Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

portrait and macro photos

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

If you are like me you like to walk around as a tourist, or in your own backyard, with a single lens and try make the most of it. Often the lens you select will be a normal zoom in an attempt to cover more of your bases. You long for the light weight and small size of a prime, but fear you might be missing something if you only carry a 50mm.Enter the 50mm 2.8 Macro!On a Full size body is is your standard walk around normal that allows you to take it as close to that action as you can get, even up to 1:1. This lens has allowed me to capture more Macro shots by the very fact it is always with me. Instead of leaving the larger short telephoto dedicated macro at home I can carry around this little guy that is more suitable for street photography with its normal focal length.Perfectly sharp, light and compact, the only thing missing is a nicer build quality and internal focusing design. (I am looking at the excellent Nikon 60mm AFS when I say this.) Don't get me wrong, this lens is a champ, it could just be built a little better given the [$] price tag.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

I bought this lens primarily to use its macro capabilities with an old "copy slide attachment" by Nikon (the es-1), with the purpose of doing a quick and dirty "scan" of thousand of old slides.

Seeing the magnitude of the project, I did not have time yet to test the lens in any other use than copying slides (roughly macro 1:1.5). For this, it works superbly. The focus limiter is a nice feature, and the autofocus worked well for all but a few slides, but seeing these were shot in extreme fog, I cannot blame the lens...

From what I see, all the macro shots are sharp at f8.0.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

I appraise personal property and often have to take close up photos in poorly lit environments where a flash may not be permitted. I recently purchased a Sony A-330 with an 18-55mm standard lens to replace a Nikon Coolpix 5400 that I had been using. I found that the Sony with the standard lens would not autofocus close enough to be effective for the macro photography that I required. Hence the 50mm macro lens. Fiddling around with the macro lens, I found that in order to get good close ups I had to use the manual focus mode. When I used the manual focus mode, the standard lens produced acceptable results as well. That said, the 50mm macro lens is noticeably sharper than the zoom lens and will produce better results in a museum environment. It will also, because of the shorter depth of field, provide better portraits in my time off. If I had to do over again I might have waited for the 30mm macro and used it as my normal lens. I docked the rating one star because the focusing ring is awkwardly located at the front of the lens, and the lens cap does not have provision for a leash.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

This lens is quite usable wide open and really nice and sharp when you stop it down a little.
My two minor beefs are: 1. It's an external focusing lens which can be a slight inconvienience when using it in the macro mode.
2. It's not supplied with a lens hood because the lens is sunken into the front of the barrel but, when you put a filter on (and who doesn't at least use a UV for lens protection) the effect of the sunken front element is negated.
Both of these problems are minor, and can be worked around. The optics are great and I have no propblem recomending this lens. If you're going to use filters I would recomend buying a 55mm colapsable rubber lens hood to screw into the filter.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

I love this lens. Super sharp, and great colors. Does very well in low-light.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

Very sharp - this is another world compared to the zoom lenses with macro function I was used to.
Auto-focus is sometimes problematic, hunts in and out and sometimes does not lock at all. Focus limiter swich is useful to reduce this problem.
Much more compact than the 70/90/100 etc macro lenses and more versatile, great also for landscapes etc.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

easy to use, very versatile lens.
stunning macro images.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

As a photography student I've been tasked with assignments requiring a lens with close up capability and a wide aperture. So far I've experimented with shots of flowers and jewelery. The clarity and detail I've achieved with varying light conditions convinces me I'll do fine with my intended end use of detail shots of small equipment and mechanical parts for instructional purposes in business. No real downside to this lens, although it's obvious I have not yet tapped it's full potential. I expect that to come as I learn more.

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

Great lens with superb image quality. The clarity and sharpness are great. The external focusing is bothersome when trying to shoot extreme macro.

Expertise: Semi Pro - College level

Items I Recommend: Bogen/Manfrotto Tripod

Comments about Sony SAL-50M28 Normal AF D 50mm f/2.8 Macro Autofocus Lens:

I have owned the Minolta maxxum 50mm 2.8 macro. The Sony is the same lens, so a review of one is a review of the other. I also own other top (and expensive) maxxum lenses. The quality of this lens is amazing. And the optical imaging is just fantastic. On slow slide film (fuji astia 100f) the resolution, sharpness, contrast, and color fidelity are simply shocking. Optically, it is the best lens I own and on the Sony a100 would give a view that would be given by a 75mm focal length on a film maxxum. The lenses I have compared it to include: Tamron 90mm Macro, Sigma 105mm macro, maxxum 100mm macro, Vivitar 100mm macro, and maxxum STF 135mm. That being said, all of the lenses perform extremely well.

Problems Encountered: I dropped it on the floor.

Previous Equivalent Items Owned: Tamron macro, Sigma macro, Vivitar macro, maxxum macro

Items I Recommend: Protective filter