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.
Macro lenses are, by definition, specialist tools. They are designed for a specific type of photography, though some macro lenses double as being nice portrait or general purpose lenses, depending on their focal lengths. Many macro lenses are best suited for a single purpose, however: close up photography. That’s particularly true for the newest lens from AstrHori – the 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro lens. Forget 1:1 macro, this lens is designed for ultra macro work, from 2:1 to even 5:1 performance. That is extreme levels of magnification!
That is the threads from a small screw, which gives you a bit of an idea of both how high the levels of magnification are and also how tiny the depth of field will be with such a lens. Sound interesting? You can watch my video review to get the full picture…or just read on.
Thanks to AstrHori for sending me a review sample 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.
Specialist tools come with specialist costs, and while the AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro is financially inexpensive at $249, the reality of the lens and its design comes with some unique challenges in using it. Getting great images with a lens like this requires good technique, patience, and sometimes an explanation of just what people are looking at (in this case the threads of an adjustable wrench):
So let’s jump into the realities of this very unique lens together.
Build and Handling
The AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro has an atypical shape that looks more like a long tube rather than a typical camera lens. It most strongly resembles the Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro, as they are very similar lenses with identical purpose. The lens is only 61mm in diameter, but much longer in length.
That shape becomes even more elongated when you focus to the 5:1 macro level, as the lens’ length extends from roughly 95mm in length (3.74″) to roughly 174mm (6.5″) by my measurements.
The lens construction is all of metal and glass, and the lens weighs in at 474g or 16.71oz. The lens feels substantial in the hand and dense when fully retracted, which makes sense when you consider the lens nearly doubles in length when fully focused into the 5x macro range.
The AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro is available for Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, Canon RF, Leica L, and Fuji X-mounts. It is a full frame lens but obviously can be used on APS-C camera like Fuji’s X-mount cameras where it will have a 37.5mm full frame equivalent angle of view.
There are no electronic contacts; this is a fully manual lens. If you are unfamiliar with how such lenses operate, you’ll need to enable a few simple settings on your camera (I produced a video covering this which you can see here). Certain information will not report to the camera (like focal length and aperture), though some settings (like shutter speed and ISO) are generated by the camera and will show up in the EXIF settings of your images). If your camera has IBIS, you will need to manually input the focal length. Metering typically will work fine, as the camera determines that.
The lens has two rings on it. The ring closest to the front of the lens is the aperture ring. It is a clicked aperture with detents at each full stop, from F2.8-F16.
The aperture iris looks to have 8 straight blades, so you will see a bit of an octagonal shape to some bokeh highlights when stopped down.
Understand that aperture becomes complicated when working at macro distances (this article will give you a bit of a primer), so while you can physically control the size of the aperture by using the aperture ring, the physics change the effective aperture at macro distances. You can set F4 on the aperture ring, for example, and at 2:1 that aperture will behave like F12 (roughly). Go to 5:1 magnification and that aperture now behaves like F24 (roughly). If that seems unnecessarily complicated to you, just know that you are going to need a lot of light on your subject when working at extreme macro settings because less and less light reaches the sense as you increase magnification. Most of thee shots in this review have had very bright lights on the subjects, and I still often have very low shutter speeds. This is a lens that will require a steady tripod; doing handheld macro at 2-5x is nearly impossible.
The second ring is the “focus” ring, though it really functions more like a macro-zoom ring. The AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro is a fixed focus lens; you can only focus at the minimum focus distance. That means your images will all be at least 2x macro, as you cannot focus to non-macro distances. No portraits, no infinity focus, not even lesser macro magnifications. As you “focus” the barrel is extending to increase the magnification level, not change focus.
You will always be working at a very close focus distance that varies from about 2 inches (5cm) at 2x Macro levels to a little over 1 1/2″ (4cm) at 5x macro magnification. Here’s the required working distance at 5x macro (first photo) and 2x macro (second photo)
…and here’s the image I got at that distance:
That 5x level of magnification is so high that you basically lose context on what the subject actually is in many situations. Here’s a case in point. I was reviewing a beautifully crafted new lens recently that has a cool infinity lock feature on the focus ring. Here’s a look at it in a slightly wider context:
At 2x macro levels, the AstrHori delivers a cool image that shows off the fine details of the infinity lock, but you can still figure out what it is should you be familiar with this feature.
At 5x, however, you are seeing the grain of the metal and might not be able to guess what it is that you’re looking at.
There are no filter threads or lights up front. It’s a plain façade with a relatively small opening for the front element. There is a metal lens cap included that slips over the front, but no lens hood included.
The build quality in general is fine for this price point, but that focus creep issue could definitely be a deal breaker, in my mind.
Extreme Macro Pointers
A few random thoughts/pointers about using a lens like this. As noted earlier, a lens like this necessitates using a steady tripod and often a timer to reduce vibrations. Everything is so magnified that the slightest bit of movement is going to cause motion blur in your images. I was often working at very slow shutter speeds in order to keep my ISO down and get cleaner images.
Depth of field is extremely small at these magnification levels, and there is going to be tension between wanting more depth of field and the reality that stopping the lens down past F5.6 or so will start to soften the image due to diffraction. How fine is that depth of field? Here’s the edge of knife…at F8!
Here’s my fingernail at F5.6:
Getting enough depth of field to have much of anything in focus (if you are working with a 3-dimensional subject) will probably require doing focus stacking (combining multiple shots), and you might want something like macro focus rails (here’s an inexpensive one) to allow you to move the camera by small degrees.
For example, I took a series of photos of an American nickel, or five cent piece. At 5x Macro the depth of field is so small at F5.6 (my chosen aperture) that it took 5 photos to get all of the word “five” in focus. Each of them has a bit of the word in focus. I took those five images into Photoshop and combined them into a single image. Here’s a good article on how to do this if you’re unfamiliar with the process. The finished image looks pretty cool.
Obviously doing this will take additional time both in the capture and editing process, but this is the kind of lens designed for someone who is okay with being deliberate in their imaging process.
A secondary consideration is going to be in getting the lens into the correct position to capture your images. The fact that focus is fixed and that you need to be very close to your subject means that you might need a tripod with a lateral extension to allow you to move your camera forwards and backwards. Here’s a relatively inexpensive example of a tripod that does this.
Finally, be patient. Getting good at this type of photography requires practice and learning effective workflows and technique.
Image Quality Breakdown
Evaluating the optics of a lens like this requires stepping outside my normal testing procedures, so my process will be slightly different. The AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro has an optical formula of ten elements in 7 groups.
In my tests I saw very little vignette, so that seems to be a non-issue. I can’t use my typical test chart for vignette and distortion, but this shot from a two-dollar bill shows no evidence of distortion in the lines.
To give you some context, here’s the bill that this image was taken from; the shot above is uncropped, by the way!
Take a look at the faces of the group in the center of the bill for context for the next two examples. If I use this bill as a subject for the AstrHori 2-5x Macro I get this result at 2x Macro (minimum magnification):
At 5x Magnification, only one of those faces will fit in the frame:
That’s a LOT of magnification.
It is of paramount importance that a lens like this controls longitudinal chromatic aberrations well, as you will often need to flood your subject with light, and shiny surfaces create a lot of opportunity for color fringing. This is fortunately an area where the AstrHori 2-5x Macro excels, and I saw next to no color fringing in any of my images…even shooting the edge of coin with many layers of defocus.
Here’s a series from F2.8 to F16 that shows good fringing control even at F2.8 and also how depth of field increases as you stop the lens down.
Diffraction hits harder after F8, so F8 (#4 in the series) may be the best compromise for maximizing depth of field while maintaining peak image quality.
So how about image quality? Here’s a look at my test chart I use for my reviews.
In the center of the chart is a old German 10 Deutschmark bill. On the upper right part of that bill is some writing. This series of shots is uncropped images of that writing at apertures from F2.8 – F16 (six stops).
Looking at a pixel level mostly shows me that diffraction will start to affect contrast fairly early on my high resolution camera (61MP Sony a7RV). My F2.8 results (at 5x Macro) are slightly higher contrast than even my F5.6 results.
I also noticed something interesting while working on these tests. My wide open (F2.8) exposure was 1/30th of a second. There are five stops between F2.8 and F16, meaning that my exposure at F16 should be 1 second. The camera metered (correctly, at least for exposure) at 1/4th second. If I manually exposed at 1 second at F16, I got a very overexposed result:
That’s a 2 stop exposure difference, which makes me wonder if the aperture range is a full F2.8-F16. Probably not a big deal, but I do like to report what I find.
The bokeh quality is pretty good from the lens. You will get larger, softer specular highlights when shooting at F2.8, and when stopping down you won’t get a fully circular shape to the bokeh highlights due to the straight aperture blades. Here’s a comparison to illustrate what I mean:
You’ll be able to create bokeh on just about anything three dimensional because the depth of field is so small. In this shot of a needle and thread just the slight curvature of the spool of thread is enough to throw it completely out of focus.
You will find with some images that the higher levels of magnification are just too much to even be able to readily identify your subject. This is folds in the steel of a fancy knife at 5x Macro:
I strongly prefer the less magnified shot of the blade, as it gives you more context.
This could vary from subject to subject, however.
The bottom line is that the AstrHori doesn’t have any optical fatal flaws. It isn’t the sharpest macro lens that I’ve used, but there’s sufficient sharpness and contrast to give you crisp looking results.
The relatively low cost of entry makes me feel that the AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro is giving good value for money optically. Feel free to check out the lens image gallery to see even more sample images.
Conclusion
The AstrHori 25mm F2.8-5x joins a very short list of lenses that can deliver a magnification level of 5x macro. At $249 USD, it is cheaper than either the Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5x ($399) or the Canon MP-E 65mm F2.8 1-5x Macro ($1049). I haven’t used either of those lenses, but from reviews that I have read, they are equally difficult to use…it’s the nature of the beast. AstrHori seems to be well positioned versus the Laowa lens as it is significantly cheaper and has a slightly bigger magnification range (2-5x vs 2.5-5x).
Ultra Macro photography is a very unique, niche type of photography that will seem a little inaccessible to the inexperienced. It takes some practice and some patience, but there’s no question that you can create some unique images that open up a whole new perspective on the world. You’ll want unmoving subjects and an unmoving camera, but if you can line up those two things, you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck from the AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro. The low cost of entry is a huge plus here, as it means that you can experiment with a very different kind of photography without breaking the bank. It’s currently the dead of winter here in Ontario, Canada, which is the perfect season for this kind of lens. You can explore whole new worlds indoors with an ultra-macro lens…so get snapping!
Keywords: AstrHori, 25mm, F2.8, 2-5x, 2:1, 5:1, Macro, Ultra Macro 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.
Macro lenses are, by definition, specialist tools. They are designed for a specific type of photography, though some macro lenses double as being nice portrait or general purpose lenses, depending on their focal lengths. Many macro lenses are best suited for a single purpose, however: close up photography. That’s particularly true for the newest lens from AstrHori – the 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro lens. Forget 1:1 macro, this lens is designed for ultra macro work, from 2:1 to even 5:1 performance. That is extreme levels of magnification!
That is the threads from a small screw, which gives you a bit of an idea of both how high the levels of magnification are and also how tiny the depth of field will be with such a lens. Sound interesting? You can watch my video review or read my text review here.
Thanks to AstrHori for sending me a review sample 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.
Specialist tools come with specialist costs, and while the AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5x Macro is financially inexpensive at $249, the reality of the lens and its design comes with some unique challenges in using it. Getting great images with a lens like this requires good technique, patience, and sometimes an explanation of just what people are looking at (in this case the threads of an adjustable wrench):
Keywords: AstrHori, 25mm, F2.8, 2-5x, 2:1, 5:1, Macro, Ultra Macro 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 just keeps hitting one home run after another. Their newest lens – the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II (or SEL70200G II) – is one of the most versatile telephoto lenses I’ve ever used. Perhaps that’s why the name has to be so long; this lens does a LOT of things. It covers the popular 70-200mm focal range, which covers from this:
to this at 200mm:
It delivers 1:2 macro all across the zoom range, allowing you to get ever closer as you move from 200mm towards 70mm, allowing you to get beautiful macro-like shots…like this one of tiny budding blackberries.
What’s unique about this is that it gives you a lot of different framing options, and the ability to get slightly different macro style shots at different focal lengths – not to mention the flexibility for video footage as you don’t really have to work about getting too close to the camera. It has updated OSS (Optical Steady Shot), which further enhances the ability to get stable video and photos without the need of a tripod. It’s smaller and lighter than the first generation 70-200mm F4, but unlike the Canon RF 70-200mm F4, it retains the ability to use teleconverters…which also allows you to get even higher macro performance (0.75x with a 1.4x TC [shown below] and 1:1 macro with a 2.0x TC).
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD has stood out to me as being perhaps the most versatile lens on the Sony platform, and in some ways that’s still true (focal range and aperture), but this new Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G is even more versatile in other ways. This is an incredibly useful lens that can do a lot of things well…and it might mean that you skip buying a macro and use this lens for even more things. Should the SEL70200G II (as Sony calls it) go to the top of your wishlist? You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a pre-release 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.
SLE70200G II Build and Handling
The current trend on mirrorless is to try to take advantage of advancing lens manufacturing technologies and shrink the size of lenses. Canon changed their RF design from an internally zooming design to an externally zooming design, which enabled them to take a whopping 56mm off the length when retracted for storage (though when the RF lens is zoomed out it is only 2mm shorter). That makes it much easier to transport and even to balance on camera, though with Canon, that came at a price. Sacrificed at the altar of compact size was the ability to use teleconverters, which unfortunately limits the versatility of the RF lens. Sony has taken a similar route with the SEL70200G II, moving to a externally zooming design, though they learned from Canon’s mistake and compromised with the size just enough to allow for both the 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters to be used without restriction. The first generation 70-200mm F4 was 175mm long (internally zooming, so that length was constant), while the new lens (by my measurement) is 150mm (5.9″) retracted, though it extends to about 205mm (8″) when zoomed to 200mm.
Not everyone will be happy about the transition to an externally zooming design, but I personally appreciate the route that Sony has taken here. The SEL70200G II is an easy lens to transport and fits in far more bags than the internally zooming design, but Sony’s approach has not left it compromised in performance. There are some advantages to internally zooming lenses.
The first is that they are often easier to handle the in field, with zoom adjustments typically taking no more than effort than what you can do with a finger. Sony has countered this by really doing a great job with the zoom action. I wouldn’t say the zoom action is quite as light as the excellent 70-200mm F2.8 GM II (internally zooming), but it isn’t much heavier.
The second objection is that people feel that internally zooming lenses are more weather sealed. This is often more perception than reality, and the SEL70200G II sports about 15 weather sealing points in the lens. This is a professional grade lens with professional weather sealing; internal dust and moisture should not be a problem.
Those that do video prefer internally zooming lenses because the balancing point remains constant for use with gimbals or stabilizers. Sony has done their best to make this a nicely balanced lens, but there is no question that the balance point does move when the lens is zoomed out.
The tradeoff is excellent portability and better balance when carrying the lens on a strap or harness.
The diameter of the lens is about 80mm (3.1″)*, which is the same as the previous model. The SEL70200G II retains the 72mm filter thread of the previous lens as well. The weight is 862g (30.4oz)* with the tripod collar attached, or 794g (28oz)* without. *These are my measurements, not official measurements. You can see from the image above that the SEL70200G II is both narrower and shorter than the Tamron 35-150mm, which is also an externally zooming lens.
As noted above, Sony left room for both the narrower 1.4x teleconverter (shown) and the thicker 2.0x teleconverter to be used without issue.
This really expands the versatility of the lens, as you can get up to 280mm (maximum aperture of F5.6) with the 1.4x and up to 400mm (F8) with 2.0x. Sony’s strong optical design in both the lens and the teleconverters mean that the lens remains very sharp even with the TCs attached. This shot is at 280mm, F5.6:
There are 9 aperture blades that help keep the aperture shape circular when stopped down. Geometry across the frame is really good for specular highlights even wide open, F5.6 remains perfect, and you can start to see the shape of the blades by F8:
The minimum focus distances varies through the zoom range, from as little as 26cm (0.86ft) at 70mm to 42cm (1.38ft) at 200mm. This dramatically cuts down the MFD on the first generation lens, which was a full meter (39 inches) and delivered only a 0.13x magnification. The much closer focus distance of the SEL70200G II delivers a 0.50x magnification throughout the zoom range (both 70 and 100mm are shown below), and when I add my 1.4x TC, that magnification climbs even higher to 0.75%.
What I enjoy about this is the ability change up the framing to what best suits the image while still being able to get very close. It should be remembered that MFD is not from the front of the lens, but from the sensor. I measure the lens length from the sensor at 16.7cm at 70mm, leaving less than 10cm as the working distance (about four inches). The lens measures 22.5cm from the sensor at 200mm, but that leaves about 20cm as a working distance (8″), which might prove more practical with some subjects. You can see from these photos that the 200mm position (second image) definitely gives you more space from your subject.
Up close performance is very, very nice, delivering rich images in both color and detail. You can see that depth of field is very shallow at F4 at this “macro” distance.
I use quotes around the word macro, as some debate whether any magnification lower than 1:1 qualifies as a true macro lens, though I’ve certainly seen (and owned) many lenses called macro which had the same 1:2 magnifications as this lens, so I think it is fair for Sony to use that designation.
Sony has upped their game in terms of the physical controls on recent lenses, though this G lenses doesn’t have quite as many as the 70-20mm F2.8 GM II lens. There’s no aperture ring (and thus no declick option or iris lock). But Sony has upped the total of Focus Hold Buttons to 3 here to allow one to easily fall to hand whether shooting in vertical or horizontal modes. This can be programmed to multiple functions from within the camera (my current preference is to control Eye AF so I can prioritize a certain eye).
There is an extensive bank of switches on the left side of the lens barrel. This starts with an AF/MF switch, following by an ON/OFF for the full time DMF (direct manual focus) function. I like this option, as one of my persistent complaints about Sony focus has been that sometimes it is very reluctant to focus on a close foreground object and focus stays “stuck” on a background subject. DMF allows me to quickly override that and pull focus forward, where typically autofocus will then focus without issue on my desired subject.
This is followed by a focus limiter complete with a new third position (Full, 3M to ∞, and Macro). The latter will be very handy when doing close up work to avoid by focus racks as the lens searches for the right focus position. I’m not sure the other positions will be often needed, as autofocus is incredibly fast.
There are two OSS (Optical Steady Shot) related switches that come next: an ON/OFF switch along with 3 OSS modes (1 Standard | 2 Panning | 3 Active – prioritizes stabilization of image capture rather than viewfinder).
The bottommost switch will be more easily accessed when either the tripod collar is removed or rotated to a vertical orientation.
I felt like the OSS worked better here than on the 70-200 GM II that I reviewed earlier in the year. I was able to get fairly consistently stable results at 200mm and 1/3rd of a second on my a7RV. That’s nearly six stops of assistance, which is great. The viewfinder also stayed very stable throughout the process as well, which really helps to do handheld macro work.
Don’t expect successful macro shots at handheld shots with shutter speeds that low, but I did find it easy to get nice handheld macro shots due to the excellent OSS:
Since this is an externally zooming lens, it needed a zoom lock switch, which Sony included. It can only be locked at the 70mm position, and I found that I did need it when hiking with the lens. The problem was not with zoom creep in general, but because movement would eventually cause friction on the zoom ring and cause it to extend.
The tripod collar is easily removed by loosening a tension knob and pulling the two sections apart. That same tension knob at lower levels allows you to rotate the tripod collar for shooting in a vertical positions There are markings but not detents at the cardinal positions. I have only one real complaint here, and that is that the tripod foot is not Arca compatible, so you will have to add a quick release plate before mounting it on a tripod.
The zoom ring is located nearest the camera body, and it is ribbed and rubberized. As noted, it moves very smoothly for an externally zooming lens, with no hitches or spots of uneven tension. A full zoom from 70-200mm takes roughly 90° of rotation.
The manual focus ring is located near the front of the lens. It is slightly narrower but has a similar ribbed design. Focus action is smooth but very light – not a lot of feel.
I appreciate the fact that the lens hood is color matched to the lens. Sometimes these “white” lenses come with a black hood, and it never seems like the hood was actually made for the lens. Sony has shifted to a petal shaped hood here, which is more rare on a telephoto lens. It does help reduce the overall size of the hood.
This smaller, lighter lens is a better balance for Sony’s smaller than average camera bodies. I really, really enjoyed using this lens and appreciated the excellent ergonomics and overall form factor of the lens. Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM II is an outstanding lens, but the more than $1000 difference in price will help make this F4 version more appealing to those that decide that they can live without an F2.8 aperture.
Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G II Autofocus Performance
An area where Sony is able to create a distinct advantage for its lenses is in the realm of autofocus. They has employed four!! XD (extreme dynamic) Linear Motors to the autofocus system here with one pair of motors on each side of the focusing group. This provides blazingly fast autofocus speeds that can keep with pretty much any kind of action. Sony also limits their top burst speeds on their sports cameras like the Alpha 1 or a9 series to Sony lenses, so I can get a full 30FPS with the SEL70200G II and my Alpha 1 whereas I would be limited to 15FPS if using a third party lens instead. I had no problem keeping up with basketball action during long bursts on my A1:
I got down low and shot through grasses to get this delightful shot of Nala with a little bit of a snarl on her face.
I was also extremely impressed by this shot, as focus ignored the tangled brush and fence in the foreground, the hairs from the mane hanging over the eyes, and nailed focus on the heavily shadowed eye perfectly.
Portrait and wedding photography will be a breeze with this lens and a decent camera body. It just nails focus on the eye:
I brought the lens along to a wedding of some friends, and every shot was perfectly focused.
The newest Sony cameras like the a7RV have insect detection mode, and that works nicely for nailing focus on one of my honeybees.
On the video front, video pulls are quick, quiet, and confident as you might expect with a first party Sony lens equipped with 4 focus motors. There is a very small amount of focus breathing and when I tested it on the a7RV and turned on the “Focus Breathing Compensation” setting there is a mild improvement and at very little crop because of the low amount of breathing to begin with. I would call the amount of focus breathing fairly good. The lens also performed well (as expected) in my “hand test”, quickly transitioning back to tracking my eye after I blocked visibility of my eyes with my hand towards the lens.
My general focus results were excellent. Focus is incredibly snappy and precise, and that allows the amazing optics to shine. Autofocus is a definite strength here.
Bottom line is that we have a top notch focus system here that is able to keep up with the most demanding photography or video scenarios.
Sony SEL70200G II Image Quality
At this stage I have come to expect that Sony’s new lens releases are typically going to be pretty fantastic optically, and I’m certainly not disappointed here. The quality of the optical design shines through in images that look great right out of the camera. Some lenses require some processing to give images sparkle, but this is a lens that will make you feel like you really don’t need to do much editing work at all. Here’s a RAW image with basically no edits other than my import sharpening.
I was just happy with the look of images, period, so prepare yourself for a fairly glowing section here.
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. You can see in this image that there is no visible LoCA in either my real world or chart tests:
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). We can see once again that there is no evidence of any fringing near the edges of the frame. The transitions from dark to light are nice and clean.
Next we will take a look at distortion and vignette. Below you will see a series of images.
70mm uncorrected
70mm manually corrected
135mm uncorrected
200mm uncorrected
200mm manually corrected
280mm (with 1.4x) uncorrected.
Now, to parse that data: throughout the zoom range there is some pincushion style distortion. It is mild at 70mm (-5 to correct), more pronounced at 135mm (-9 to correct), and remains at the same level at 200mm (-9 to correct). What’s interesting is that adding the 1.4x TC obvious would create some barrel distortion, but in this case it actually just serves to correct the pincushion distortion and the end result is almost distortion free (I used a max of -1 to correct). Throughout the zoom range the distortion is quite linear and easy to correct cleanly. No big deal.
Vignette is also not a significant issue. It was strongest at 70mm, where I used a +38 to correct (about a stop and a half in the corners), but it dropped to a +22 at 135mm (one stop) and a +12 at 200mm (about a half stop). It was actually even lower with the 1.4x attached (+7), which would make this some of the lowest vignette I’ve ever seen on a zoom lens. These tests also show the SEL70200G II takes teleconverters (at least the 1.4x) very, very well.
So how about sharpness? This is the first lens I’ve tested using my new 61MP Sony a7RV for this series of tests, which increases the optical demands from the 50MP of the Alpha 1 that I usually run my tests on. Here’s a look at the test chart:
And here are the 70mm F4 crops at about 175% magnification, taken from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
This is a lens that handles the 61MP resolution point with aplomb. It is delivering exceptional sharpness everywhere in the frame, and is also delivering exceptionally good centering – every corner looked equally sharp. Exceptional.
When a lens is this good wide open, there isn’t a lot of room for improvement when it is stopped down. Comparing F4 and F5.6 showed virtually equal results everywhere save in the extreme corners, where I saw a mild uptick in contrast. F8 showed about the same result, though down just a percentage point or two due to the effects of diffraction.
Minimum aperture is F22, but by then diffraction has really raised its ugly head. The image is very soft; diffraction on high resolution cameras makes using apertures smaller than F11 just not worth it.
Real world results at most apertures at 70mm are just fantastic: great detail, great color, and no real optical flaws.
The performance at 100mm is very similar. I would say that the center and mid-range are about 1-2 percentage points lower, but the corners are a good 10% better.
135mm brings the highest performance yet, and while 70mm might still be the very slight winner in the center of the frame, the mid-frame and corners are incredibly good.
Real world results in the middle of the zoom range look gorgeous. Great detail, great color, and lovely bokeh:
At 200mm the results are about the same as at 100mm, so just a fraction off the high point at 135mm, but still exceptionally good. Once again most of the sharpness is available right at F4, with only a very mild improvement at F5.6:
Real world results look great.
That’s true at macro distances as well, where you can get great detail.
The big question is how the SEL70200G II handles teleconverters. I don’t have a 2.0x TC (not a huge fan of 2.0x TCs), but I do own the Sony 1.4x. There’s always some impact to image quality for the simple reason that you are adding 6 additional elements to the optical performance, resulting in some loss of light and the potential of more aberrations. As you can see from the image below, there is some mild softening of the image and less contrast, but the end result is still sharper than most lenses.
Real world images pack plenty of punch at 280mm:
If you are shooting with one of Sony’s higher resolution bodies, you can switch to APS-C mode and get up to 420mm equivalent reach, which obviously further extends the potential usefulness of the lens.
The bokeh from the lens is beautiful as well. At close distances it will completely blur out a background:
At medium distances the depth of field isn’t as shallow as an F2.8 lens, but the bokeh is still gorgeous.
If I shoot in the middle of the zoom range the bokeh quality is still excellent:
The truth of the matter is that many people can get by with an F4 telephoto lens. Depth of field is already quite shallow at many focus distances. The limiting factor is more shooting in lower light situations, though most modern Sony cameras do fairly well at higher ISO values.
Flare resistance is also quite good due to excellent coatings. I saw little impact from the sun other than some very mild prismatic veiling.
As you’ve probably seen throughout this review, the lens also produces excellent color. As noted, I felt like most images needed little to no processing. They just came out looking great.
Bottom line: there’s nothing really to complain here about. Not only is the SEL70200G II very versatile, but it is high performing at all those various tasks that it can accomplish. If you would like to see more images, check out my image gallery here.
Conclusion
I don’t need the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II. I’ve got the focal range well covered. But this is a lens that works so well that it makes you question if maybe, just maybe, you do actually need it. The SEL70200G II has few flaws and a long list of strengths. I love the packing, the versatility, and obviously the macro capabilities.
One area that I haven’t yet dealt with is the strength of the lens as a landscape option. Most people think wide angle lenses for landscapes, but often the “big scenes” actually work better with a telephoto lens. The ability to tap into the different focal lengths available here along with the great detail, contrast, and color makes this a really great landscape lens, and even more so because it packs quite easily.
This is a lot of lens, and I think it will work for a lot of different photographers. It is much more affordable than the incredible but incredibly expensive FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM II, which might make it a more realistic target for many photographers at the roughly $1700 price point. Sony is well into its second generation cycle for lens development, and the lessons learned over the last decade are clearly evident. Sony’s newest lenses are simply some of the best lenses I’ve ever tested, making new releases a joy to spend time with as a reviewer. The same will be true for those own the SEL70200G II. It’s fantastic.
Keywords: Sony, Sony 70-200mm, 70-200mm, F4, G, OSS, Macro, II, Sony 70-200 II Review, FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II, 1.4x, TC, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7IV, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, Sony A1, let the light in, #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 just keeps hitting one home run after another. Their newest lens – the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II (or SEL70200G II) – is one of the most versatile telephoto lenses I’ve ever used. Perhaps that’s why the name has to be so long; this lens does a LOT of things. It covers the popular 70-200mm focal range, which covers from this:
to this at 200mm:
It delivers 1:2 macro all across the zoom range, allowing you to get ever closer as you move from 200mm towards 70mm, allowing you to get beautiful macro-like shots…like this one of tiny budding blackberries.
What’s unique about this is that it gives you a lot of different framing options, and the ability to get slightly different macro style shots at different focal lengths – not to mention the flexibility for video footage as you don’t really have to work about getting too close to the camera. It has updated OSS (Optical Steady Shot), which further enhances the ability to get stable video and photos without the need of a tripod. It’s smaller and lighter than the first generation 70-200mm F4, but unlike the Canon RF 70-200mm F4, it retains the ability to use teleconverters…which also allows you to get even higher macro performance (0.75x with a 1.4x TC [shown below] and 1:1 macro with a 2.0x TC).
The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD has stood out to me as being perhaps the most versatile lens on the Sony platform, and in some ways that’s still true (focal range and aperture), but this new Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G is even more versatile in other ways. This is an incredibly useful lens that can do a lot of things well…and it might mean that you skip buying a macro and use this lens for even more things. Should the 70-200G II go to the top of your wishlist? You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a pre-release 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.
Keywords: Sony, Sony 70-200mm, 70-200mm, F4, G, OSS, Macro, II, Sony 70-200 II Review, FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II, 1.4x, TC, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7IV, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, Sony A1, let the light in, #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.
Talk about ratcheting up the complexity! I’ve reviewed a number of TTArtisan lenses before, and they have mostly fallen into the categories that are filled by a lot of what I call “Boutique Third Parties”. These include various manual everything prime lenses with varying maximum aperture sizes. While engineering for larger apertures (like their F0.95 lenses) are more challenging, their newest lens adds a LOT of new moving parts. That lens is the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift (we’ll shorten that to TTA100M for this review).
Designing a lens that goes past 1:1 to 2:1 macro (2X) takes a lot of engineering. That’s twice as high of magnification as most macro lenses. Designing a tilt/shift lens takes even more engineering. I’ve never personally seen a lens that combines both of these elements before, so this is certainly a courageous move for TTArtisan, particularly since this is designed for full frame mirrorless mounts (I’m testing it on Sony E-mount, but it will also be available for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Leica L, and then smaller sensors like Fuji X and M43). This is also the longest focal length that TTArtisan has tackled to this point, which makes it a very interesting lens.
There are a variety of things that you can do with both ultra macro and tilt/shift, but it does mean that this is primarily going to be a “tripod lens”. Trying to do 2x macro work handheld (even with a camera body with IBIS) is very difficult, and all the moving parts of tilting and/or shifting are also going to be difficult to do handheld. If you take your time, however, you can produce some really unique photos with this lens.
I enjoyed playing with this lens in all the things that it can do, though in some ways its very ambition might be its greatest weakness, too. The TTA100M maybe tries to do too much, and all of the knobs and moving parts make for some ergonomic frustrations. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that this is a lot of lens for the money. This will be the cheapest point of entry for either a 2x macro lens or a tilt/shift lens that any of us have ever seen at about $400 USD, which in my mind makes this more attractive. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a pre-release 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 a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
TTA100M Build and Handling
TTArtisan has produced one autofocusing lens at this point, but their lenses have primarily been manual focus only. That’s the case here as well, though it is pretty typical for tilt/shift lenses to be manual focus anyway. As noted in the intro, there’s a lot going on here, so let’s break it all down.
This is a full frame 100mm lens, and, as such, it isn’t particularly small. It has a long, slender profile that reminds me of the Laowa 100mm F2.8 2x APO Macro lens that I reviewed a few years ago. I weighed it at 841g (29.6oz) and measured it at 73mm (2.87″) in diameter (not including the protrusions of the knobs) and 147mm (5.78″) in length.
Like the Laowa, this is an internally focusing design (the length doesn’t change during focus), though you can see the elements moving forwards and backwards inside during focus. There’s several inches of travel inside. This isn’t a weather sealed lens, but many people do feel that an internally focusing lens has more of a natural seal because nothing is moving in and out.
There are knobs on each side of the lens near the lens mount. Two of these are adjustment knobs while the other two are for tension. For some reason on of the tension/locking knobs is shaped more like a lever, and I found it very hard to access when the lens was mounted on a tripod.
I tested the TTA100M on a Sony E-mount, and this particular lens design unfortunately plays into what is a real weakness for Sony bodies – namely that there isn’t a lot of room between the grip and many lenses. The E-mount itself is quite small for a full frame design, so often lenses have to flare out quickly after having to taper quite small at the mount end of the lens. That creates a bit of pinch for your knuckles between the lens barrel and the grip. In this case the lens doesn’t flare out, but it does have a tension or adjustment knob on every side of the lens, so there is always going to be something protruding and hitting on your knuckles.
There is a button that allows you to rotate the barrel of the lens about 90º, but because there is some kind of knob on each side of the lens, you will always have something in the way there. This will probably be less of a problem on Canon or Nikon where the bodies are a little wider and there is a little more room to play with for the knobs.
After the rotating section that houses the tilt and shift functions there is an aperture ring which can be controlled in half stop increments from F2.8 to F11 and then has single stops from F11 to F22 (minimum aperture here). Everything moves smoothly here.
In between the aperture ring and the wide, ribbed focus ring there is a hyper focal scale (with markings at F4/8/11/22. There’s also markings for the distance scale in both metric (marked in white) and Imperial (in yellow).
The wide focus ring has a nice damping and moves smoothly, though I did feel a very slight play/slippage. The focus throw is not as long as I expected at about 170°. I expected it to be a bit longer due to having a wide range of focus possibilities (the higher the magnification, the more potential focus possibilities).
There are several places near the front of the lens where threaded hole can accommodate screws to use in conjunction with a stabilizer.
Up front there is a very common 67mm front filter size. There is no included lens hood, and the lens is not bayoneted to receive one. The front cap fits over the lens barrel but is a tight enough fit that I see no potential for it to fall off.
My biggest complaint about the ergonomics comes down to the tilt and shift functions of the lens. It is very difficult to dial in just enough tension for making fine adjustments (particularly if gravity is working against you). The lens is long and has most of the weight beyond the adjustment portion of the lens, and so most of the time the lens just flops to the farther extreme point of the adjustment.
Further complicating this is that one of the tension “knobs” is more like a tension lever. It is very small and often hard to access…and definitely hard to dial in a moderate amount of tension for making small adjustments. As I said in the intro, doing a tilt/shift lens is hard, and there is room for growth in this area.
On the positive note, all of these adjustment knobs and levers are made of metal and don’t feel flimsy. I’ve used cheaper tilt/shift lenses before that had plasticky knobs that felt very vulnerable. I see 6mm of shift in each direction and 8° of tilt in each direction. That’s a bit less shift than what is offered by some lenses, though the TTArtisan lens is much, much cheaper than those lenses.
While the shift capabilities in a telephoto lens are perhaps less relevant for interior shots, I still liked being able to take a few vertical shots to stack together and get this shot of our music area in our home with great lines and details. This image is not cropped at all; this is how it came out after merging the images together.
I also enjoyed shifting horizontally to produce a unique, very high resolution macro panorama of these four screws.
Minimum focus distance is 25cm even at 2:1 macro levels, leaving you with a reasonable 9cm or so in front of the lens as a working distance. Not too bad, really, and 1:1 macro leaves you with a good 13-14cm of working distance.
Tilting is most often used for the miniature effect, but that is most useful in a city situation where you can be high up and look down on your subject (which I did not have the opportunity to do). It can also be used to interesting effect for depth of field, however, like in this shot of a chess board where I’ve created a plane of focus only on the head of the golfer.
You can also create an unusual amount of bokeh with the lens by using the tilt function. Here’s a shot without the tilt effect:
…and here’s one with the tilt effect:
All other settings are the same (aperture, exposure), so the vastly increased background blur is the result of tilting that area away from the sensor. An application of this could be for portrait work where you can create unique depth of field effects.
All in all, the build quality is quite good for a lens at this price point, but the ergonomics leave somewhat to be desired when it comes to the tilt and shift functionality.
TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Image Quality
I was very pleasantly surprised by the macro performance and sharpness of the very inexpensive TTArtisan 40mm F2.8 Macro for APS-C (my review here), and that skill carries on here. Even wide open at 2:1 macro levels, we have very strong detail and sharpness from the optical formula compromised of 14 elements in 10 groups.
Since I was reviewing a pre-release copy of the lens and the vital statistics are not yet published anywhere, I’ve had to do my own measurements and counts. I believe that I count 12 aperture blades, and these work very well to maintain a circular shape even as the lens is stopped down:
You can tell by this test that bokeh is going to be soft and creamy, which is always a very nice feature in a macro lens.
It also means that the TTA100M will double nicely as a portrait lens if you don’t mind manually focusing.
Important for macro work is the control of Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations (LoCA), and the TTA100M does a very good job here. You can see little fringing even on the very shiny surfaces of my subject here (the gears of a crescent wrench).
Of less concern on a lens like this is Lateral Chromatic Aberrations (LaCA) that show up near the edges of the frame, but we can see here that this isn’t a problem, either. I see no fringing in the bare branches along the edges of the frame in this landscape shot.
Typically macro lenses need to have fairly low distortion to be effective, and that’s the case here. Both distortion and vignette are quite slow even at F2.8, with a very mild amount of pincushion distortion (just a -2 to manually correct for in Lightroom) and a little over a stop of vignette (requiring a +36 to correct for).
That’s a great performance and means that in most situations you won’t need to worry about either issue.
So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart. I’m using a 50MP Sony Alpha 1 for this test, and do my critical observations of chart tests at 200% magnification.
Here are F2.8 crops at roughly 175% magnification from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner):
Performance across most the frame is quite good, with good detail in the center and midframe but some serious drop-off in the corners. Wide open contrast is not amazingly strong, though, so there isn’t quite as much “bite” as one of Laowa’s Apochromatic designs. You can see it in this portrait shot, for example, which has a unique look that is slightly “dreamy” when viewed globally, though the crop shows that the actual detail on my model is quite good.
The payoff is that the bokeh is very soft and creamy, making this a unique portrait option. I shot this lens alongside the brand new Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART, and you can see that the Sigma result is higher contrast.
I don’t think that one approach is automatically better than the other – but they are different, and I think the rendering of each lens will probably appeal to different people.
Stopping the TTA100M down to F4 gives a contrast boost, and detail also increases basically everywhere save the extreme corners.
By F5.6 the results are excellent everywhere save the extreme corners, which are only marginally improved. Peak performance comes at F8 where the sharpness profile covers basically the whole frame, though the corners never reach the level of excellence found elsewhere.
Landscape images at these smaller apertures look good with fine detail all across the frame.
Perhaps more import is that macro detail is excellent at smaller apertures, allowing you to get nicely detailed macro shots.
I’ve used the TTA100M for a lot of my product shots during my review period, and it gave me a nice balance between detail on my subject and soft bokeh rendering.
I got some cool close-up shots of unique subjects like the tension knob on the tripod foot of this Fuji lens here.
Or how about this dial on the new Fujifilm X-T5?
I did feel the bokeh was pretty nice from the lens, overall, and you can see a lot of layers of focus here in this shot of a chess board:
These Christmas decorations also look lovely in this fairly close shot.
I saw a few signs that the lens could be a little flare prone in certain situations, and, since it doesn’t have a hood, you’ll need to keep an eye on that.
There’s a lot you can do with a lens like this, and, while I don’t love the ergonomics, there is no end to the types of photography you can pursue with a lens that does so much. In short, there really isn’t a lot to complain about optically here. You can check out even more photos by visiting the lens image gallery here.
Conclusion
There aren’t many companies that are making 2x macro lenses, and there also aren’t many that are producing Tilt/Shift lenses. Kudos to TTArtisan for tackling both with the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift lens. This was an unexpected lens from them, but while it has a few flaws, it mostly succeeds in some very challenging tasks.
Weaknesses mostly lie in some of the ergonomics. It isn’t easy to design a lens like this, and there are a few engineering shortcomings when it comes to adjustments on the tilting and shifting aspects of the lens. This is a lot of lens for the asking price of roughly $400 USD, however.
But if you’re patient, there are so many different kinds of photography you can do with this lens, and there is the potential to create all kinds of unique and interesting images. This is a lens that I’m definitely interested in experimenting with further, and macro lenses are one solid way to find some creativity during the long winter months. This very possibly may be your first experience with either 2x macro or tilting and shifting due to the lower price point, but if you’ll stick out the learning curve, the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro Tilt/Shift might just become your favorite lens.
Pros:
Excellent price to performance ratio
Very versatile lens
Nice bokeh rendering
2x macro
Internally focusing lens
Makes for a unique portrait option
Soft bokeh
Keeps nicely circular aperture iris
Tilting and shifting offers up many creative opportunities
Low distortion and vignette
Cons:
Knobs can be hard to access
Making fine adjustments to tilt or shift difficult
Contrast isn’t as high as some competing lenses
Corner performance never quite matches the rest of 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.
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.
Receive 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: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 100mm, TTArtisan 100 Macro, 100mm, F2.8, Tilt/Shift, T/S, Tilt, Shift, 2x, 2:1, TTArtisan 100mm Macro Review, Macro, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #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.
Talk about ratcheting up the complexity! I’ve reviewed a number of TTArtisan lenses before, and they have mostly fallen into the categories that are filled by a lot of what I call “Boutique Third Parties”. These include various manual everything prime lenses with varying maximum aperture sizes. While engineering for larger apertures (like their F0.95 lenses) are more challenging, their newest lens adds a LOT of new moving parts. That lens is the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro Tilt/Shift.
Designing a lens that goes past 1:1 to 2:1 macro (2X) takes a lot of engineering. That’s twice as high of magnification as most macro lenses. Designing a tilt/shift lens takes even more engineering. I’ve never personally seen a lens that combines both of these elements before, so this is certainly a courageous move for TTArtisan, particularly since this is designed for full frame mirrorless mounts (I’m testing it on Sony E-mount, but it will also be available for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Leica L, and then smaller sensors like Fuji X and M43). This is also the longest focal length that TTArtisan has tackled to this point, which makes it a very interesting lens.
There are a variety of things that you can do with both ultra macro and tilt/shift, but it does mean that this is primarily going to be a “tripod lens”. Trying to do 2x macro work handheld (even with a camera body with IBIS) is very difficult, and all the moving parts of tilting and/or shifting are also going to be difficult to do handheld. If you take your time, however, you can produce some really unique photos with this lens.
I enjoyed playing with this lens in all the things that it can do, though in some ways its very ambition might be its greatest weakness, too. The TTA100M maybe tries to do too much, and all of the knobs and moving parts make for some ergonomic frustrations. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that this is a lot of lens for the money. This will be the cheapest point of entry for either a 2x macro lens or a tilt/shift lens that any of us have ever seen at about $400 USD, which in my mind makes this more attractive. You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a pre-release 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 a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
Images of the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2x Macro T/S
Images taken with the TTArtisan 100mm F2.8 2X Macro T/S
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.
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.
Receive 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: TTArtisan, TTArtisan 100mm, TTArtisan 100 Macro, 100mm, F2.8, Tilt/Shift, T/S, Tilt, Shift, 2x, 2:1, TTArtisan 100mm Macro Review, Macro, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #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.
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