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Sony E 30mm f/3.5 macro (SEL-30M35) - Review / Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
Sony NEX
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2012
Introduction
The weakest spot of the Sony NEX system is the rather limited amount of lenses. Released in latest 2011 the Sony E 30mm f/3.5 macro was the fourth lens (type) for the system. At the time the community was fairly surprised about the specs - a slow speed and rather "wide" macro lenses is certainly not a priority for a new system. Anyway, macro lenses tend to be pretty good so this may be something to get excited about ... hopefully.
The build quality of the Sony lens is excellent: it is based on a metal lens body and a metal focus ring. The front element does not rotate and the physical length remains constant regardless of the focus setting. A small but efficient lens hood is supplied - regarding its size and design it can be left attached to the lens in all situations including storage.
The AF performance is pretty good for a contrast detection system (albeit highly dependent on the base camera). AF operations are basically noiseless. Manual focusing works "by wire" so the focus ring is not directly coupled to the focus gears but to the AF motor. DMF ("Direct Manual Focusing" in Single Shot AF mode) is supported.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length | 45 mm (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | f/5.3 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 7 elements in 6 groups inc. 1xED and 3x aspherical elements |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 |
| min. focus distance | 0.095 m (1:1), min. working distance 2.4cm |
| Dimensions | 62 x 55.5 mm |
| Weight | 138 g |
| Filter size | 49 mm |
| Hood | barrel-shaped, bayonet mount, supplied |
| Other features | - |
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