My personal macro and tele lens comparison

Last week we had a short discussion in another forum thread about using the 45/1.8 and 75/1.8 lenses for macro. I said I would prefer tele-zooms or dedicated macro for macro shots. But I did not have the time to post some examples explaining what I meant …

I promised to post some samples, and finally here they are. Please keep in mind that the following only reflects my limited personal experience. While I have used about 8 lenses for macro, I I no professional and there are many, many lenses I never had the luck to use (like the 50/f2 macro or the 45/f2.8 or some fine FF or legacy lenses…)

But anyhow, for some people even my small list of lenses might be interesting enough.

Here again my personal “top ten” for macro use:

1. Oly 60/f2.8
2. Oly 35/f3.5
3. Oly 75-300 + Marumi330
4. Oly 40-150 + Marumi330
5. Oly 14-150 + Marumi330
6. Oly 75/1.8 with Marumi330
7. Oly 75/1.8 with extension rings

What are my pros/cons to put the lenses in this specific order?

Oly 60/f2.8:

• Pro: Very compact, nice handling, usable focus distance, focus pre-selection, fast AF, 1:1 and sharp
• Con: Working distance at 1:1 is only 5cm, little bit of softness at f8 and above

Oly 35/f3.5:

• Pro: 1:1 magnification and very, very sharp even in the corners. In fact the sharpest lens I ever had …
• Con: Slow AF, 35mm needs very short focus distance at 1:1

Oly 75-300:

• Pro: 1:1 magnification, Sharp up to 1:2 and 150mm, distance 35cm
• Con: Big and heavy, at 1:1.5/180mm and above no longer sharp and prone to back focus, fixed focus distance 35cm

Oly 40-150:

• Pro: Compact and sharp, nice handling, 1:2 magnification and distance 35cm
• Con: fixed focus distance 35cm

Oly 14-150:

Similar to 40-150 but some softness and CA (not as sharp as the 40-150)

Oly 75/1.8 + Marumi330:

• Pro: Good contrast, sharp at centre
• Con: only 1:3 magnification, slightly soft corners, fixed distance 12cm.

Oly 75/1.8 + Meike rings:

• Pro: Cheap, up t 1:2 magnification
• Con: Very soft corners and soft centre with 26mm (16mm is better), some distortion, fixed working distance 15cm. Bad contrast overall, maybe there is a light gap between the rings???

That’s my list, and now the samples I promised! I searched through my lightroom catalog and did some new photos:

First some strawberry shots, I had some problems to get the same focus for every shot, please search for the sharpest seed or hair (or simply compare the overall contrast and sharpness) in each sample:

100% crop

I have a crap spider in my garden, it’s a very patient macro target. Hope these pictures can demonstrate the contrast and magnification differences between the lenses even better. Watch the contrast at the eyes and the little hairs:

50% crops (100% would be to shallow)

Another sample which is easier to use over a longer time period is an old wristwatch (which I even took to my photo dealer to do some test shots). It has plenty contrast and I use flash to emphasize the contrast even more. Of course the pictures are not from the same session, so please forgive different focus points or different light …

100% crops with high contrast target at 1:2 mag

I think this posting is long enough, I will post a follow-up

• where I show lenses at mag 1:1
• and where I show the problem I faced with the superb 75mm used as macro …

My conclusion so far:

• I like a portrait lens also for occasional close-ups up to 1:4 magnification
• But I don't use it for real macro because it does not have the magnification. Or if I push it there, it is no longer sharp.
• My tele zooms can be used up to 1:2 magnification and while the distance is fixed with close-up lens, the zoom feature makes them very versatile even for macro work
• But even my biggest zoom, the 75-300, struggles when it comes to mag 1:1.
• For me (as I do some macros hand hold and as I try to get moving insect),  fast AF is very important. Last year I used the 35mm macro and the 14-150 zoom quite often, at the end I preferred the 14-150 zoom over the 35mm macro simply because I missed so many shots with the extremely slow macro lens.

Chris