Tips for using Sony 90 mm Macro?

[RTee]

I used the 90mm lens (for the first time) fairly extensively for six weeks earlier on this year while in Bonaire (the other lens being the 16-35mm) to good/great effect on an underwater rig that is still relatively new to me, that is the Sony A7IV. I photographed creatures as small as sexy shrimps in wavy anemones to portion of a goliath grouper...with about anything else in between. Some subjects were immobile, some were moving along (eagle rays) and others, buzzing all over the place (juvenile smooth trunkfish). I would say that my success ratio in terms of image in focus was pretty darn good overall, considering, and while I tried to do my part well, I owe a lot of gratitude to the lens/camera combo.

My set-up consists of 2 x YS-D1 strobes (I am old fashioned) and a Kraken 3500 video/focus light.

Because of the type of diving I was doing ie never too sure what we would see, I kept the limiting range switch to Full. Looking at the lens, the OSS switch is set to ON (seemed to work for me).

Camera set-up... AF-C, Face/Eye Pri ON, Face/Eye Subject ANIMAL. (Having said that, I do not rely on that feature as it is not effective under water for small critters anyway) and, for what it is worth, I use the back button for focus. ISO...normally 100 but in darker environment...400. (The A7IV has dual native ISO). F-Stop...anywhere between F8 - F13, strobes on Manual (Unable TTL with this set-up) and shutter speed 1/125 - 1/200.

 

[JFairleigh]

I went out again on Sunday and had much better luck! Out of roughly 50 shots, I had 35 in focus. Big improvement!

Here are the settings I changed; I set my focus range to full (infinity) and turned the lens's optical steady shot on. On the camera, I changed to Continuous Auto Focus with a Center Fix focus area. Last, I made sure that the Priority Set for both AF-S and AF-C was set to autofocus, in case I wanted to switch back and forth during the dive.

Here's a tiny red octopus. It was roughly 3 inches big. This was only my third time out with this lens, but I'm happier now that I'm on the right track. Thank you all for your help!

 

[staggsSevin]

Looks like a winner to me, great shot!

 

[Barmaglot]

Congrats! 3 inches isn't what I would consider tiny though; as macro subjects go, that's fairly substantial, not even requiring a macro lens. 'Tiny' is something about the size of a ricegrain. This juvenile mototi octopus was about 1cm long; shot on a blackwater dive, so no background for scale reference.

 

[JFairleigh]

Congrats! 3 inches isn't what I would consider tiny though; as macro subjects go, that's fairly substantial, not even requiring a macro lens. 'Tiny' is something about the size of a ricegrain. This juvenile mototi octopus was about 1cm long; shot on a blackwater dive, so no background for scale reference.

View attachment 877085

Haha, yes, context is everything. Before these little red octos, the only octopus I'd seen/photographed were Giant Pacific Octopus, so to me, these little guys were tiny!

 

[cozcharlie]

Kind of replying to an old thread, but for posterity sake it took quite am few dives to get anything useful out of the 90 macro G without a wet lens (use lens with Sony A1 mk 1). I generally use autofocus-C, staying still is very important, some sort of of single spot or use DMF with focus peaking (was on a workshop with a photographer who has really good luck with DMF/peaking).

I use either Spot M/S, Expand Spot, or occasionally tracking spot M. I know really good photographers who use each of them (each has their preference ). My main takeaways were don't use for anything much larger than a softball and hold still. Obviously you can use from further away but quality degrades. shooting through a bunch of water with strobes too far away. Jump settings are F13. 1/400/sec shutter speed/ ISO 100, strobes 37% though that can lead to a little under exposed if not fairly close. Obviously depends on how close strobes are to lens. When using wet lens just go straight to F/22 and you can adjust if doing something creative.

Note most cameras can't do 1/400th shutter speed with strobes, even with A1 you need to set Flash shutter speed priority to on (not Auto) to avoid having 1/3 of your image go black due to shutter.

useful comments on 90MM G settings if you happen to have an A1 with
[Sony a1 Underwater Camera Review - Underwater Photography - Backscatter.]