One orchid family, three macro lenses

[bobcominitaly]

Every year I look forward to the wild orchids in our garden - this one is called serapias lingua, and I tried to photograph them with my three mf macro lenses on the A7. All shot @ f/8 - f/11, moderate postprocessing.

Canon Fd 50mm 3.5 - 1


Canon Fd 50mm 3.5 - 2


Tamron 52B sp 90mm 2.5 - 1


Tamron 52B sp 90mm 2.5 - 2


Kiron 105mm 2.8 macro - 1


Kiron 105mm 2.8 macro - 2


Imo the Canon is OK, but a little bit tending towards the average. Still, it is an excellent walkaround lens - light, sharp, flare-resistent and cheap.

The Tamron is my favourite. It needs a lens hood, but has excellent handling, sharpness and bokeh. I didn't use it with the matching 01F 2x teleconverter, because the price for reaching 1:1 is too high: 2 stops, added weight and less appealing bokeh.

The Kiron disappointed me a little - I had hoped for more sharpness and a better bokeh. But part of it may be user error. Lying on the ground, focusing with this heavy beast is not simple. Balance with the A7 is far from optimal, dof is extremely thin and at close focus it needs a lot of light - so forget about low ISO's and short exposures.

[jamaeolus]

Great shots. I think you are giving the Kiron short shrift. Those look very good to me. It is a bit large but I find it a fine lens. The only macro in that FL I like better is the VS1 90 2.5 by Tokina aka "Bokina". Both are excellent lenses. I am not familiar with the Tamron's so no comment there and the 50mm Canon FD macro is not quite in the same league but still very, very good.

[devinw]

The Tamron and Kiron both look great to me IMO.