Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro
E-Mount APS-C 1:1 Macro (2011-)
Sony E 30mm f/3.5 Macro (APS-C, 49mm filters, 4.8 oz./137g, 1:1 repro ratio, 0.32'/0.095m close focus, $278 new or about $175 used if you know How to Win at eBay). bigger. I'd get mine at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
April 2019 Sony Sony Lenses Zeiss Nikon Canon Fuji LEICA All Reviews
Sample Images
Top Sample Images Intro Format
Shot hand-held as Standard JPG; no RAW or FINE JPGs or tripods were used or needed.
Lizard on the wall, 27 April 2019. Sony A6400, Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro, f/8 at 1/200 at Auto ISO 100, Perfectly Clear. bigger or full-resolution or camera-original © file.
Crop from above. bigger or full-resolution or camera-original © file.
Introduction
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This Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro is a weightless normal and macro lens for Sony's E-mount APS-C cameras. It focuses right up to the front of the lens, so close that your biggest concern is how not to block your own light!
Better than most macro lenses it autofocuses very quickly all the way into and out of the macro range, and it focuses silently. It also has no distortion, even uncorrected.
This 30mm lens sees the same angle of view on APS-C cameras as a 45mm lens sees on full frame.
This lens is is all plastic on the inside, with a metal mount and aluminum vanity cover on the outside, so it weighs next to nothing. You can take it everywhere and have it ready for anything, or just use it all the time as your only and/or normal lens.
I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Good
1:1 ultra-close macro focusing.
No distortion, so no need for correction.
Fast and silent autofocusing, especially in and out of the macro range.
Simple optical design make it very resistant to flare and ghosts.
Aluminum external trim.
Tiny.
Light.
Inexpensive.
Bad
Electronic focus ring, like most mirrorless lenses, has no direct mechanical connection to the optics. It only works when you have the camera set just right.
Offshored China; not made domestically in Japan.
Missing
Non-compensating aperture design. In the unlikely event you're using a hand-held manual exposure meter or manual studio strobes you'll have to compensate your exposure manually at close focus distances to allow for natural light loss.
No focus or depth-of-field scales.
No aperture ring.
No Optical Steady Shot Image Stabilization.
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro. bigger.
Format
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I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This is an APS-C (cropped-sensor) lens and I'm testing it as such.
It also works on full-frame cameras, which automatically crop their sensors to APS-C.
Compatibility
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I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This is an APS-C (cropped-sensor) lens that works on all Sony E-mount cameras. This includes all the variations of NEX, A9-, A7-, A6xxx and A5xxx series cameras.
Full-frame cameras will automatically crop to APS-C.
It will not mount on any Sony A-mount DSLR or any Minolta MAXXUM 35mm SLR of any kind. Those use the old A mount which was actually the Minolta MAXXUM mount from 1987.
Specifications
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I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Name
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro. bigger.
Sony calls this the E 30mm F3.5 Macro:
E: E-mount.
Macro: Focuses very close.
Sony's model number is SEL30M35.
Optics
Sony E 30mm f/3.5 internal optical construction. Aspherical and ED elements. smaller.
7 elements in 6 groups.
Three Aspherical elements.
One ED element
Internal focus.
Diaphragm
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro (diaphragm not seen). bigger.
7 rounded blades.
Stops down to f/22.
Focal Length
30mm.
When used on APS-C, it sees the same angle of view as a 45mm lens sees when used on a full-frame camera.
See also Crop Factor.
Angle of View
50° diagonal on APS-C.
Autofocus
Internal focus.
No external movement as focused, so no air or dust is sucked in.
Close Focus
0.32 feet (3.75" or 0.095 meters) from the image sensor.
About a half inch (1cm) from the front of the lens.
Maximum Reproduction Ratio
1:1 (1.0×) life size.
Optical Stabilizer
None.
Filters
49mm filter thread.
Hood
Included Sony ALC-SH113 Hood. bigger.
Weird little bayonet Sony ALC-SH113 Hood included.
It's like a bayonet lens cap with a pseudo-rectangular hole cut in it.
It also has a 49mm filter thread, so you can leave it on all the time and put your filters or cap right on it.
Size
2.44" maximum diameter × 2.19" extension from flange.
62.0 mm maximum diameter × 55.5 mm extension from flange.
Weight
4.845 oz. (137.4g) actual measured weight.
Rated 4.9 oz (138g).
Included
Lens (SEL30M35).
ALC-SH113 hood.
ALC-F49S front and ALC-R1EM rear cap.
Announced
2011.
Shipping Since
Spring 2012.
Sony Model Number
SEL30M35.
Price, USA
April 2019
$278 new or about $175 used if you know How to Win at eBay.
Performance
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Overall Autofocus Bokeh Distortion
Ergonomics Falloff Flare & Ghosts
I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Overall
This weightless Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro focuses fast and close and takes great pictures, for a bargain price.
Autofocus
Autofocus is fast and silent.
It's exceptional for a macro lens, which usually take a while to motor all the way in and out of the macro range. This lens, at least on the latest Sony A6400, silently focuses at any range, fast.
Bokeh
Bokeh, the feel or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is fair to good.
Here's a photo from headshot distance wide-open:
Davis 6250 weather station, 28 April 2019. bigger or camera-original © file.
As with all lenses, if you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible shoot wide open (f/3.5) and get as close as possible.
Distortion
There is an invisible bit of barrel distortion. Use a a correction factor of +0.40 in Photoshop's lens correction filter for critical use at 3 meters/10 feet, or turn on your camera's automatic correction, (usually at MENU > Camera 1 > Lens Comp. > Distortion Comp. > Auto) and it all goes away even for critical use.
This is excellent performance.
Ergonomics
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro. bigger.
There's an electronic focus ring and that's it.
It's all hard aluminum on the outside.
Falloff
Falloff is invisible with the camera's default correction ON (usually at MENU > Camera 1 > Lens Comp. > Shading Comp. > Auto).
I've greatly exaggerated it here by shooting pure gray and displaying it against more gray. It won't look this bad in actual photos::
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro falloff at infinity, correction ON.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
If you go out of your way to turn correction OFF then you can see some at f/3.5 and maybe f/4, and for actual photos (not tests of flat fields) it's gone by f/5.6:
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro falloff at infinity, correction turned OFF.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Flare & Ghosts
It has a very simple optical design, so there are few air-to-glass surfaces to lead to reflections that cause flare and ghosts, thus this is a very flare-resistant lens.
See samples at Sunstars.
Lateral Color Fringes
There are no lateral color fringes as shot on Sony's cameras which usually correct for them anyway. This is excellent performance.
Macro Performance
It gets very close, and it's very sharp at f/8:
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance at f/8, 27 April 2019. bigger or camera-original © file.
The laws of physics make the depth of field nonexistent at macro distances for all lenses. In this shot only the surface of the right dial face is in focus, and the pivot of the hand on the left. I hand-held this; the watch isn't flat to the camera.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same large magnification would be about 10 × 15" (25 × 38cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 20 × 30" (50 × 75cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same insanely high magnification would be about 40 × 60" (1 × 1.5 meters).
Mechanical Quality
Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro. bigger.
This Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro is all plastic on the inside, with a plastic filter ring but a metal mount and aluminum outer skin and manual focus ring.
Sharpness
Lens sharpness has nothing to do with picture sharpness; every lens made in the past 100 years is more than sharp enough to make super-sharp pictures if you know what you're doing. The only limitation to picture sharpness is your skill as a photographer. It's the least talented who spend the most time worrying about lens sharpness. Skilled photographers make great images with whatever camera is in their hands; I've made some of my best images of all time with an irreparably broken camera! Most pixels are thrown away before you see them, but camera makers don't want you to know that.
This lens is always super-sharp throughout most of the image, even in the laboratory wide-open at f/3.5.
While most macro lenses are insanely sharp everywhere else in the image at every setting, this is a sub-$300 made-in-China special which is softer in the laboratory on the sides and in the corners at larger apertures. You won't see this softness in actual pictures, but in the lab it's softer wide-open at f/3.5 on the sides, which improve as stopped down.
MTF.
Sunstars
With a rounded 7-blade diaphragm this 30mm macro only makes sunstars on brilliant points of light at the smallest apertures, but they actually do look pretty good at f/11 and smaller.
Click any to enlarge:
Click any to enlarge.
Recommendations
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This Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro is an ultralight lens ideal for use as a normal and macro lens, and for when you want to carry as little as possible. Take only this lens by itself to travel light, and you'll have a blast shooting everything.
If you're serious about macro, know that a lens this short (30mm) often requires you get so close that you will block your own light since you may be closer than an inch from the front of the lens. Take off the hood to help with this at very close distances.
If you're serious about macro, you deserve Sony's extraordinary 90mm f/2.8 G macro. It's not that it's sharper in the lab (it is but it doesn't matter in actual pictures), it's that you have three times as much distance between the front of your lens and your subject so you don't block your light, and that this longer distance usually renders subjects with a more natural perspective.
For under $300 you can't go wrong with this little lens. Everyone deserves a macro lens, and if this is as far as you want to go with this (ha ha), this is a great little lens you always can take with you so you'll actually get to use it.
I'd get my Sony 30mm f/3.5 Macro at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
I use a clear (UV) protective filter instead of a cap. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear, otherwise I leave a clear protective filter on my lens at all times instead of a cap so I'm ready to shoot instantly.
The very best protective filter is the Multicoated Hoya HD 49mm which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints.
For less money, the B＋W 49mm 010 is an excellent filter, as are the multicoated B＋W and the basic multicoated Hoya filters, but the Hoya HD is the toughest and the best.
Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best. The Hoya HD stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt.
This junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Sony does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, store demo or used lens. I use the stores I do because they ship from secure remote warehouses where no one gets to touch your new lens before you do. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
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