Macro photography will always remain my favorite way to take unusual photographs in boring locations – so when Sony announced a lens with 1.4x magnification, I was immediately itching to try it out. When I finally got my hands on the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS, it was just in time to photograph the first snow of the season – and I’m seriously impressed.
I took the Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM out to photograph the first snowfall, which arrived just in time to fall on the last of the autumn colors. My rental shipment had just arrived at the tail end of the snowstorm, and shooting in the evening under heavy clouds, the lighting was limited, but I grabbed my photography gloves and a coat and went to work.
The first thing that I noticed was how impressively close the lens is capable of getting. The first snow was more wet, crystal-ly clumps than the photogenic flakes, but the lens still captured an impressive closeup of those first crystals. I do not doubt that this lens will be able to create some serious artwork with the best kind of snowflakes.
Most macro lenses only have a 1x macro – although there are exceptions like Canon’s 1.4x and OM System’s 2x, along with Mitakon's 5x. That extra .4x goes a long way in creating more abstract artwork and getting in close to the smallest subjects, like snow.
But what’s perhaps even more impressive is that the Sony 100mm can reach that 1.4x macro and still use autofocus through the entire range. The lens has an autofocus clutch that enables me to make small focus adjustments without slipping the toggle to full manual focus.
The distance away from the subject, the focal length and the aperture all work towards creating a narrower depth of field, and the new Sony macro has all three. Focus is a very thin slice when working at f/2.8 and 1.4x, which creates smooth-as-butter backgrounds, but, breathe and you may be out of focus.
I didn’t use a tripod with these shots on the Sony 100mm GM Macro – I wanted to be able to move around quickly, not to mention seeing just how good the in-lens stabilization is. I still got plenty of sharp shots, tripod-less, even dropping my shutter speed to 1/80 as the sun started to set.
A tripod would be helpful for focus peaking and being able to breathe without losing focus in manual focus mode, but the lens was more than capable of shooting unsupported.
One snowfall isn’t enough experience to form a full opinion of Sony’s newest macro lens – not to mention I haven’t yet ventured into other genres like portraits, which a lens of this caliber should also be fantastic at.
I also haven’t tried the lens with the 2x teleconverter to try the 2.8x macro capabilities. But the images that I captured so far are sharp, with lovely colors, fantastic bokeh and, so far, no signs of cringey color fringing or other oddities.
I’m impressed, though not exactly surprised. Sony’s GM series is known for its high-end optics and sharpness, and so far, the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS hasn’t disappointed. Stay tuned for a full review.
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