Like any year websites report about those new EISA awards. Sony won two of them with the 90mm FE and Sony A7II. And just like any year these kind of awards look like made in a way that every company gets a price in at least one of the many categories. Yeah, I guess companies need that award logo to promote their brand in stores.
Photographyblog reviewed the 90mm FE lens and writes:
It delivers outstanding sharpness in the centre of the frame almost throughout its aperture range and it also doesn’t suffer from distortion even when shooting in the RAW format. It offers quite fast and reliable auto-focusing on the new A7R II that we tested it with, plus intuitive manual focusing thanks to the push/pull collar and an outstanding level of build quality given the budget price – it’s even usefully weather-tight too.
90mm links:
In USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, [shoplink 37938 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
In Europe at [shoplink 37991 ebay]Fotomundus[/shoplink], Amazon Germany, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony FR, Sony IT, Sony ES, Sony NL, Sony BE, Sony AT, Sony CH, Sony SE, Sony FI, Sony NO, Sony PT.
In Asia at Digitalrev, Sony Australia.
For UK readers:
You have a big Gold Box deal on the Zeiss 16-70mm E-mount lens at Amazon UK (Click here and than scroll the horizontal bar).
45 Responses
Andrea you forgot to add Sony HX90V too
These are the 2015-2016 awards…yet they were anounced in August of 2015…many months before 2016 even begins!
The Canon 5ds/r cameras were released about one month before the Sony a7rii, but these awards were convienintly timed so both the 5ds and 5dsr shared the award while the a7rii was not even eligible.
An award for the a7ii is nice but is less usefully to Sony than an award for the a7rii that most certainly would have taken the catagorry instead.
Clearly this is a deliberate but subtle attempt to boost 5ds/r sales over a7rii sale…!
The 90mm macro fe was in my opinion the best choice to win its catagory..this is a fantastic lens.
Like the a7r2 needs help getting sold.
Sony is in a battle for market share with Canon right now.
A7rii is thier best hope of winning that market share, and the 5ds/r are the Canon cameras that most directly compete.
If Canon loses this battle the will need to make changes to compete…those changes may include buying Sony sensors…..or making universally compatable lens/cameras that need to compete on a product for product basis….Canon does not want to see things change and is struggling to maintain the current status quo.
If Sony wins this battle we may see an end to every mount being proprietary and photographers being lenslockrd int a single system.
As consumers I think it is best for us if Sony wins this battle and forces the rest of the industry to make these changes in order to compete.
the irony is e lenses are the most locked in i think? you cant adapt them to anything else…
e-mount is an open standard anyone can make lenses for without reverse engineering or paying sony for.
I think there is more irony in that 😉
I am not sure if that is totally true or not….while I do believe everyone can make E mount lenses and adapters I am not certain if anyone can make a camera with a native E mount.
Does anyone know if that can be done?
I’m not 100% sure but I think it is open just fort lenses not bodies.
That is why I would like to see E mount establishr as the mirrorless standard mount…similar to micro 4/3 or Arca Swiss.
Everybody buying sony sensors already. you don’t want a monopoly on a critical end. I kinda hope samsung or some company tied to SMIC or TSMC releases a sensor that can compete with them.
as it now they can pretty much do as please with the market.
Samsung are the Elephant in the room where technology companies are concerned, they’ll go head to head with Sony, as they have with Apple, and that’s a good thing for the end-user!
You don’t think that these awards are announced at pretty much the same time every year?
Nice conspiracy theory, though.
These awards are a joke anyway. Every system got it’s dibs in. Like… XT10 really? And the Lecia Q?
Agreed, I think it could win even outside of the “compact system lens” category.
It was just a jaw dropping moment for me when I realised it could resolve higher resolution than the top Otus lens, pound for pound.
About the FE90, sliding the ring to manual focus, do we really engage it mechanically, or is it still by wire?
Half way through 2015 we get the 2015/2016 awards… Makes sense. Well I’m better than all of them. The A7R just won my “Best Camera of the 26th Century” award.
I just might have to rent this macro. Can it be that good? Curiosity is starting to get the best of me.
I’m not a professional, but I use it almost every day. In my opinion it’s sharper than the 55/1.8 with the A7RII and it works also fine for things out of macro:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91288446@N06/albums
besides the “sony 90/2.8 Makro” album you can also find a lot of pictures in the others (almost any picture since the begin of july).
Do not waste your time renting it…buy it!
It is not that good …it is much, much better!
The combination of a7rii and fe 90mm f2.8 macro is as good as it gets!!!!!!!!!
Bought the 85 batis instead of the 90. I liked the smaller lens and I don’t do any macro shots, but maybe it’s because I don’t have a macro lens, haha. I guess I was just sucked in by zeiss. I hope to come across some one who has this lens to give it a go, especially since I am still waiting the arrival of both batis lenses. I am enjoying the the 7rII. So far it has been outstanding and love the size vs my 1dx. It will make for a great all around camera and 2nd body during game days.
Do you have an FE camera? Besides, renting is not that expensive. Worth the shot for sure.
Just sold it…like literally. I plan on upgrading by trying out the A7II first. I want the image stabilization and better build. I think it’s worth whatever the cost is to upgrade at this point.
i just put my a7r up for sale last night..i was going to keep it but seems a waste when an a6000 is my runaround.. what do you think is a fair asking price that moved it quickly?
That’s tough. I’d probably say 1100.00 if you really want to move it faster. You can grab them on amazon for under 1200.00- a few of them. I would think a really fast ebay sale would be 1k- but you should be able to get at least 100 more IMO. Can’t believe how cheap those are going for now.
The tech moves forward. I was kinda bummed out when the a7r2 showed up on my doorstep just because it was a big chunk of change but after using it for five minutes I was ready to sell the a7r
Hell, while you are renting, might as well try it out on the new A7Rii
I use it mainly as a portrait lens on my A7II, and yeah it really is that good. At least as sharp as the FE 55mm.
“and an outstanding level of build quality given the budget price”.
Budget price?! Haha, good one.
I have this lens and it’s great, but I’m not sitting here patting myself on the back for grabbing a bargain.
lol
I think it’s relatively speaking. If you compare it to the FE 35mm f/1.4 which costs 1600 USD. Or even one of the Otus lens at 4000 USD.
1100 USD for the #1 sharpest lens in DXO is pretty fairly priced in my opinion. It also has 15 glass elements, so it would be incredibly hard to make it cheaper.
I’m willing to bet there are not many people who would refer to it as a budget lens.
Yes it’s sharp, yes it’s well built and yes it has lots of elements. But it isn’t a budget lens.
Yup, people these days seem to confuse “great price/performance” with “budget”. Those two can be the same, but not always.
I also find the nice even spread of awards each year among the brands most convenient. Having met some of the eisa members and hearing one or two things about how these people are treated/pampered by the various brands I’m thinking of starting my own awards 😉
So with the proliferation of mirrorless cameras, it is still classified as “compact”?
How come this award giving body does not have a separate category for “mirrorless”?
Maybe because traditional DLSR companies (Canon, NIkon, etc.) don’t have good cameras in that class?
what? is that how you manually focus with the 90mm? no focus ring? ” intuitive manual focusing thanks to the push/pull collar”
Nope, the push/pull just switches between AF and MF. You still turn the ring for focus
ok thanks!
Definitely gonna buy FE90 macro after I receive my next pay check, if not earlier.
Can’t do that. Bad idea…I suffer from GAS. I certainly would buy it. Everytime I rent from lensrentals it’s like…I want to buy stuff. Actually, I do end up buying stuff. Hehe. A7RII is pretty nice.
Relax bro! (you’re probably so agitated that my usage of that word pissed you off). No need to buy. Just tell yourself that. BTW, what’s your preferred rentals shop?
I was being sarcastic:) I rent from lensrentals- they’re pretty awesome. I think I’m going to just spring for their HD. Covers shipping for any rental for a year. Not a bad deal at all!
Sounds awesome. This is the way to enjoy FE for now I think. If on the edge, just rent the body for a plethora of lenses.
About the FE90, sliding the ring to manual focus, do we really engage it mechanically, or is it still by wire?
I wonder how much all those brands pay for these awards. It must be big bussiness. I don’t care for awards, i care about what a camera can do for me…
if you had any e-mount Sony & this lens you wouldn’t have said such a silly thing.