Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Eddie Duncan photo
1 Level
779 Review
71 Karma

Review on ๐Ÿ“ธ Sony SEL30M35 30mm f/3.5 Macro Fixed Lens with e-mount by Eddie Duncan

Revainrating 5 out of 5

My favorite lens from the Sony SEL lens series.

At one point I've owned virtually every SEL lens from 16mm to 210mm and this is the one lens I wouldn't want to lose sight of. My two main lenses for hiking are the Sigma 19 and 30, and I prefer to shoot portraits with the Carl Zeiss 1.4/50 for Contax/Yashica, which I have 50% cheaper on the market. But for working with macros? SEL30M35 only. I had a lot of fun with this lens and it always gets a lot of compliments from me. I use it with NEEWERยฎ Macro Ring LED Light - Works with Canon/Sony/Nikon/Sigma lenses which also doubles as a stand when photographing flat items such as currency etc. Tip: go to a dollar store and get some glass photos. Frame, use them to flatten the sample and just leave the camera on the ring light. I've done this with the NEX-C3, NEX-7 and ILCE-6000, none of these three bodies plus the SEL30M35 are too heavy so mount a Neewer and it will provide perfect focal plane parallelism. And because of the way the annular light is constructed, even if the light is flush with the sample, it will radiate towards the center of the image. put them in PS Elements and used some of the actions I downloaded. Instant focus on the stack. The tutorial I used is at: http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77567 (it contains the PS Elements steps needed to align layers and put them in a to shuffle batches). Pros: Fantastic lens, easy to use and very affordable. Disadvantages: none. It used to annoy me that it's f/3.5 so I stopped using it, but it's a matter of training and experience. Now I don't hesitate to take it with me when I need something even sharper than my two Sigmas. Unfortunately there is no way to label the images: 1. Bee: This is the focus stack as I described above.2. Pen: Portable, the pen is held in the SE MZ101B Helping Hand Magnifier 3. NEX-7, SEL30M35, Neewer Macro Ring Light on the $1 photo frame used to take photos 5 and 6 below.4. US quarters, focus on the bet. 5, 6. Note in US dollars. Update: Somehow Revain removed the images from my review and I don't see an option to add them back, so here are the urls: 1. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rmZ3v4zzD_U/Ul72_j3-8eI/AAAAAAAD59g /xn4F3KE15pI/ w1428-h952-no/bee.jpg2. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-X6vghUee4IY/UOUS6AAinpI/AAAAAAABxdo/pVGLIZH1t2k/w1428-h952-no/DSC02234_Snapseed.jpg3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4zIKtJ1prAI/UPGWD1ZVmVI/AAAAAABybU/DNNZsEJFDpI/s1600/DSC04005_DxO.jpg4. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-89KTrkAs6oc/UN551_RNdfI/AAAAAAABvOk/HsW4EpawzHA/w1428-h952-no/DSC01714_Snapseed.jpg5. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JlNzQmroepw/UN554HVStuI/AAAAAAABvPU/M4nbz3fdQzo/w1428-h952-no/DSC01728_Snapseed.jpg6. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-D7yVm8U_98k/UN553eIKsFI/AAAAAAABvPE/v4GQ-q9jYbw/w1428-h952-no/DSC01727_Snapseed.jpg

Pros
  • Extremely portable and versatile for everyday use
Cons
  • Annoys