The Sony E 30mm F3.5 macro lens is the cheapest APS-C E mount lens available from Sony and the second cheapest Sony E mount lens behind the FE 50mm F1.8 lens for full frame cameras (at the time of writing).
Is this lens a good budget option for those enthusiasts looking to get into macro photography without breaking the bank and at this price point does it deliver those amazing close-up shots that can amaze the viewer.
Is the price of this too good to be true? Does this lens have any drawbacks or flaws? And most importantly, is it worth your hard-earned money?
First off, let’s talk about the build quality and design of this lens. It’s made of plastic, which makes it lightweight and easy to carry around, while it is very compact and lightweight at 138g, it’s metal mount and aluminium exterior, does give it a nice feel.
But you do notice that less than premium feel when compared to much heavier better built lens like this Sigma 16mm, or (one of my other lenses) the Neewer 35mm lens, which despite not being as long as the Sony, weighs almost 40g more thanks to it’s all metal body.
Despite it feeling a less than premium compared to some of the more expensive lenses out there. That being said, because it’s a Sony lens, it’s still a solid lens that feels like it can take a bit of wear and tear.
Unfortunately this lens is only available in the silver colour, I do prefer lenses that match the aesthetic and colour of the camera, so when I put this on my (black) ZV-E10, it doesn’t look as good as my other lenses which complete the e all black setup.
The lens has an electronic focus ring, which is smooth and responsive, but it only works when the camera is set to manual focus mode, if it’s not in manual focus then the ring is totally redundant.
The lens has a simple optical design of seven elements in six groups, with one ED element and three aspherical elements to reduce aberrations and distortions. It has a maximum aperture of F3.5, with stops all the way down to F22.
This lens is designed for APS-C cameras, so because of the crop factor you get with APSC cameras and any lens that is attached, you won’t be getting the advertised 30mm but an equivalent focal length of 45mm instead.
With dedicated macro lenses, one of the important features is knowing what the magnification ratio is, with this lens, you’re getting a 1:1 magnification, which means you can capture life-size images of your tiny subjects and still get those amazing details.
The other important feature in a macro lens is its minimum focus distance, on this lens it’s 9.5cm. I’ll discuss this distance a more later on in this article as to why this minimum focus distance has its advantages and disadvantages.
The accessories you get in the box are a very small lens hood, which doesn’t add too much additional bulk to the lens and is more like a mask that clips onto the front of the lens. Compared to traditional lens hoods, I’m not sure how much protection from stray light you’re going to get with this on, but it will certainly protect the front of the lens from surface damage.
If you like to attach filters to your lenses, then the thread supports 49mm filters
Being a prime lens, you’ll be getting a finely tuned and optimised lens for that one specific focal length, 30mm (45mm equivalent in the case of APSC cameras), which will allow it the produce sharper images and have a more simpler design compared to zoom lenses.
The main feature of this lens is its macro capability. The lens can focus as close as 9.5 cm, and that’s from the sensor plane not the lens itself, which means you can get very close to your subject and fill the frame with details. However, this also means that you have a very short working distance, which can be challenging for some macro situations.
For example, if you want to take shots of insects or flowers, you might scare them away or block your own light source by getting too close to them. You might also have some difficulty composing your shots or holding the camera steady at such close distances. So you might want to use a tripod or a flash to get better results.
The autofocus performance of this lens is fast and silent, especially in and out of the macro range, but the autofocus speed is something that is common with Sony lenses. But if you’re like me and doing a lot of macro, with this macro lens, then I do find that I’m often only using manual focus mode, whether that’s doing me single shots or focus stacked images.
It has no optical stabilisation, so you might want to use a higher shutter speed, a tripod or a camera with in-body stabilisation to avoid camera shake when taking your macro shots.
Now let’s talk about image quality. This lens is sharp and produces great images. With them being excellent in the centre of the frame. The sharpness at f/3.5 is already very good, and it improves further as you stop down to f/8, where it reaches its peak performance. The edges of the frame are not as sharp as the centre, but they are still decent enough for most purposes.
It’s not the best in low light, it’s F3.5 aperture will be fine in conjunction with a flash, bright natural light and for macro shots.
The lens also has good contrast and colour rendition, making your images look vivid and natural. The colours are vibrant and the contrast is good. However, there is some distortion at the edges of the frame, which is to be expected with a lens at this price point.
The bokeh quality of this lens is ok, but not exceptional, but with an f-stop of F3.5 you are going to be limited, particularly if you like the background defocus look. But despite this, the len’s seven-blade diaphragm will still creates smooth out-of-focus areas when shooting at wide apertures or close distances.
Overall, I think the Sony E 30mm f/3.5 Macro lens is a great option for anyone at that enthusiast level who wants to explore macro photography without breaking the bank, who may be upgrading from other more budget methods like magnification lenses like these, that screw on to existing lenses that artificially bring the macro possibility to lenses that have much further minimum focus distances.
It’s a sharp, compact, and affordable lens that can capture stunning details of small subjects with it’s 1:1 magnification, and it also doubles as a normal prime lens that can be used for everyday shooting or portraits.
However, it also has some limitations that you need to be aware of, such as, its lack of stabilisation, bokeh quality and its short working distance, which could be the difference between you getting the shot, scaring away your subject or even causing a shadow from your flash. But with lens capable of doing macro photography, if you want a better specs, then you will have to spend more money.
So, does the budget price mean you have to sacrifice quality? While it may not be as sturdy as some of the more expensive lenses out there, it still produces great images and has some amazing macro capabilities. If you’re looking for a budget option for macro photography, this lens is definitely worth considering.
Thanks for reading! If you want to check out the video version of this article which also features some of the test macro shots that I took with the Sony 30mm F3.5 lens, check out the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KapkYe-oFcU