Regular readers of this site who read my photography reviews know that I am a macro-lens junkie of the first echelon. I have been trying to get Sony to upgrade all their cameras to allow my vintage Minolta 200mm f\4 Macro lens to perform like a lens thirty years younger.
Alas, that will never be. But in pursuit of a long macro (~ 180-200mm) I have always hoped that Sony or one of the third party manufacturers of lenses like Sigma or Tamron would one day produce an autofocus macro lens in this focal range. And autofocus is the trick because Laowa, a Chinese manufacturer has come out with macro lenses of various lengths but up until recently, they only made manual focus lenses.
But that has now changed. I saw this announcement:
Laowa AF FF 180mm f/4.5 CA-Dreamer Macro 1.5x Lens
It says this lens is coming out in a couple of weeks. And it’s even better than a 1.0X magnification. It’s a 1.5X. This is very exciting. If this lens autofocuses as well as my Sony 90mm macro it will provide a distinct advantage for things like hummingbird photos and dragonflies.
Now this is a big if. There is no guarantee that Sony will allow the autofocus of their cameras to work exactly as well with third part lenses as with their own. The only proof of the pudding will be when I have this lens in hand for a week or two of testing.
Now that’s not such a big deal. The Laowa lenses usually cost less than half of what Sony charges and renting one would even be cheaper still. So I think I have a plan to play around with this thing in the near future.
This unfortunately feeds into a long standing illness that I suffer from, namely; gear acquisition syndrome (G.A.S.). It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a flareup of this but apparently I am not cured.
To be continued…
Comment from TomD
I think the reviewer said that autofocus didn’t work at less than 1.5 meter distance. That being a little less than 5′, it won’t be useful for macro work.
I used to do a lot of studio macro work that I was paid for. I sorta specialized in gold and silver coin and numismatic photography. The attached picture was part of a series for an Australian coin distributor. These coins are all by The Perth Mint Perth Aus.
Most of my shots were with a Sony100mm 2.8 and shot with studio lighting.
I think the reviewer said that autofocus didn’t work at less than 1.5 meter distance. That being a little less than 5′, it won’t be useful for macro work.
I used to do a lot of studio macro work that I was paid for. I sorta specialized in gold and silver coin and numismatic photography. The attached picture was part of a series for an Australian coin distributor. These coins are all by The Perth Mint Perth Aus.
Most of my shots were with a Sony100mm 2.8 and shot with studio lighting.
That does seem problematic. Although for hummingbirds it might be just about right. I’ll still have to see how snappy it is.