what lens is best for my slt a-77

[wilkilad]

i have a sony alpha a-77 i have the startard lens for the camera but in june i am going to see the british super bikes at would like to get some fantastic close up shots ive been looking through alot and seemily the 400mm lens is the best for its price but would like a little more help if thats possible never done anything like this so yeah haha kind regards liam

[GoNz0-]

what's your budget ?

[Si_1966]

I use to own the Sony 70-400mm and used it on my A77. The results were breath taking and if you can afford it it would be my recommendation. It is one of the best zooms out there.

Si

[DistantMelody]

Hello

Is 70-400 the large grey lens that needs a special tripod? Can it be used as a macro lens? What is the best macro lens for A77 (regardless of price)?

[Bieomax]

i'd probably check out the Sony A mount lens database over at dyxum Here 

Macro wise will depend how far you want to go into it? if your wanting just 1:1 reproduction most of the sony ones are nice just depends on what sort of working distance you want between your lens and the subject.

people that go greater then 1:1 generally start either using pairs of lenses one reverse mounted to the other via the filter thread lenses of which then you get a hugh amount of options.

There is even a rare Minolta lens which will mount to your camera Minolta AF 3x-1x 1.7-2.8 macro but from some of the macro pro's on dyxum you are better off using the right pair of reverse mounted lenses.

I'm very happy with my minolta 100mm 2.8 macro lense which Sony still produces today with no real changes.

the greatest thing i could say is no matter what lens you use is to get a focusing rail to put between your camera and tripod and use focus stacking which will help with the very thin depth of field you get if your going for greater magnification.

Mark.

[DistantMelody]

Thank you Mark

It is a lot of new information. I mostly use the lens that came with the camera and it doesn't do good close-ups. I don't know what focusing rails are. I noticed that very small parts of flowers are in focus when I photograph them (just the stigma or only some of the petals). It would be nice to increase the depth of field. I saw a cool photo of a dandelion's seeds very close up (so close that only 2 seeds were in the frame). I wanted to do something similar to that.

[kevc67]

I have the Sigma 120-400mm f4.5 5.6 , you can use the lens stabilization or camera it can be used hand held and still get great results price when i got it was at £629 . There are some shots in my gallery where i used the lens , hope this gives you an option 

Regards

kevc67

[Bieomax]

a focussing rail will sit between a tripod head and your camera and it allows you to move the camera backwards & forwards (2 way - there's also 4 way, which will do left to right movement is well) in nice small increments, better then nudging the whole tripod forwards/backwards.

With macro you generally have a really small depth of field, so some people use a process of focus stacking, which is taking alots of pictures covering different parts of the subject in focus and then using software to stitch them together into one picture with the whole subject in focus.

some say its better to use the rail to move the camera rather then re-focusing the Lens as when you adjust focus you slightly change the magnifcation of the lens which alters the perspective slightly which can cause issue when putting them together in a stack.

This is my A57 on minolta focusing rail (also with bellows attached which will allow for greater magnifaction then 1:1)

Here: https://flic.kr/p/eLf3wR

Lens wise if you want to go closer, you can get one of the Sony Macro lenses (30mm/50mm/100mm - full list of A mount macro's Here) which are quite good, they will get you down to 1:1 ration so if its 1mm in real life it'll take up 1mm on the sensor so it'll make things pretty big, but if you want to go even bigger, you may want to either look at bellows/extension tubes or lens reversing ( probably worth googling ' Diy macro ' )

Flickr Macro Set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bieomax/sets/72157634032671482/

On here the 5 pence piece / dead bee was taken with the above 50mm lens on the bellows, the electric spark was done with reverse mounting a lens onto the front of another.

this is the rig i used at the time when i was experimenting with my first macro stuff,

DIY Macro Rig

minolta kit lens reversed onto a minolta 70-210mm 3.5-4.5 lens, although a good starter for 10 is to reverse a kit lens onto a 50mm prime

it reminds me that i really need to start posting back to flickr again with some more up to date stuff.

Anyhow i'll stop waffling for now

Mark.

[DistantMelody]

Hello Mark

Does the focussing rail move automatically when focus is adjusted? Is it for indoor photography only or can be taken outside?

I noticed only 3 Sony Macro lenses on this site (Sony site). I didn't know which one to choose. Your link has so many more. Now the choice is even harder. How to choose between 30mm, 50mm and 100mm, or is it best to have them all? Are the measurements indicative of the distance that the object must be from the lens?

Your macro photos are wonderful. The electricity shot was a good idea.

Do you use a polarizing filter?

[Bieomax]

The rail is manual, it's basically a ***** you turn which is attached to some gears which moves the mount which is attached to the camera along a rail of 2 rods.

For focusing say on a flower, I'd put camera into manual focusing on the body switch and or lens switch if applicable, the on live view focus peeking will show me where my current area of focus is. So I'll focus the lens to the closest part of the flower to me that I want to keep in focus, then take a shot with either remote release or timer, then turn the ***** on the rail which will move it a fraction closer, then it's just rinse amd repeat until I've enough shots with all the flowers parts in focus to join together. If you look at the pictures in sequence it'll just look like your focus is moving to the rear slowly.

The rail is handy on a tripod in doors or out if your even doing a single macro shot as it allows you abit more movement across the tripod.

If you look on Dyxum and change the filter to sony it'll show the 3 sony make themselves. If you click into one of them it will tell you the minimum focus distance, the measurement is as far as I know is from the little circle mark with a line through it on your camera body which is to tell you where your sensor is.

Pick up the 50mm and see if you like it then decide if you need to be further from your subjects the maybe look for a longer focal length

Mark.

Edit: Strange how sony's word filters dont let you post the word for a round object which you open doors or drawers with. thus why the **** in the above.

also a great article on stacking is Here