Sony E-mount macro lenses and teleconverters

I wanted to follow up on a question of @Alex_Mustard in another thread

The Sony 90mm 2.8 G macro is not compatible with the Sony teleconverters for e-mount

The Sigma 105mm macro supports teleconverters for L-Mount (the sigma 1.4 and 2.0) but sigma does not make a teleconverter for e-mount that works with the macro lens

Apparently Sony themselves does not license 3rd parties to make teleconverters

At present the only way to increase magnification is a water contact optic

Take into account that both the Sony 90mm and Sigma 105mm have smallest aperture f/22 so you run out of depth of field quite easily

Did you try it? Because officially Nikon say the 105mm Macro doesn’t work with TCs either. I think sometimes they claim that to cover themselves. 

44 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

At present the only way to increase magnification is a water contact optic

Or adapting an EF-mount lens.

9 minutes ago, Alex_Mustard said:

Did you try it? Because officially Nikon say the 105mm Macro doesn’t work with TCs either. I think sometimes they claim that to cover themselves. 

This is the back end of a Sony 90mm:

I haven't tried it myself, but eyeballing it, the protruding element of the TC simply won't fit into that rectangular window.

Edit: The back end of a 70-200mm GM:

SEL14TC:

The protruding element is way too close for the contacts to fit into the SEL90M28G. You'd have to grind away parts of the baffle to make enough room for the TC to fit through, and it's right next to the control wires passing through the same plastic part.

You don't want to use an adapted lens for macro

It is true that CAF continues to work with certain adapters but is far from ideal and a teleconverter makes it harder to focus as well

Fisheye no worries long lens you need something with high performance

Good to know - thanks guys. 

I would never intend a macro + TC as a main lens - but it is a good option - where you would accept harder to shoot for a different capability. A TC and a port extension is a very travel friendly way to get a different focal length option. 

27 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

You don't want to use an adapted lens for macro

It is true that CAF continues to work with certain adapters but is far from ideal and a teleconverter makes it harder to focus as well

Fisheye no worries long lens you need something with high performance

I recall some reviews - possibly A7 III? - claiming that an adapted Canon EF 100mm performed better than the native 90mm. Personally, I use a Canon EF-S 60mm with Metabones IV for blackwater dives, where I've found the 90mm to be unusable on my A6300 body.

I recall some reviews - possibly A7 III? - claiming that an adapted Canon EF 100mm performed better than the native 90mm. Personally, I use a Canon EF-S 60mm with Metabones IV for blackwater dives, where I've found the 90mm to be unusable on my A6300 body.

16 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

A1 and 90mm works well I don’t see need for other solutions but I do have a kenko

Not everyone can justify dropping $6500 on a camera body. Yes, A1 is awesome, but it's a small minority of Sony E-mount cameras out there.

Not everyone can justify dropping $6500 on a camera body. Yes, A1 is awesome, but it's a small minority of Sony E-mount cameras out there.

1 minute ago, Interceptor121 said:

If your autofocus doesn’t work very well adapters and teleconverter normally don’t help
There are a lot of settings at least in the latests sony cameras to control autofocus i wonder if those make a difference

I tried various settings; the 90mm is just too slow on my body. The adapted Canon 60mm is not ideal - it has issues locking focus without plenty of light; I can see the focus drive cycling back and forth through its entire range, with the subject appearing in focus, but the lens going past that point and to the other end, then doing the same thing again - but when it does catch focus, it does so a lot faster than the Sony 90mm. At least in my personal experience, while the adapted macro lens is merely frustrating to shoot with, the 90mm wouldn't get me any shots at all. On regular dives the 90mm's sluggishness is less of an issue and I have no problem splashing down with it, but on blackwater, where everything moves in three dimensions, and most subjects are tiny, it's a different story.

I'm eagerly waiting for A1's sensor/autofocus technology to filter its way down into a more affordable body, preferably an APS-C one, but until that happens, I'm keeping the Canon 60mm in my bag.

I tried various settings; the 90mm is just too slow on my body. The adapted Canon 60mm is not ideal - it has issues locking focus without plenty of light; I can see the focus drive cycling back and forth through its entire range, with the subject appearing in focus, but the lens going past that point and to the other end, then doing the same thing again - but when it does catch focus, it does so a lot faster than the Sony 90mm. At least in my personal experience, while the adapted macro lens is merely frustrating to shoot with, the 90mm wouldn't get me any shots at all. On regular dives the 90mm's sluggishness is less of an issue and I have no problem splashing down with it, but on blackwater, where everything moves in three dimensions, and most subjects are tiny, it's a different story.
I'm eagerly waiting for A1's sensor/autofocus technology to filter its way down into a more affordable body, preferably an APS-C one, but until that happens, I'm keeping the Canon 60mm in my bag.

I tried both standard and green mode, AF-A, AF-S, AF-C, DMF, different focusing zones, different priorities, etc. Both lenses hunt, but the Canon 60mm does it a lot faster.

I tried both standard and green mode, AF-A, AF-S, AF-C, DMF, different focusing zones, different priorities, etc. Both lenses hunt, but the Canon 60mm does it a lot faster.

It doesn't.

It doesn't.

I'll get right into my time machine to tell the Sony engineers from 2015 (A6300 came out in 02/2016; I bought mine in 2017) to implement a feature that first appeared in 2019 (A7R IV).

3 minutes ago, Barmaglot said:

I'll get right into my time machine to tell the Sony engineers from 2015 (A6300 came out in 02/2016; I bought mine in 2017) to implement a feature that first appeared in 2019 (A7R IV).

Is that the first camera to have that option? I would conclude any previous ones will have the same issue

Dark scene camera runs the aperture dialled in when you press focus and hunts

I suppose A7V will have it and with A7RIV A7RV and A1 makes those cameras the only real options for underwater macro

Looking through manuals, I see it first appearing in A7R III (but not A7 III); however, it only has 'Standard' and 'Silent' settings. The 'Focus Priority' setting first appears in A7R IV and also exists in A7 IV. It does not appear in any crop sensor camera manuals - I looked at A6400, A6600, ZV-E10 and FX30. However, the autofocus in A7(R)IV is not considered to be anywhere near as good as A1's class-leading system, so I doubt this feature alone is the wunderwaffe you seem to consider it to be. As I understand it, A1's stacked sensor provides much faster readout speeds that allow its autofocus to function faster and more accurately than the older cameras', but it's also the major contributor to its exorbitant cost.

2 minutes ago, Barmaglot said:

Looking through manuals, I see it first appearing in A7R III (but not A7 III); however, it only has 'Standard' and 'Silent' settings. The 'Focus Priority' setting first appears in A7R IV and also exists in A7 IV. It does not appear in any crop sensor camera manuals - I looked at A6400, A6600, ZV-E10 and FX30. However, the autofocus in A7(R)IV is not considered to be anywhere near as good as A1's class-leading system, so I doubt this feature alone is the wunderwaffe you seem to consider it to be. As I understand it, A1's stacked sensor provides much faster readout speeds that allow its autofocus to function faster and more accurately than the older cameras', but it's also the major contributor to its exorbitant cost.

There are two parts to it

1. Available light. If you are in the dark and the lens focuses with the aperture closed you will have an issue

2. Speed of computation: mostly relevant for burst

If your camera focuses better with a canon adapted lens it is because the Canon EF system like other DSLR systems focuses with the lens wide open. 

Computations influence speed of focus but do not help if the sensor does not have enough light and can't focus at all

6 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

If your camera focuses better with a canon adapted lens it is because the Canon EF system like other DSLR systems focuses with the lens wide open. 

Looking down the 90mm lens as I half-press the shutter, with the camera set to manual mode and f/22, I can see it moving with the aperture wide-open, then stop moving and clamp down the aperture. This is in AF-S and DMF modes. In AF-C it goes for the initial lock with the aperture wide-open, then stops down and tries to keep tracking with the aperture at shooting setting.