would have liked a dedicated AF/MF switch, but this is a lens that provides nice value for money at the MSRP of $699 USD.
Autofocus and Video
Tamron has the 90mm macro their premium focus system, which they callthe Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD). Macro lenses tend to focus slower than normal lenses of similar focal lengths due to have so many more focus possibilities in the macro range. That can be helped via using a focus limiter, but fortunately here that really isn’t necessary, as the Tamron 90mm Macro VXD lens stands out for having extremely fast autofocus for a macro lens.
I was consistently impressed by the speed and confidence of the autofocus motor. I only noticed a slowdown if I was shooting into a strongly backlit subject and with a smaller maximum aperture (pretty typical). While it is true that I will still often switch over to manual focus when shooting at macro distances, the inclusion of fast autofocus makes this a much more versatile lens for general purpose or portrait use. I was even able to snap up and catch a bird in flight.
I recognize that the image above isn’t overly inspiring, as 90mm was far from sufficient reach for that shot. But what matters is that I was able to swing up the camera in a quick reaction and immediately acquire (accurate) focus. Lenses with slower focus motors will often struggle to acquire a subject like this.
I used the lens a bit as a part of a portrait session, and saw perfect focus results with quick acquisition of the eye and accurately focused end results.
I was also able to effectively focus at close/macro distances. Using continuous AF allowed me to maneuver around to the composition I wanted and then quickly snap the shot. This is a great technique for getting handheld macro where manual focus proves much more difficult.
Focus is not only fast, but also very quiet and confident. It moved quickly and smoothly from one subject to another in my formal tests, and when testing for Eye AF, focus stayed locked solidly on the eye as I moved throughout the frame.
Video AF is likewise excellent. When I tested focus pulls, they were snappy and confident. No settling or pulsing. Focus breathing exists but not strongly.
My “hand test” where I alternately block the camera’s view with my hand and then remove the obstruction of my hand also went well. The camera moved easily from my face to my hand and vice versa.
The bottom line is that AF was pretty effortless. Tamron’s VXD is a very good focus motor, and this is one of the best focusing macro lenses that I’ve used.
Image Quality Breakdown
Tamron has been making 90mm macro lenses since 1979, so it is safe to say that they know what they’re doing at this point. The optical design is fairly complex for a prime lens with 15 elements in 12 groups, including 4 low dispersion elements. The MTF looks very good as well, with excellent center and mid-frame performance and then a natural fade into the corners.
Macro lenses tend to be very sharp lenses, and the Tamron 90mm Macro VXD is no exception. It delivers very good detail and contrast and also has excellent control of the fringing that can easily affect macro lenses.
We’ll dive into the technical side of things first with a look at vignette and distortion at 90mm F2.8:
Somewhat surprisingly, there is a bit of barrel distortion present here. Not a significant amount (+4 to manually correct on the right), but not zero. I would have expected that the distortion would be more of the pincushion variety at this focal length, too. Not a huge deal, but it will need correcting if you need perfectly straight lines. Tamron gets good profile support, fortunately. There is also a bit of vignette, though this is relatively insignificant at a +37 to correct. That’s a little over a stop, so not significant most of the time.
LoCA (Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations) present as a color fringing before and after the plane of focus. This can really impact macro lenses because they are capable of truly tiny depth of field and are often used to shoot shiny objects, like the edge of this silver dollar.
I see very minimal fringing there, which allows contrast and detail to be all the better.
I looked for lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) near the edges of the frame, where it exhibits as fringing on either side of dark lines, but see absolutely nothing. This is perfectly corrected.
Other than a bit of distortion, this is a pretty flawless performance.
Here’s my test chart that the crops will be taken from. Tests are done on a 61MP Sony a7RV and crops and comparisons are shown at 200% magnification.
Here’s a look at F2.8 crops from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner:
That’s a very strong performance across the frame, and the corners look a bit better than I expected. That’s great detail in the corners for being examined at 200% on a 61MP camera. In real world shooting results are very crisp even at macro distances (and using F2.8).
One thing important to understand about macro lenses is that physics dictate that the effective aperture will be smaller at macro distances, so even if you’ve got the aperture opened to F2.8, it will be behave more like F5.6 at very close focus distances, which is why you need a good amount of light for macro work.
At standard distances you’ll find that you have plenty of sharpness even when shooting landscapes at F2.8:
Stopping down to F4 provides an improvement to contrast and detail, though primarily in the outer mid-frame and corners, as the center is already pretty close to perfect.
There’s a slightly more noticeable uptick at F5.6 in overall contrast that is again most noticeable in the corners due to the vignette disappearing. F8 is about the same as F5.6, which is to say excellent!
As per usual you can expect a significant dropoff in sharpness after F11 due to diffraction. Minimum aperture is F16 here, and it is considerably softer than larger apertures.
Macro images show good detail and contrast even when shooting at F2.8:
I typically like to stop down a bit more when shooting macros, as you can see here that even at F5.6 depth of field is particularly small.
Bokeh is a strength for the 90mm Macro VXD lens as well. You can see that the geometry is very good here at F2.8, with circular specular highlights across the frame.
Bokeh at slightly further distances was also nice.
Colors were also very nice, with good levels of saturation.
Colors on this blossom also looks nice.
I did get a chance to shoot the stars with the lens, and coma is extremely well controlled all across the frame.
The lens hood is really deep, so I wondered if flare resistance were perhaps a problem, but I don’t see any particular issues. There is a bit of veiling and a tiny bit of ghosting, but nothing significant.
Bottom line is that this is a really lovely optical instrument that worked well for all the different types of photography that I used it for.
I had a very positive feeling about the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro VXD lens. I think it will do very, very well for Tamron. Check out the image gallery link here for more photos.
Conclusion
The Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III Macro VXD is a lens whose only surprise (to me) is that it took so long to arrive. This lens makes perfect sense, delivering faster autofocus and better image quality than any macro lens we’ve seen on Sony E mount so far. Tamron has been making macro lenses for a very long time and they are obviously very good at it. I liked pretty much everything about the 90mm Macro.
I regularly use a Laowa 90mm F2.8 Macro for my product photography on this channel, and while I like the lens, it is limited in its versatility by being manual focus only. The Tamron 90mm would be a great short telephoto lens even if didn’t have macro capabilities, but fortunately it is also an excellent macro lens.
There’s no question that it is great value at the price tag of $699 USD. There are cheaper options out there, but not that offer the combo of autofocus, optics, and build (including weather sealing) for this price. I suspect that Tamron will sell plenty of these on both Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount.
Pros:
Slightly smaller and lighter than competing lenses
Keywords: #withmytamron, Tamron, 90mm, Tamron 90mm Review, Tamron 90mm Macro, Macro, Tamron 90mm Sony, Di III, 1:1, VXD, Travel, Tamron 28-200mm, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Earlier in 2022 I revisited the Laowa 100mm F2.8 APO 2:1 Macro because when I had initially reviewed it in 2019, my review was conducted on an EF mount lens on a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and was interested in how it performed in the transition to mirrorless. I did a fresh review on the Canon EOS R5, and I found that the experience of using the lens was a lot more fun on mirrorless, and the image quality remains incredible on the high resolution 45Mp sensor of the R5. I liked the lens enough on the R5 that I ended up purchasing one. I had one significant complaint, however, and that was that the lens was much larger than it needed to be. Additional length was added to the lens barrel to accommodate the difference in the flange distance (necessary distance from sensor to optical path) as the lens was optically engineered for DSLRs. Lenses purpose designed for mirrorless have the potential to actually be smaller and lighter, but a lens designed for DSLRs has to have some space added (essentially like an adapter without glass) to have focus properly calibrated on mirrorless cameras. Laowa apparently recognized the same thing, as they are back with a new and improved lens specifically designed for mirrorless mounts in the form of the Laowa 90mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro (hereafter referred to the Laowa 90M for brevity). No, the focal lengths aren’t identical, but this lens is very similar in performance to the 100mm, but, because it was designed for mounts like Canon RF (tested here), Sony E, Leica L, or Nikon Z, it is significantly smaller and and a bit lighter, as you can see here.
I measured the RF version of the Laowa 100m at 155mm in length and 72mm in diameter. I personally weighed it at 696g. The new Laowa 90M is (by my measurement) 115mm in length, 74mm in diameter, and weighs 589g. That’s a big difference, and you aren’t really going to find a smaller and lighter macro lens on the Canon RF platform, much less one made all of metal and glass like this one. I’ll also note that I much prefer the shape of this lens to the long, skinny profile of the 100mm lens.
The Laowa 90M is a fully manual lens without any electronics. That may immediately turn many of you off, but manual focus on a macro lens is far less of a penalty than most lenses. Many macro photographers actually prefer manual focus for the great precision it affords, and I can say for the most part really, really enjoyed using the Laowa 90M on my Canon EOS R5. There are a variety of reasons, but the first thing that stands out to me is the great viewfinder and LCD screen on the R5 that makes using manual focus lenses so much more fun. A really sharp lens like the Laowa means that focus overlays (I use focus peaking in red and set on the “high” level”) show up very crisply in the high resolution viewfinder, and I found that focusing in most situations (more on that in a moment) was really, really easy. I rarely felt like I had to magnify the image at close to medium focus distances, which meant that the focus process was very organic and quick. The crisp LCD screen means that high resolution, high contrast images like this lens can produce really just pop off the screen, which made my shooting time out in the field feel very rewarding. Finally, the addition of IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) means even a manual everything lens like this gets decent stabilization (I manually input the focal length to get the best performance). Having a stabilized macro lens only adds versatility to this lens, and the Laowa RF90M is exceptionally sharp and has very high contrast due to its Apochromatic (APO) design. Apochromatic designs allow colors to be focused more accurately/consistently, resulting in much lower levels of chromatic aberrations and thus higher contrast than typical lens designs. Images from this lens really “pop”!
The Laowa 90M macro combines that apochromatic (APO) optical design (typically seen on very expensive lenses) with a 2x macro ratio of 2:1 rather than 1:1 life size. This means that while most macro lenses can only achieve this level of magnification:
…the Laowa 90M can achieve this level of magnification:
And it is no gimmick, either, as macro performance at the 2:1 ratio remains very high, as you can see.
This isn’t a perfect lens (I miss not having any electronics in the lens), but it allows for an optical performance right up there close to Zeiss Otus range, has a (mostly) excellent build, 2x magnification, and a price tag of around $500 USD. That’s a winning combination, and that price point dramatically undercuts the first party options…so this will definitely be a very tempting option for your Canon RF, Sony FE, Leica L, or Nikon Z mirrorless camera. You can get the full picture by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.
Thanks to Laowa for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.
Laowa 90M Build and Handling
Laowa lenses have always been nicely made with full metal construction. That trend continues here, with the lens made entirely of metal and glass. They’ve done a good job of balancing the weight, however, as the lens weighs in at a moderate 1.3 lb (589g) despite the heavy grade construction. The lens has a very attractive, premium look and feel to it.
The lens hood (as per usual for Laowa lenses) is the weakest part of the build, as it is very ordinary grade plastics and doesn’t bayonet on as precisely as what I like. It was even worse initially, but is improving a bit with some use.
The focus travel is quite extensive (about 210°) and while there continues to be extensive internal movement of the elements during focus, there is a definite improvement over the 100M design. Laowa took an interesting path of protecting the internal elements in the 100M by making a UV filter an actual part of the design. I have never loved this design element, and Laowa has elected to go with a more conventional design with the 90M where the front element is a part of the lens design and protects the front opening of the barrel.
This lens does not have weather sealing, but the fact that it is internally focusing and has no electronics means that there is perhaps less risk of damage, though those of you who shoot in either very moist or very dusty conditions will probably wish for weather sealing.
Minimum focus distance focus is only 20.7cm (8.14″), and when you consider than the lens takes up 13.5cm of that (there’s some extra length as that MFD is measured from the sensor of the camera), that leaves only about 7cm of distance to work with. The hood would take up about 6cm of that, so you’ll definitely want to remove it when working at 2x magnification levels. Here’s a look at the amount of magnification from my test chart subject (test chart shown a little later on) that you get at 2:1:
It’s worth noting that the laws of physics dictate that light transmission at close focus distances diminishes (effective aperture changes), and that’s even more obvious with the additional magnification of the Laowa 90M. Put simply, the image will get darker when you focus closer (think 2-3 stops). Very high magnification requires good light, so bear that in mind when doing serious macro work.
There is a manual aperture ring here with light detents at the full stops and a lot of room in between the early stops for selecting a partial stop. Unlike the 100M in mirrorless guise, the aperture ring is in a much better location near the lens mount where you are less likely to inadvertently grab it.
The wide manual focus ring that is finely ribbed in metal. It moves smoother than the 100M and has a longer focus throw (one of my complaints about the 100M). I found getting precision focus at distances other than macro easier on the 90M than the 100M. Laowa is paying attention to the details here, and the byproduct is a more usable lens.
I found that focus was pretty simple at most distances, and it was only at landscape differences that I felt like I needed to double-check focus by magnifying the image, as I did see some false positives from focus peaking and the fact that a little adjustment makes for a big change at longer distances. The lens has a lovely feel for doing video focus pulls, with a nicely damped focus action that produces easily repeatable results. As with most macro lenses, there is some very obvious focus breathing at close distances.
We get a very high aperture blade count of 13 blades in the aperture iris, and that helps maintain a beautifully circular shape even when stopped down. The aperture makes for a fine photo subject itself (shot here with the Laowa 100M):
The lens has a distinctive blue accent ring at the front of the lens, a 67mm front filter threading, and a lovely anodized metal finish that looks premium. I like the sculpted profile that flares out to the focus ring (making it nice to touch ergonomically), and the high contrast etched distance markings and aperture values make this feel like a premium lens.
The Laowa 90M has build quality that punches way over its price point of $499 USD. I’d like to see weather sealing, but that might be quibbling. I also would really like to see Laowa find a way to include electronic contacts on their lenses in the future so that basic EXIF information can be communicated. I found some disappointing shortcomings on the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS (along with its $1400 price) that make the Laowa a very intriguing alternative.
Laowa RF90M Image Quality
Image quality is often an area of strength for an APO (Apochromatic) lens, and that’s true of the Laowa 90M. A lens with an Apochromatic design has better correction of chromatic and spherical aberration than the much more common achromat lenses. Put simply, most lenses struggle with the fact that colors don’t always focus at the same distance, which results in green or purple (red) fringing due to the fact that those colors aren’t focusing on the same plane of focus. Whereas most lenses are corrected for two color wavelengths (typically red and blue), an apochromatic lens is able to bring three color wavelengths into focus on the same focus plane. This produces a near absence of chromatic aberrations and allows for higher contrast and a near absence of the veiling (lack of contrast) that produces “soft” images. True apochromatic lenses tend to be very sharp and very contrasty. They also are corrected for spherical aberrations on two wavelengths rather than one. I owned some excellent APO lenses, including the Zeiss Milvus 135mm F2 and the Voigtländer 65mm F2, and I’ve tested a number of other ones. Images with amazing “pop” like this are something I come to expect from lenses like this.
There is typically only one downside to APO lenses, and that is the intense contrast and lack of chromatic aberrations can have the negative impact of more hard edges in the bokeh (defocused) areas of the image. Some of the best “bokeh lenses” are those with some uncorrected aberrations, which help produce a softer, creamier defocused area. The trend generally remains true here, though frankly this lens is better than many in that way. This is the busiest I could get of the bokeh.
The transition zone there is fairly busy, but if I move a little closer, everything looks very creamy:
We’ll circle back to the bokeh with more shots in a moment, but let’s break down some of the optical performance. We’ll start with vignette and distortion.
There’s little to see on the distortion front. I had nothing to correct for in terms of distortion (the 100mm had just the mildest amount of pincushion distortion: -2 to correct for manually). Vignette was also less Vignette was a little heavier, requiring only a +33 (vs +62) to correct it. The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS had a minor amount of distortion and just a tiny bit more vignette – largely similar.
The advantage of an Apochromatic design for macro work is obvious if we look at a macro shot of some shiny surfaces. You can see that the Laowa’s APO design is completely free of any fringing, leaving very neutral textures, bokeh without any fringing outlining, and extremely high contrast. These are very shiny, reflective surfaces on an old Pentax Spotmatic, and this is definitely a place where you’d often see fringing.
There’s also no fringing to be seen in these bokeh circles created by dew with the morning light shining through them.
I also saw no evidence of any lateral chromatic aberrations in any of my test photos, though I would have been shocked to have found any from this lens. Edges of the image are nice and clean:
So how about sharpness? Here’s a look at my chart globally at F2.8, taken with the 45MP Canon EOS R5:
And here are the F2.8 crops at nearly 200% magnification, taken from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
What I see is fantastic center sharpness, excellent midframe sharpness, and good extreme corner performance.
So, how does that compare to the 100m? In the center of the frame, it is hard to pick a winner, though I do think the Laowa 90M shows a little more contrast and resolution (which shows up in part as the false-color moiré pattern on the ship’s prow).
Move out to the midframe, however, and I think the 90M is the easy winner:
The two lenses are mostly similar in the corners at F2.8. If you stop down a bit (F5.6), the two lenses are largely indistinguishable, though as I look across the frame I give a minor edge to the 90M for consistency (and excellence). It is not a major difference, but there is some optical improvement (at least in the two copies I’ve tested).
If you examine the image from the Laowa 90M at F5.6 the contrast and resolution all across the frame shows just enough improvement to be at exceptional levels.
Minimum aperture is F22, though I would avoid F16 and smaller if possible because the effects of diffraction really soften the image. Your peak apertures will be F2.8-F11.
These Laowa macros are no “paper tigers” either. They look even sharper in real world images due to the APO design and the elimination of aberrations. I just love the “pop” and clarity of this image of spring tulips on the table. You can see how the colors really stand out due to the exceptional contrast.
Or how about the detail on this opening freesia blossom?
Step back a few feet, and the detail is just as striking on these beech leaves above.
I love this 2x macro image where I’ve shot through the “clocks” of a dandelion to the pod inside.
My point is that macro is fun (ordinary things look extraordinary at a macro level), and that the Laowa 90M has some of the best image quality you are going to find at this price point.
You’ll also get amazing landscape images due to that intense contrast.
I sometimes complain about Laowa colors on their wide angle lenses being a little “flat” for my tastes, but that hasn’t been the case with their telephoto lenses. I’ve liked the color from the 105mm F2 Transfocus lens, the 1oomm lens, the 65mm F2 Macro, and this 90mm lens as well. I find that Apochromatic lenses produce really intriguing color because of the deep contrast levels, and so images look great:
That punch also gives images a three-dimensional feel, where the subject really stands out against the background.
You’ve probably noticed from these images that the bokeh is actually pretty nice from the lens, and you can get close enough to subjects to REALLY make the background disappear…even if they are just a few centimeters away.
At a little further distance there is some potential for some busyness, but it still isn’t bad.
Like the 100mm macro, the Laowa 90M isn’t entirely flare resistant. I have found that the real world flare artifacts are more artistic here, though, including some interesting veiling with the sun coming through the leaves here:
Or how about this interesting prismatic effect from the sun filtering down into the frame?
I found these random flare pops my least favorite, but I wouldn’t call them a deal breaker either.
I rarely point telephotos right at the sun, but pay attention to your composition so that you get the good and not the bad!
All in all, however, this lens is an amazing optical performer for the price. There are few lenses that deliver better results on a technical level, and I found that I had more “standout” images than in my typical review catalog for a lens. This is a winner! If you would like to see more images, check out my image gallery here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’m delighted with the Laowa 90mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro. While it is very similar in many ways to the 100mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro, there are a variety of subtle improvements that address my main critiques of that lens. This includes a more compact lens due to being purposefully designed for mirrorless (along with a more pleasing shape), a fixed front element (instead of an added filter), a longer focus throw, and a slightly better feeling focus ring. I enjoyed using the 100M; I like using the 90M even more. I also feel like it has a few minor optical upgrades, and it delivered image after image that I really loved.
And, as a macro lens, it’s additional degree of magnification allows you to do things that lesser lenses cannot. 2:1 macro is MUCH closer than 1:1 macro, which unlocks an extra level of creativity, and that Apochromatic design allows you to shoot shiny metal textures without fear of chromatic aberrations destroying the image.
When you look at the price tag (about $500 USD) relative to the competing lenses, the Laowa really starts to feel like a great value, particularly if you tend to do your macro work utilizing manual focus anyway. This is a top notch value lens, and should be near the top of your macro list if you own a Canon, Sony, Nikon, or Leica mirrorless body.
Pros:
Nice build quality in general
Apochromatic design at a low price
Twice the magnification of most competing macro lenses
Good contrast
Excellent chromatic aberration control
Colors have great punch
Excellent, consistent optical performance across the frame
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Earlier in 2022 I revisited the Laowa 100mm F2.8 APO 2:1 Macro because when I had initially reviewed it in 2019, my review was conducted on an EF mount lens on a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and was interested in how it performed in the transition to mirrorless. I did a fresh review on the Canon EOS R5, and I found that the experience of using the lens was a lot more fun on mirrorless, and the image quality remains incredible on the high resolution 45Mp sensor of the R5. I liked the lens enough on the R5 that I ended up purchasing one. I had one significant complaint, however, and that was that the lens was much larger than it needed to be. Additional length was added to the lens barrel to accommodate the difference in the flange distance (necessary distance from sensor to optical path) as the lens was optically engineered for DSLRs. Lenses purpose designed for mirrorless have the potential to actually be smaller and lighter, but a lens designed for DSLRs has to have some space added (essentially like an adapter without glass) to have focus properly calibrated on mirrorless cameras. Laowa apparently recognized the same thing, as they are back with a new and improved lens specifically designed for mirrorless mounts in the form of the Laowa 90mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro. No, the focal lengths aren’t identical, but this lens is very similar in performance to the 100mm, but, because it was designed for mounts like Canon RF (tested here), Sony E, Leica L, or Nikon Z, it is significantly smaller and and a bit lighter, as you can see here.
I measured the RF version of the Laowa 100m at 155mm in length and 72mm in diameter. I personally weighed it at 696g. The new Laowa APO 90mm macro is (by my measurement) 115mm in length, 74mm in diameter, and weighs 589g. That’s a big difference, and you aren’t really going to find a smaller and lighter macro lens on the Canon RF platform, much less one made all of metal and glass like this one. I’ll also note that I much prefer the shape of this lens to the long, skinny profile of the 100mm lens.
The Laowa APO 90mm is a fully manual lens without any electronics. That may immediately turn many of you off, but manual focus on a macro lens is far less of a penalty than most lenses. Many macro photographers actually prefer manual focus for the great precision it affords, and I can say for the most part really, really enjoyed using the Laowa 90M on my Canon EOS R5. There are a variety of reasons, but the first thing that stands out to me is the great viewfinder and LCD screen on the R5 that makes using manual focus lenses so much more fun. A really sharp lens like the Laowa means that focus overlays (I use focus peaking in red and set on the “high” level”) show up very crisply in the high resolution viewfinder, and I found that focusing in most situations (more on that in a moment) was really, really easy. I rarely felt like I had to magnify the image at close to medium focus distances, which meant that the focus process was very organic and quick. The crisp LCD screen means that high resolution, high contrast images like this lens can produce really just pop off the screen, which made my shooting time out in the field feel very rewarding. Finally, the addition of IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) means even a manual everything lens like this gets decent stabilization (I manually input the focal length to get the best performance). Having a stabilized macro lens only adds versatility to this lens, and the Laowa APO 90mm is exceptionally sharp and has very high contrast due to its Apochromatic (APO) design. Apochromatic designs allow colors to be focused more accurately/consistently, resulting in much lower levels of chromatic aberrations and thus higher contrast than typical lens designs. Images from this lens really “pop”!
The Laowa 90M macro combines that apochromatic (APO) optical design (typically seen on very expensive lenses) with a 2x macro ratio of 2:1 rather than 1:1 life size. This means that while most macro lenses can only achieve this level of magnification:
…the Laowa 90M can achieve this level of magnification:
And it is no gimmick, either, as macro performance at the 2:1 ratio remains very high, as you can see.
This isn’t a perfect lens (I miss not having any electronics in the lens), but it allows for an optical performance right up there close to Zeiss Otus range, has a (mostly) excellent build, 2x magnification, and a price tag of around $500 USD. That’s a winning combination, and that price point dramatically undercuts the first party options…so this will definitely be a very tempting option for your Canon RF, Sony FE, Leica L, or Nikon Z mirrorless camera. You can get the full picture by either watching my video review below or reading my text review here…or just enjoy the photos below!
Thanks to Laowa for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Over the past two years Sigma has easily been the most prolific lens developer on Sony FE and Leica L. We went from no full frame options from Sigma on Sony’s mirrorless platform two years ago to some 25 lenses just a few years later. Sigma’s DN lineup (their designation for mirrorless) revolution has been nothing short of startling, and we now have everything from ultra-wide angle to extreme telephoto, with both zooms and primes throughout a lot of that range (save long telephoto primes). Sigma’s releases have been so heavy that they have often come in bunches, with multiple lenses announced and released side by side. The most recent pair of lenses is the Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN that I’m reviewing today and the Sigma 24mm F2 DG DN, which I reviewed here. These lenses are a part of Sigma’s “iSeries”, a new lineup they debuted in late 2019. These include the Sigma 45mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), 24mm F3.5 DN (my review here), 35mm F2 DG DN (my review here), 65mm F2 DG DN (my review here), and then these most recent two. While Sigma’s marketing language for the iSeries is typical marketing silliness, the premise for the series is sound. Sigma has recognized that there are multiple segments within the mirrorless market, and they have two different priorities. One group wants maximum performance in aperture and optics, and these are served by Sigma’s larger ART series, but there is a secondary market who bought into the mirrorless vision of smaller and lighter while retaining the performance. This second group is the target audience for the iSeries. The iSeries lenses are beautiful crafted, very tactile, but are also much smaller and lighter than more premium lenses. I’m a fan of the premise, myself, and have liked most of the iSeries lenses quite a bit. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle of the i90 (as we’ll call it for brevity) have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
This new 90mm lens is very intriguing to me for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the nature of the focal length itself. Both Sigma and Samyang have developed lineups of compact lenses, and Sony has some as well, but the longest focal length in Samyang’s “tiny series”, for example, is 75mm. There are probably some 15 compact, high performing autofocus lenses under 75mm on Sony, but none over 75mm…until now. Typically to get 90mm and F2.8 you are either looking at a macro lens (like Sony’s excellent 90mm F2.8 G Macro) or a zoom lens like Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM or Tamron’s 70-180mm F2.8 VXD. All such lenses are comparatively huge, however, and so getting that very useful focal length in a little lens that is less than 62mm long and weighs only 295g is a very welcome proposition. Even the Sony 90G is more than twice as long and over twice as heavy! Being able to pack along some actual reach in a tiny package is a very interesting idea.
The second reason why I’m intrigued by the i90 is that when I first started testing Sony APS-C gear (starting with the a6300), I tested Sigma’s first DN lenses, which were an original trio of 3 F2.8 compact primes that were only designed for APS-C. They are now discontinued mostly due to an outdated autofocus design that introduced limitations to available focus areas, but they were optically sound. One of those lenses was a 60mm F2.8, which, when you account for Sony’s 1.5x APS-C crop, delivers an angle of view equivalent to 90mm on full frame. In other words, a little lens very like this one. I always thought that 60mm F2.8 had very nice rendering and a very useful focal length, so I’m also intrigued by a spiritual successor to that lens on full frame…but without all the limitations of that older lens.
As has frequently been the case with this series, I think that Sigma has managed to strike a nice balance between a high quality rendering along with excellent sharpness. This isn’t a cold, sterile lens, but rather one with some character despite being well corrected. The only lens in the series that I didn’t love the optical performance of was the 45mm F2.8, but by and large I’ve found this series consistently excellent. That’s very true here; this is an extremely high performing lens that I really enjoyed using, and the price point of $639 USD will be well worth it to some and a hard sell for others (people have a hard time getting excited over a prime lens with a maximum aperture of F2.8). Read on if you want all the details, or, if you prefer to watch reviews, you can choose either the long-format definitive review or the shorter standard review.
Thank you to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for getting me pre-release loaners of the 24mm and 90mm lenses. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own.
Sigma i90 Build, Design and Handling
The “i-series” is a hit to me when it comes to build. I love the all-metal construction, attention to detail, and beautiful handling. Sigma has very intentionally crafted another lens that is as pleasing to hold and use as the photos it can produce, and that’s a winning philosophy to me. This is an incredibly compact lens at only 64mm in diameter (resulting in a 55mm filter thread) and a length of 61.7mm. Whenever the diameter of a lens is larger than the length, you know you have a pretty compact design! You can see from this photo that the Sigma i90 (right) is a fair bit shorter even than the compact Samyang AF 75mm F1.8 (my review here).
A quick word on filter size. Sigma has consolidated the F2.8 lenses in the iSeries around a 55mm filter size, which is welcome, though the F2 lenses have multiple filter sizes (none of the 55mm), which means that even among the iSeries (six lenses) there are a variety of filter sizes. That’s a bit of a pain, obviously, though there are also downsides to Tamron’s approach of trying to design all of its FE lenses around a common filter size.
As per usual, I’ll a little perplexed as to why Sigma has chosen to position the i-Series lenses under the Global Vision division of “Contemporary”. Typically the lenses branded Contemporary carry Sigma’s lowest level of build, with Sport lenses given the most robust while Art lenses land in the middle. The build of the i-Series, however, is arguably nicer than that of the ART series, and every bit as nice as the Sport lenses (though designed for different purposes). In many ways these i-Series lenses remind me of two things: 1) classic lenses like the SMC Takumar lenses (which I own about 5 of), and part of why I love them is their beautiful timeless construction that is all metal and glass – and – 2) cine lenses where the aperture and focus rings are raised rather than flush with the barrel and have wider, deeper ribs that accommodate gearing (something that cinematographers often do but stills photographers almost never do). We’ve got a similar design element in the i-Series.
Forget engineered plastics; the Sigma i90 is made all of metal alloys, with even the hood made of metal. The lens hood itself is a beautifully crafted piece with a great tactile feel to the metal and ribbing, and it has an added practical value that there is plenty of grip friction due to the ribbing that makes it easy to remove.
The only downside here is that the hood is quite large (this is a telephoto lens, after all!). The lens hood is about two-thirds the length of the lens itself, which means that the compact nature of the lens is masked when the lens hood is attached. I do appreciate that the hood doesn’t looked “tacked on”, however, and to me the lens looks completed with the lens hood in place because the design language of the lens carries on into the lens hood. There’s a nice “flow” to the design.
Sigma has adopted the inclusion of an aperture ring on many of their DN series lenses (DN indicates that the lenses is designed specifically for mirrorless, while DG designates that the lens is designed for full frame cameras). It works just like Sony G Master lenses where one has the option of selecting A (Automatic) and controlling aperture from within the camera like most lenses, but then one can also manually select aperture in one-third stop detents. There is a nice extra bit of friction between the A position and the manual section which will help avoid any inadvertent bumping between the two choices. The aperture ring (like everything on the lens) is beautifully engineered, and has very precise, definite movement and feel for each of the detents. Some people question the necessity of an aperture ring (particularly one that cannot be declicked for video aperture racking), but I can say for myself that I personally strongly prefer to have an aperture ring even for stills. I find it helps me to be more intentional about the use of aperture and plan in advance for what aperture will best suit my shot.
Another solid addition is the AF/MF switch on the side of the barrel. This is something that many mirrorless lenses lack, but I still find an actual physical switch the quickest and easiest way to move between autofocus and manual focus. The F2 lenses have had the AF/MF switch is mounted transversely, which fits better in the space allotted on these compact lenses. On the F2.8 lenses the switch has been mounted in the typical horizontal position, and I find that the tight squeeze along with the raised aperture ring nearby make using the switch a little tougher (particularly when wearing gloves). A subtle positive touch here is that the paint exposed when in AF is white, while the exposed paint when in MF mode is black. It’s a quick visual clue.
There is also a manual focus ring. The focus ring, like the aperture ring, is a “by-wire” system, meaning that input on either the focus ring or the aperture ring is electronically communicated rather than through a direct mechanical coupling. This means that input on the focus ring or the aperture ring will not create any physical changes unless the lens is attached to a camera and powered on. The focus ring has a nice feel to it, and Sigma has done a good job emulating traditional manual focus.
Like most of the iSeries lenses, Sigma is leveraging the all-metal construction to give consumers an option when it comes to the front lens cap. There is a traditional pinch-style plastic lens cap included, but the lens also ships with a magnetic cap that pops easily into place. I find that it works better if you are using the lens without the hood, as reaching in to remove it with the hood fixed is a bit difficult. They are also selling an inexpensive lanyard that clips onto a strap or backpack and gives you a place to magnetically attach the lens cap when not using it. With both pieces in play, it becomes a quick, easy process to pop the magnetic cap on and off and attach it to the lanyard holder. Perhaps not for everyone, but the fact that Sigma has included the two caps does give you as a consumer a choice. I like choice!
The lens does have a weather sealing gasket, though there are no other internal seals in the lens. There is no image stabilization (though next to no prime lenses do, so I don’t exactly look for it). You’ll have to rely on IBIS if your camera is so equipped.
The aperture iris has nine rounded aperture blades, and this helps keep the aperture shape fairly circular when stopped down.
You can see that there is a bit of the typical geometric deformation (cat eye effect) towards the edge of the frame.
Minimum focus distance here is 50cm or 1.64 feet. This gives you a magnification ratio of 1:5, or 0.20x. Here’s what MFD looks like:
That longer focal length along with a decent magnification ratio allows for some interesting shallow depth of field shots like this one:
I always love the flexibility to get these types of shots, as they tend to be among my favorite types of photography. I do think that contrast is a little lower up close, but moving back just a few centimeters allowed for better contrast while retaining the shallow depth of field.
It’s worth noting that this is also a very intriguing lens if you shoot APS-C. When you apply Sony’s 1.5x crop factor, you end up with the very popular 135mm focal length, and the lens is compact enough to be a very natural fit there. I got some very nice images when throwing it on my a6600.
I’m a fan of the iSeries design formula, and the i90 is no exception. It feels beautiful in the hands, and both the aperture and manual focus rings move nicely. I really compact lenses that are also well-made and high performing, as they tend to be the lenses that I reach for most often. There’s a practical value to a lens you can easily bring along that is unmatched by the massive, heavy lenses that Sigma often produces, so I guess I’m in the target group for the iSeries!
Sigma 90mm F2.8 DN Autofocus Performance
The Sigma i90 utilizes a stepping focus motor that makes fast, quiet focus changes. If you watch the video review you can see/hear the focus motor during focus changes in video. It’s mostly good news here. My assistant, Craig, focuses on the video side of things, and he noticed that focus pulls tended to be abrupt once the camera/lens decided on a new subject, so manual focus pulls remain the best way to have smooth transitions. The upside is that there is basically no noise during focus changes, and I saw no evidence of pulsing or settling. Once a subject is locked, the focus stays present and accurate.
One negative for video is that there is definitely some evidence of focus breathing, where the size of the subject changes relative to its focus position.
My stills focus accuracy was overall very good, though with a few minor exceptions that I’ll detail. A wide open shot like this shows both excellent focus along with the exceptional detail from the lens optically (and also some nice bokeh!):
My tests of Eye AF tracking of humans whether in video or in stills proved very good.
Interestingly, though, I got a bit of a mixed bag with animal Eye AF. On both my Alpha 1 and a6600 I got a few shots of Loki where autofocus got distracted by a foreground object and gave me a front focused result.
Most of the time, however, Eye AF nailed focus and delivered highly detailed results, like this shot from the a6600:
I only bring this up because it is unusual in my recent experience, as Eye AF typically works pretty flawlessly and I was surprised by the misses. A firmware tweak would probably help iron out any remaining kinks.
My general purpose accuracy was very good, though. I got a lot of well focused results in a variety of lighting conditions.
Sigma i90 Image Quality
So how about the image quality. Can this compact lens deliver? There are 11 elements in 10 groups, with more than half of them being special elements （SLD 5, Aspherical lens 1). The i90 is capable of producing excellent, highly detailed results with good color and contrast even on a very high resolution (50MP) Sony Alpha 1:
All chart tests done with a Sony Alpha 1 (50 MP) using a tripod and a two second timer.
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette.
That strong pincushion distortion immediately reminds me of the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN. I don’t like it (and criticized it in my review), but I ended up buying the 85mm F1.4 DN myself and have learned to live with it because all of the other strengths of the lens more than compensate. I think the same is true here, but I had to use a -11 to correct the distortion as you can see above. Fortunately the distortion was nice and linear and corrected fine manually. The same applied to the vignette, which is about 1 1/2-2 stops in the corners and took a +48 to correct. Sigma gets quality support in camera on Sony for JPEG files and video, and RAW files will be corrected a little more cleanly for both metrics when the standard profile shows up in Adobe and other editing software.
You probably won’t notice the distortion in many shots, but if you happen to have straight lines near the edges of the frame you will see it, like in this shot:
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations didn’t present a problem, either. I saw little evidence of fringing in my real world shots, including in this shot of glasses in the lobby bar of the Chateau Montebello. Reflective glass has a lot of opportunity for fringing, but I didn’t see any here or in other real world shots.
Lateral chromatic aberrations exhibit primarily along the edges of images and on either side of transition areas, like the black and white transitions on my test chart. I see little evidence of them here.
So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart:
And here are the crops from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F2.8. Contrast and resolution are excellent across the frame, with a nice, strong performance everywhere I look.
I was also pleased with the centering of the lens, as it looked equally good in all four corners.
I like to have some kind of comparison point for context, but, as I’ve said, there really isn’t many lenses like this one. The closest comparison I have on hand is the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8, a very strong little lens optically. Obviously the Samyang has the advantage of having a much larger maximum aperture, but if you stop the Samyang down to F2.8 and compare the two, they are more similar than different. The Samyang has a bit of an edge in the center and midframe, though it is marginal, while the Sigma is a little better in the corners. The Samyang has less distortion, but exhibits some lateral chromatic aberration that is very well controlled on the Sigma. In short, the i90 compares positively to a lens I consider to be very good optically. All good news for such a compact lens.
In real world shots I was happy with the amount of detail I could get from the lens:
That’s a lot of detail on a 50 MP sensor.
Stopping down to F4 provides a surprisingly large contrast boost that allows the details to just pop. By F4 everything across the frame could only be called excellent. You can see the moiré pattern created in the textures due to such high resolution and contrast.
Shoot the i90 at smaller apertures and you will be rewarded with extremely sharp images all across the frame. This shot of a beautiful door at F6.3 shows fabulous detail across the frame, including the final crop, which is from the extreme bottom left.
Minimum aperture is F22, but diffraction really limits contrast by that point, so I wouldn’t recommend shooting at minimum aperture unless absolutely necessary.
F2.8 isn’t a large aperture, but when you combine it with a 90mm focal length, you have the potential for a nice bokeh rendering. This shot has a nice transition to defocus, for example:
Here, too, things look quite good:
Getting close allows you to have very nice subject isolation.
I wouldn’t call this a top tier “bokeh maker”, but I thought images had a nice blend of sharpness and bokeh.
Flare is a bit of a mixed bag. There are definitely some flare artifacts and minor ghosting blobs that show up depending on the position of the sun, and you will have some veiling (loss of contrast) if its in a certain spot, like here:
Just a slight recomposition results in a completely different result:
I found the flaring fairly artistic, but that is a matter of taste. If you don’t like it, be sure to use the hood and be careful with your composition.
I had fun with the lens at night, too, though you’ll obviously want a camera with in body stabilization if you use it in lower light conditions.
There are a few minor hiccups there (most obviously the distortion), but the sum total of the performance is very nice…particularly when you consider how compact the lens is. You can see more photos by checking out the lens image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN is a welcome addition to the iSeries and to Sigma’s mirrorless lineup in general. There has been a bonanza of great lenses released on Sony over the past few years, and in some cases (like Sigma’s recent 24mm F2 release), there is somewhat of an oversaturation of choices at a certain focal length. But part of what I really like about the i90 is its uniqueness. There really aren’t many direct alternatives to this lens, and definitely none at this size. Having a very compact medium telephoto option is a desirable one.
The list of shortcomings here is brief, with my primary objection really being the stronger distortion. But the list of strengths is long, with beautiful build, good autofocus, and a very pleasing optical performance. This would make a great travel portrait lens or even a landscape option to compress landscapes a bit more. It also does a nice job of defocusing the background if you get reasonably close to your subject.
On the video front, I have found this to be a very nice lens if you want to capture a speaker in a church or medium sized auditorium. The framing is nice, and it seems to reliably track the speaker’s face without any hunting or distracting pulses. I also found that the lens often made it into my bag when I was going out with a wider focal length as my primary option. Having a telephoto perspective easily packed in a jacket or bag is going to make this lens a tempting option if you can look past this being a 90mm prime with only an F2.8 aperture. F2.8 at 90mm really is enough in many situations. The price tag of $639 USD seems reasonable enough when you consider how nicely built the lens is and how strong it is optically, though very small lenses with somewhat smaller apertures are a little harder sell for some buyers. If you do buy this lens, I suspect it will be one that you reach for often. It takes nice pictures, packs easily, and is light enough that you can bring it along without thinking much about it. This is a happy addition to Sigma’s iSeries, and, I suspect, a happy addition for those whose vision of mirrorless is small and light.
Pros:
Beautiful, feature rich construction
Includes some weather sealing
Fast, quiet autofocus
CA is well controlled
Excellent sharpness and contrast across the frame even wide open
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sigma 90mm F2.8, Sigma 90mm DN, i90, Sigma 90 F2.8 DN, Sigma 90 F2.8, Sigma 90mm F2.8 Review, DN, DG, F2.8, 90mm, Sigma, iSeries, Wide Angle, Sony, Leica, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a7R3, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony a6600
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Over the past two years Sigma has easily been the most prolific lens developer on Sony FE and Leica L. We went from no full frame options from Sigma on Sony’s mirrorless platform two years ago to some 25 lenses just a few years later. Sigma’s DN lineup (their designation for mirrorless) revolution has been nothing short of startling, and we now have everything from ultra-wide angle to extreme telephoto, with both zooms and primes throughout a lot of that range (save long telephoto primes). Sigma’s releases have been so heavy that they have often come in bunches, with multiple lenses announced and released side by side. The most recent pair of lenses is the Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN that I’m reviewing today and the Sigma 24mm F2 DG DN, which I reviewed here. These lenses are a part of Sigma’s “iSeries”, a new lineup they debuted in late 2019. These include the Sigma 45mm F2.8 DN lens (my review here), 24mm F3.5 DN (my review here), 35mm F2 DG DN (my review here), 65mm F2 DG DN (my review here), and then these most recent two. While Sigma’s marketing language for the iSeries is typical marketing silliness, the premise for the series is sound. Sigma has recognized that there are multiple segments within the mirrorless market, and they have two different priorities. One group wants maximum performance in aperture and optics, and these are served by Sigma’s larger ART series, but there is a secondary market who bought into the mirrorless vision of smaller and lighter while retaining the performance. This second group is the target audience for the iSeries. The iSeries lenses are beautiful crafted, very tactile, but are also much smaller and lighter than more premium lenses. I’m a fan of the premise, myself, and have liked most of the iSeries lenses quite a bit. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle of the i90 (as we’ll call it for brevity) have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
This new 90mm lens is very intriguing to me for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the nature of the focal length itself. Both Sigma and Samyang have developed lineups of compact lenses, and Sony has some as well, but the longest focal length in Samyang’s “tiny series”, for example, is 75mm. There are probably some 15 compact, high performing autofocus lenses under 75mm on Sony, but none over 75mm…until now. Typically to get 90mm and F2.8 you are either looking at a macro lens (like Sony’s excellent 90mm F2.8 G Macro) or a zoom lens like Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM or Tamron’s 70-180mm F2.8 VXD. All such lenses are comparatively huge, however, and so getting that very useful focal length in a little lens that is less than 62mm long and weighs only 295g is a very welcome proposition. Even the Sony 90G is more than twice as long and over twice as heavy! Being able to pack along some actual reach in a tiny package is a very interesting idea.
The second reason why I’m intrigued by the i90 is that when I first started testing Sony APS-C gear (starting with the a6300), I tested Sigma’s first DN lenses, which were an original trio of 3 F2.8 compact primes that were only designed for APS-C. They are now discontinued mostly due to an outdated autofocus design that introduced limitations to available focus areas, but they were optically sound. One of those lenses was a 60mm F2.8, which, when you account for Sony’s 1.5x APS-C crop, delivers an angle of view equivalent to 90mm on full frame. In other words, a little lens very like this one. I always thought that 60mm F2.8 had very nice rendering and a very useful focal length, so I’m also intrigued by a spiritual successor to that lens on full frame…but without all the limitations of that older lens.
As has frequently been the case with this series, I think that Sigma has managed to strike a nice balance between a high quality rendering along with excellent sharpness. This isn’t a cold, sterile lens, but rather one with some character despite being well corrected. The only lens in the series that I didn’t love the optical performance of was the 45mm F2.8, but by and large I’ve found this series consistently excellent. That’s very true here; this is an extremely high performing lens that I really enjoyed using, and the price point of $639 USD will be well worth it to some and a hard sell for others (people have a hard time getting excited over a prime lens with a maximum aperture of F2.8). You can find my thoughts in my text or video reviews, or just enjoy the photos below.
Thank you to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for getting me pre-release loaners of the 24mm and 90mm lenses. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own.
Photos of the Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN
Photos taken with the Sigma 90mm F2.8 DN (Alpha 1 + a6600)
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sigma 90mm F2.8, Sigma 90mm DN, i90, Sigma 90 F2.8 DN, Sigma 90 F2.8, Sigma 90mm F2.8 Review, DN, DG, F2.8, 90mm, Sigma, iSeries, Wide Angle, Sony, Leica, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a7R3, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony a6600
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I only began to review Sony products in 2017, and my focus has primarily been upon the newer cameras and lenses released since that point, so I barely missed the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, which was released just a few months before I started to cover Sony. The 90G Macro (as we’ll call it for brevity in this review) was announced in May of 2017, and remains one of the few first party macro lenses on Sony FE (full frame mirrorless). The other option is the Sony FE 50mm F2.8 Macro, a lens with a lower price point but much more uneven reputation. There have now been a few third party macro options on FE (most of them manual focus), so this remains an arena that is pretty much dominated by the 90G Macro, as it has an excellent reputation for performance and, while expensive (nearly $1100 USD), it isn’t so expensive as to be completely out of the reach of many photographers.
A macro lens is rarely a photographer’s first lens, and probably not even statistically likely to be their first prime (that’s often something like a 50mm F1.8), but I consider a macro lens around this focal length to be an excellent third lens choice. If a person has a kit of prime lenses, something like a 24mm or 35mm lens on the wide end and 135mm on the telephoto end can be augmented by a macro lens around 90mm. A macro lens is also a nice compliment to 24-70mm and 70-200mm zoom lenses, allowing one to add the fascinating world of macro to their options. Some macro lenses are more specialist tools, either manual focus or with very slow autofocus (Sigma’s 70mm F2.8 Macro ART is a bit like this), but others (like the Sony 90G Macro), are very versatile prime lenses that can do a lot of other things besides macro work quite well.
A lens like the Sony 90G Macro combines very high sharpness with nice bokeh, quick autofocus, and a quality build, making it also a nice option for portraits, general purpose, events, or even landscape work. I’ve often recommended such a lens to photographers with a limited budget over an 85mm prime for the versatility that it brings. It can often be almost as good for portraits while also giving a person macro options. Adding an optical stabilizer to the equation only adds to that versatility.
We will explore if the Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS is a lens that you should consider for yourself in this review. If you prefer to watch your reviews, I’ve got both a standard length and definitive (long format) video review available. Just click the appropriate thumbnail below.
Thanks to Sony Canada (and Gentec, their distributor) for the loaner of this lens. I’ve reviewed the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro OSS on my Sony a7RIII and Sony a9 bodies.
The release of the 90mm Macro falls in a time of transition for Sony’s lens design. The Zeiss partnership was diminishing, and with it the Zeiss branding on Sony’s better lenses. It has some of the newer Sony features like the Focus Hold button on the side of the barrel, but doesn’t have a manual aperture ring like we see on most of the GM lenses and even some of the more recent G branded lenses.
Perhaps the most unique design feature is when it comes to the AF/MF option and focus ring. It employs a clutch mechanism that I’ve not seen for a long time…and was something I saw almost exclusively with Tokina lenses. My first reaction was that it felt a bit dated, but that was before I used it in the field and decided to manually focus for the first time. At that point I realized that this design was in fact a stroke of genius, as it effectively solved one of the greatest problems with mirrorless lenses.
Typically mirrorless lenses employ a “focus-by-wire” manual focus system where input from the focus ring is routed through the focus motor(s). At its worst, it is a numb experience with lag between input on the focus ring and the actual movement of the elements by the focus motors. It often lacks “repeatability”, as there are no clearly defined focus points that you can prefocus to or quickly return to as a frame of reference, and the focus ring can spin indefinitely without any hard stops at either extreme. At its best, it is still an emulation of true mechanical manual focus and still has some of those limitations, though with better feel and no input lag. What I’ve never seen, however, is a focus-by-wire system that compares with the focus experience of a well-executed manual focus lens.
Sony has cleverly solved this problem by using the clutch system which allows one to fully switch between the autofocus system (more on that in a moment) but then switch to a fully manual experience (a mechanical manual focus ring). The focus ring feels great, with smooth focus action, perfect damping, defined distance markings, and hard stops at minimum focus (0.28m) and infinity. There’s about 165 degrees of focus throw with most of the throw (appropriately) between MFD and one meter. There’s little reason to employ manual focus for the rest of the focus range unless doing video, but having precise manual focus ability in the macro range is incredibly important. Quality manual focus allows you more precision and control of focus at the razor thin depths of field you work with in the macro range, and I found the 90G Macro a joy to manually focus.
Bottom line is that I ended up loving this design, and found the ability to quickly switch into a dedicated manual focus mode fabulous to work with in the field. You also get the electronic advantage of Focus Assist, which will automatically magnify the active focus area. This allows you to easily visually confirm focus. You can augment that with focus overlays, too.
There are two switches on the side of the lens barrel. The first is a three position focus limiter (Full, 0.5m to infinity, and 0.28-0.5 meters for macro work). This obviously can be a big help in focus speed, as it can either eliminate the macro range (where most of the focus possibilities lie) or prevent a big focus rack out to infinity if you just want to focus in the macro range.
The second switch is a simple ON/OFF for the OSS (Optical Steady Shot) image stabilization system. This, when combined with the IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) of most Sony camera bodies provides an excellent amount of stabilization and the ability to really do hand-held macro work, though due to the shallow depths of field present in macro work a tripod will always be the best platform for capturing macro images. But while using a tripod is best for macro work, over half of the macro shots in my personal catalog are in fact handheld for the simple reason that many of them were captured spontaneously rather than with a big, deliberate setup. Here’s an example of one of the many handheld macro shots that I took with the 90G Macro:
The focus hold button can be programmed to a variety of functions from within the camera body, and it might have great value to you depending on what function you assign to it.
The dimensions of the lens are 79 (diameter) x 130.5mm (length), or 3-1/8 x 5-1/4 in. The weight is 602 g (21.3 oz). These dimensions are fairly similar to other such lenses:
One clear advantage over a lens like the Sigma 70mm F2.8 Macro is that the 90G Macro is internally focusing, meaning that the length of the lens does not change during focus. Most of us remain convinced that this allows for a better degree of weather sealing, though, as is typical for many Sony-branded lenses, the weather sealing gasket at the lens mount is so small that it is hard to find. Sony states that the lens is moisture and dust resistant, however, though I haven’t been able to locate a diagram showing the internal seals and their positioning.
One area where I’m not particularly thrilled is in the filter thread size, as 62mm is not a particularly common size. Some competing lenses use a much more common 67mm front filter size.
There is no design consideration for a tripod collar here, which may bother some potential users, though I’ve been using the similarly sized Canon 100mm F2.8L Macro IS for nearly ten years and have never had an issue.
There are nine rounded aperture blades that keep the aperture shape circular when stopped down, though with one quirk I’ll detail in the image quality section.
The lens hood is a fairly plain plastic piece that gets the job done.
The overall finish of the lens is a black satin look that is fairly classic in appearance. The finish seems to have held up well in the copy that I’ve tested.
Overall I’m very happy with the handling of the 90G Macro. Its size and weight are appropriate to the class, and I really love the execution of the clutch mechanism and having a true manual focus experience that far exceeds that on my venerable Canon 100mm F2.8L macro or any other of the autofocus macro lenses that I’ve used. That’s the feature that really sets this lens apart.
Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro OSS Autofocus Performance
Sony has employed their DDSSM (Direct Drive SuperSonic Wave Motor) focus motor here, and, while it is always a mouthful (and a bit hard to remember), it’s a great focus motor. I’ve tested a number of lenses utilizing this focus motor and have been impressed with them all.
Macro lenses are not always the fastest focusing lenses for the simple reason that adding the macro range to the potential list of focus points dramatically adds to the potential workload required of the focus motor. When I reviewed the Zeiss Makro-Planar lenses, I was shocked by how much focusing I had to do to go from minimum focus to infinity, and those were only 1:2 macro lenses, not 1:1 like this Sony. The point being that the sheer amount of focus possibilities in a macro lens often makes for a more deliberate autofocus experience. That’s very true of, say, the Sigma 70mm F2.8 Macro ART (a competing lens), which is quite slow and deliberate in focus.
Fortunately that’s not the case here. The DDSSM focus motor delivers snappy focus results even with the full range of focus engaged, and you can get even faster results if you eliminate either the macro or distant focus ranges at the appropriate times. I don’t know that I’ve used a faster focusing macro lens ever, and I also give high marks for accuracy, too.
Focus sound is very quiet, with next to no sound picked up by the on-board mic during my focus pull tests for video. Those focus pulls were smooth and confident, too. Even better for video work is the fact that you can engage the clutch mechanism and move into a true manual focus experience for video work. I love being able to do smooth, repeatable focus pulls with a good manual focus ring.
I did a brief portrait session and got completely perfect Eye AF focus results even though I chose to do a lot of foreground object framing around the subject due to the nice foreground blur of the 90G Macro.
Every one of my portrait shots was perfectly focused, which only adds to the versatility of this lens. It would be a lovely portrait option for someone who is debating between this lens and, say, an 85mm portrait prime but who also wants to do some macro work. I see this as being a great lens for use at weddings. It’s fast enough to shoot the ceremony, can get close enough to do very artistic work with decorations or accessories, and could also serve as a beautiful portrait prime for posed shots.
The combination of excellent autofocus AND manual focus combined in the 90G Macro makes it the best focusing macro lens I’ve ever used.
Sony 90G Macro Image Quality
Macro lenses are typically very strong optical instruments, as they have to be able to render fine detail and have good contrast at macro distances – a very demanding optical application. That is certainly the case here, too. It delivers a wonderful combination of sharpness, contrast, and quality of background blur…as you can see from this wide open shot and the crop:
That isn’t to say it’s flawless, but the flaws are fairly few and far between.
As a first party lens, the Sony 90G Macro enjoys first rate corrections in camera and in software. JPEGs and video are corrected in camera, while the RAWs arrive with an embedded profile marker and quality support in a variety of editing software programs. If we disable that correction, however, here’s what we find:
There is a very, very mild amount of barrel distortion along with a moderate amount of vignette. The distortion probably isn’t enough to be a factor for anyone, and the vignette is easily corrected. No real concerns here.
If we test for longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA), we see that they are very well controlled, with little evidence of any fringing either before or after the plane of focus. This makes for very nice levels of contrast.
I’ve owned the similar Canon 100L Macro for about a decade, and while it is an excellent lens, it definitely struggles a bit more in controlling aberrations. We can see in this test, for example, that the Canon shows a little more fringing, and that robs it of a bit of contrast when compared with the Sony.
We can also see some evidence of Lateral CA (LaCA) in our chart tests. This shows up as green and purple fringing on either side of what should be black test. This also comes at the cost of a bit of contrast.
The Sony 90G Macro gets high marks for controlling CA even in high contrast situations.
Here’s a quick look at the test chart that I use for my resolution tests:
I did all of my controlled tests on a 42Mpx a7RIII, and you can see that even at a pixel level across the frame that the 90G Macro is delivering high levels of resolution and contrast.
We can see that the Sony bests the Canon by having better contrast due to better aberration control. This allows the textures to be rendered better.
Stopping down to F4 only increases the resolution and contrast, and you can see from the midframe that the levels are excellent.
As you can see from this real world F2.8 example, resolution is not a problem for this lens.
Stopped down it becomes a very nice landscape lens as well.
There are basically two optical quirks that I want to highlight. The first is partly mechanical, as it comes into play only at close focus distances. At close focus distances you will see the aperture blades of the lens even if you have the aperture wide open. Take a look at this shot, for example:
Even though the aperture is fully open, you can see that the bokeh highlights do show the nonagonal shape of the nine aperture blades. If you look inside the lens, in fact, you can see that the blades never really fully retract except near infinity. The closer you focus down to minimum focus, the more you will see the blades close down. Part of this is due to physics, as less light reaches the sensor at macro distances, resulting in an effective aperture change (an F2.8 macro lens might behave more like an 5.6 lens at minimum focus). With most lens/camera combination this is masked because the stated aperture does not change. Because you have the ability to actually manually focus the Sony, however, you can see this play out with the physical aperture as you focus towards minimum focus distance. The aperture shape will become more and more obvious the closer you get to MFD.
Ironically, you can actually get a rounder aperture shape by stopping down to F4 in this instance:
If you want more even, circular shapes in bokeh highlights at close focus distances, stop down to F4 where possible.
In my second test example you can see the previous issue (aperture blade shape) and also a new one.
The bokeh “balls” show a fair amount of busyness here including a bit of a “Star Wars Death Star” look. I’ve seen smoother results from macro lenses when it comes to bokeh highlights.
These quirks are a bit odd, as the overall bokeh rendering from the lens is actually quite beautiful. Both the foreground and the background bokeh blur is soft and pleasing.
Here’s some other bokeh shots in a variety of situations.
I actually really liked the images out of the 90G Macro overall, and also felt that it produces really pleasing video footage as well. It’s a great lens, period, and of course you also have the ability to focus down to 0.28m and produce 1:1 macro images with great pop. This is the bill in the center of my test chart at MFD:
Impressive…and useful!
One final metric is flare resistance, which is rarely a strength for macro lenses. In this case, however, while you will see some mild ghosting, the flare resistance is quite strong. It handled situations with a lot of glare with a fair bit of aplomb.
All in all, this is a very, very good lens. It delivers very strong optical performance with only a few minor quirks. Check out the image gallery to see more photos than what I can share in this review.
Conclusion
There are few autofocusing macro options available on the Sony platform, though fortunately for us, the prime option available happens to be one of the best multipurpose macro lenses I’ve ever tested. It is incredibly sharp, controls aberrations well, and has excellent contrast. Colors and bokeh are nice, too.
But what really sets the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 G Macro OSS apart is the execution of the lens. The great optical stabilizer allows for easy handheld macro shots like the one above, while the clever clutch mechanism allows one to either enjoy the fast, smooth autofocus from the DDSSM focus motor or have a silky smooth true manual focus experience. This makes the lens a joy to use in the field, and it is easy to get amazing images right out of camera.
The excellent autofocus and great image quality allows the 90G Macro to double as an excellent portrait or general purpose prime, and I was very pleased with the kinds of images I could quickly get from it.
The downsides are few. There is the minor aperture quirk I noted at close focus distances, and the lens at $1100 USD is on the pricier end of the spectrum for this kind of lens. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the lens is the fact that at the end of my review I’m actually debating letting go of my trusty Canon EF 100mm F2.8L IS that has been my main macro companion for the past decade and purchasing the Sony instead. I’ve reached for it often for both photography and video during my review period, and that makes it potentially worth the price tag.
Pros:
Nice build quality including some weather sealing and premium materials
Clutch mechanism works flawlessly and allows a true mechanical manual focus
DDSSM focus motor is quiet, fast, and smooth
Eye AF works well
Size and weight are moderate
Excellent resolution and contrast across the frame
Good control of aberrations
OSS is effective and allows for good success with handheld macros
Bokeh and color in many situations are very good
Better flare resistance than most macro lenses
Cons:
Fairly expensive relative to competition
Aperture blades don’t fully retract and bokeh highlights show aperture blade shape
62mm filter thread is uncommon and unlikely to be shared with other lenses
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Purchase the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro OSS @ B&H https://bhpho.to/34T7PAE | Amazon https://amzn.to/3gOD0zv | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/2GgqA6N | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3gOEGJo | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/2QJKgSv | Ebay https://ebay.to/34UXDri
Keywords: Sony, Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, Macro, OSS, G, 90mm, 90, F2.8, , Sony 90 Macro Review, Review, Sony 90mm F2.8 G Review, Insects, Portrait, Wedding, Review, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Tracking, Eye AF, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Portrait, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I only began to review Sony products in 2017, and my focus has primarily been upon the newer cameras and lenses released since that point, so I barely missed the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, which was released just a few months before I started to cover Sony. The 90G Macro (as we’ll call it for brevity in this review) was announced in May of 2017, and remains one of the few first party macro lenses on Sony FE (full frame mirrorless). The other option is the Sony FE 50mm F2.8 Macro, a lens with a lower price point but much more uneven reputation. There have now been a few third party macro options on FE (most of them manual focus), so this remains an arena that is pretty much dominated by the 90G Macro, as it has an excellent reputation for performance and, while expensive (nearly $1100 USD), it isn’t so expensive as to be completely out of the reach of many photographers.
We will explore if the Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS is a lens that you should consider for yourself in my review. In the meantime, however, you can check out photos from the lens below. If you prefer to watch your reviews, I’ve got both a standard length and definitive (long format) video review available. Just click the appropriate thumbnail below.
Thanks to Sony Canada (and Gentec, their distributor) for the loaner of this lens. I’ve reviewed the Sony 90mm F2.8 G Macro OSS on my Sony a7RIII and Sony a9 bodies.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sony, Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, Macro, OSS, G, 90mm, 90, F2.8, , Sony 90 Macro Review, Review, Sony 90mm F2.8 G Review, Insects, Portrait, Wedding, Review, Dustin Abbott, Autofocus, Sample Images, Video, Video Test, review, Video review, Real World, Tracking, Eye AF, Sony a7RIII, Sony a7RIV, Portrait, Sharpness, Resolution, Bokeh
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Neewer NW-ETZ vs Megadap ETZ21 Pro | Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Showdown 
Neewer NW-ETZ Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review 
Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review 
Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 Gallery 
