Image Quality
Be prepared for lots of superlatives in this section. Most macro lenses tend to be optically excellent; high magnification photography demands well-corrected optics. However the Sony 90mm puts itself in the top-tier even among macro lenses.
Sharpness
The Sony 90mm Macro is sharp, essentially everywhere, right from f/2.8. While the absolute corners aren’t tack sharp at f/2.8, they are plenty usable. It isn’t as sharp as it gets wide open, but stop down a bit and the images are extremely crisp from corner to corner. This is especially true from the macro range to medium focus distances, such would be used in portraiture. Check out the image below for a portrait example at f/2.8. To see the sharpness, click here for a 100% crop of the eyes. When shooting distant subjects, things aren’t quite as sharp at f/2.8 as they are closer up, but the lens still produces images with plenty of resolution. Stopped down, the 90mm is just as good at infinity as it is in the macro range.
The 90mm f/2.8 also performs very well on APS-C E-mount cameras. Using my a6000, I found that overall resolution is slightly worse than on full frame, but still excellent. Here, the 90mm has the same field of view as a classic 135mm lens on full frame, providing nice framing for portraits, as well as providing a bit more working distance when shooting macro (for the same framing).
Bokeh
The Sony 90mm has fairly good bokeh. Like almost all macro lenses, the bokeh is exceptionally creamy when shooting in the macro range. This is largely a function of the extreme amounts of blur created by the very shallow depth of field when focusing ultra-close. Further away, the bokeh is more hit and miss. In certain circumstances, backgrounds can become a bit busy, and there’s a swirly nature to the bokeh towards the edges of the frame. It’s never terrible in these situations, but it’s certainly not as smooth and nice as it is at closer focus distances. The image below shows the excellent blur capable in the macro range.
Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration
The Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro puts in an excellent performance when it comes to color and contrast. Color is rich and vibrant throughout the aperture and focus range, and contrast remains on a high level in all circumstances as well. There is a real bite to the images taken with this lens, with crisp detail and tone definition. At no point does any spherical aberration harm contrast, even at closest focusing distance.
Chromatic aberration is also extremely well controlled. While not apochromatic, it’s not too far off. Only the slightest hint of longitudinal CA can be seen in front of and behind the focus point and then only if viewing very high contrast subjects such as black text on white paper. Lateral CA is also very well controlled. A very impressive performance here indeed.
Distortion, Flare and Vignetting
Like most macro lenses, the Sony 90mm f/2.8 G has very low distortion. There is no field relevant distortion to speak of, as straight lines remain straight. Vignetting is decently controlled, with some visible corner darkening at f/2.8 that is mostly gone by f/4 and completely gone by f/5.6.
Flare generally isn’t a concern with this lens either. Part of that is due to the nature of the lens: as a telephoto lens, there often aren’t a lot of situations where this becomes an issue. Shooting into the sun, I saw no major ghosting. Some minor reduction of contrast in the vicinity of the sun was visible, but it’s still quite manageable. With smaller point light sources up close, some complex ghosting can be induced, but I don’t think it’s something that you need to worry about in everyday shooting.
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