Being stuck in your home doesn’t mean you have to stop taking pics: macro photography is the perfect solution.
Just because you might be trapped indoors for a short period, it doesn’t mean your photography has to come to a stop. There are hundreds of items around your home that you see every day that you never look at twice, but what if we told you there is a whole different way to see them. Macro photography allows us to get up close and personal with tiny objects, or any object that has immense detail, with ease. Macro photography is incredibly rewarding, and it can be eye-opening. After the break, we will share some of our favorite lenses for macro photography that won’t break the bank.
Macro lenses allow us to see the world in a completely different way. It is easy to overlook small objects that we have lying around our homes, but macro photography can bring these objects to life. Many lenses claim to be macro lenses, but a true macro lens has to be capable of reproducing at 1:1. A real 1:1 macro lens will allow you to fill up the entire size of the sensor in your camera with the object you are photographing. If you want to have fun with your photography while you’re stuck inside, you owe it to yourself to check out macro lenses. All the macro lenses listed offer reproduction rates of 1:1, and we guarantee they will be some of the sharpest lenses you will ever use. Check out seven of our favorite lenses for macro photography below.
IRIX 150mm F2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens
Here are the pros and cons from The Phoblographer’s review:
Pros
- 11 aperture blades for super creamy bokeh
- Weather sealing
- Great for portraits
- Fantastic for actual macro
- When using the Canon EOS R, the system recognizes the AF/AE contacts and aids with focus peaking using the rangefinder system
- Very sharp
- It’s really affordable
Cons
- We wish they made this for Mirrorless cameras
Buy now Canon EF: $445
Buy now Nikon F: $595
Buy Now Pentax K: $400
Sigma 70mm F2.8 DG Macro Art
Here are the pros and cons from The Phoblographer’s review:
Pros
- Pretty good on the bokeh
- Sharp
- Accurate autofocus
Cons
- Autofocus can be a bit slow, but it’s a Macro lens
- Could use stabilization
Buy now Canon EF: $428.99
Buy now Sony E: $469
Pro Tip: One thing we cannot recommend highly enough when it comes to macro photography is a stable tripod. Macro photography is incredibly challenging, and you’re often dealing with such extreme narrow depths of field that even the slightest movement will ruin your shot. A popular technique in this field of photography is focus stacking, and to focus stack, you will need a good tripod. We have reviewed a ton of tripods at The Phoblographer, so head to their review section to see some reviews and see if one of them matches what you want.
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 60mm F2.8
Pros
- Excellent optics/image quality
- Lightweight
- 1:1 Maximum Reproduction Ratio
- Focus Distance Dial
- Splash/Dustproof
- 46mm filter thread (more common than the Olympus 45mm’s 37mm thread)
Cons
- AF is not terrible, but it is not as fast as Olympus’ other primes e.g. 45mm and 12mm
- All plastic construction
- Lens hood not included
- No image stabilization. This will not matter for Olympus shooters but Panasonic shooters take note
Buy now: $399
Tokina 100mm F2.8 Macro FiRIN
Pros
- Good optical quality
- Images are nice and muted
- Beautiful bokeh
- Sharp
- Affordable
Cons
- No weather sealing
Buy now Sony E: $499
Pro Tip: There’s a lot to learn when it comes to macro photography. It may seem like an easy genre, but learning how to light, compose, and focus stack takes time. Along with practicing by yourself, we recommend picking up some training materials that will help you get the most out of your macro lenses, and will teach the ins and out of this type of photography. This guide will show you all you need to know.
Sony 50mm F2.8 Macro
Here are the pros and cons from The Phoblographer’s review:
Pros
- Small size
- Sharp image quality
- Pretty darn close focusing range
- Smooth bokeh
Cons
- Loud focusing motors, so it isn’t so great for autofocusing video
Buy now: $548
Sony 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS
Here are the pros and cons from The Phoblographer’s review:
Pros
- Great image quality in most situations
- Sharp performance in most situations
- Optical stabilization
- Fast-focusing performance
- Very silent stabilization
- Internal focusing design, and one that is pretty small for what it is. In fact, it’s about on par with a DSLR lens designed for the same purpose.
- Push/pull focusing ring
- Lightweight
- At last, a focusing scale that actually works
Cons
- The colors just aren’t there compared to many of Sony’s other lenses
Buy now: $1,098
Fujifilm 80mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro
Here are the pros and cons from The Phoblographer’s review:
