Love shooting with the Sony 90mm macro, you can get amazing deals here on ebay, as many sell this wonderful lens after their Batis arrived. I love the macro option, being able to go as close as I need without being limited by the minimum focus distance. Bokeh might not be as buttery at 2.8 as with the Batis at 1.8, however, due to the longer focal lenght it compares to the Batis at approx 2.2. In this shot I was inspired by the 135mm STF, which is -was- on my wish list, was, due to the fantastic af capabilities of the A7rII I haven’t been inspired to use my mf lenses for still shoots…….
the unedited version with bokeh out of the camera after the break
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Yes, the 90mm is underrated as a portrait lens and in many ways superior to the Batis.
Interesting comments Mike, which tend to agree with my very recent experience with this lens. It is very much a “Minolta/Sony G” lens in the way it draws and renders – very good resolution but without excessive contrast enhancement to make it look very “sharp”. The fall off from in focus to out of focus is quite gentle, so it tends not to give that very “3D cut-out” look, but the quality of the bokeh is pretty good. I actually think for E mount users it is the nearest equivalent to the 135mm STF in the way it draws – the STF too had good resolution but was not excessively “sharp”. I have mixed feelings about the 85mm f1.8 Zeiss Batis – the contrast is very hard and it is clearly optimised for very high “sharpness”, which I find can be a little tiring when used on the A7s, which already has a quite hard gritty look at pixel level. The bokeh behind the plane of focus can also be pretty bad – I was horrified when I saw some out of focus rough concrete where every lighter point had become a nissen ring, and looked very harsh. Personally, I think the Batis is a little over-rated purely because people are seduced by the “wow!” sharpness factor – whereas I think the FE 90mm is under-rated because it’s “only” f2.8, yet actually renders very nicely indeed in my opinion. Similar focal lengths but in almost eveyr way, very different lenses.