Close-Up Photography with the Sony A9 + FE 55mm F/1.8

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 photog Photography A9, insect photos, Minolta 200mm f\4 macro, mirrorless, Sony

So this is a bit of a joke. The FE 55mm is in no way a macro lens. Its closest focus is about a foot away and so with a 55mm focal length it’s basically a normal size image. The twist is that because the A9 allows autofocus in a magnified view you can get incredibly exact focus on small things like insects from that 12 inches away and then you can crop the image to look like a macro shot. What follows is a series of images followed by a crop of the focal point. I found it pretty easy to get even hyperactive bugs like the bees and wasps to end up in focus. This was my first day with the camera. These photos are just jpgs. I don’t have the latest Lightroom rev that works with A9 files so these are rough pictures and won’t be reworked to their fullest potential. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can do anything more sensible with it.

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Mr. Coffee

4 years ago

Were you able to snap any in flight? I’ve seen some You Tubes of the tracking autofocus at 1/32000s which was impressive, but that was a pro shooting. For guys like you an me it might not be as easy. OK, guys like me…

Nice start!

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Mr. Coffee

Mr Coffee, I haven’t read up on the tracking AF yet. I have a party coming up and there are some small children that buzz along like flying insects. They should be a good test.

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

I just bought a Sony FE2.8/90 macro lens. I’d bet that this lens would result in world class macro shots using the A99. The sharpness and detail is incredible, even using my A6300

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

I understood that the A6300 and the A6500 have extremely good autofocus. And the FE has gotten great reviews.
Combining that with the crop factor must provide some pretty excellent conditions for macro shots. If you want to link to some shots I’d like to see them.

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

You’re correct about the autofocus, at least when using native lenses. My “walkaround” lens for my 6300 is a Zeiss 16-70 f4.0. Using that, focus is instant and accurate.

I tried to like to this site before but without success.

https://flic.kr/p/WW35XL

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

“I laughed when I saw the fifty trillion dollar Zimbabwean note. That encapsulates the world we live in, in a nutshell.” $50 trillion? That’s peanuts, that was a $100 trillion dollar bill! If you’re a central banker and you need to start using engineering notation to refer to your printed bills, as in a 10^14th dollar bill, it is time to start suspecting the efficacy of your policies. As an irony of almost historic proportions, the $100 trillion Zimbabwean bills that I bought 9-10 years ago would have been one of my all-time best investments if I hadn’t have given… Read more »

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

“At the time, the bills could have been had in any quantity for a couple of US dollars but I’ve found that they are now selling for $50-$60/each.” Amazing. Zimbabwe must be striving for fiscal austerity. I hope we learn the error of our own ways and get our fiscal house in order.

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

Whoops! Didn’t remember that I has a picture of a $5 x 10^13th dollar Zimbabwean bill on Flickr. Here’s the full $10^14th, the largest denomination bill ever printed on the planet. And you have to admit that it would require a host of mental qualities, not the least of which would be a sense of humor, to be responsible for such a printing. Why stop there? Go for a googleplex! https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomd77/4523472280/in/album-72157603959095587/

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

Tom:
The discussion below the picture was very amusing. I’m trying to imagine the idiocy that permits a government to exist after it issues a 100 trillion dollar bill. At that point all transactions must involve tangible items like food and water and bullets. Especially bullets.

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

Reply to photog

“Especially bullets”

Unless, of course, the people have been disarmed for their safety.

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

Yeah, that seems necessary when the government is running the country into the ground.

Tom Dulaney

4 years ago

Trying to post a picture to see if it will work———

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomd77/24113081875/in/dateposted/

Author

photog

4 years ago

Reply to Tom Dulaney

Tom:
I checked the plug-in I added. It has this description:

This plugins embeds image links in comments with the img tag so the image are visible in your comment timeline.

Image formats supported:
1. .jpg
2. .gif
3. .png

If you look at the address of your spider photo above you’ll see it is a .jpg address. (Here it is with the h t t p s prefix removed ://farm5.staticflickr.com/4387/36054763170_3833858bd2_b.jpg as an example)
Sorry for the lack of information. Guess I’m still not exactly a webmaster yet.