Autofocus Macro Lens for Leica SL2 or SL3

[PhotoCruiser]

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I am getting the itch to add a SL2 or SL3 to my Q2 what i really love for size and quality and SL2 prices are "low".

As i do a lot of wildlife macro photography autofocus would make photographing lively critters much easier than a manual focus lens.

As far i saw Leica has only two Macro lenses and both without autofocus so i would like to know if this is correct and if there are other brand lenses with very good quality, minimum 90mm focal length and working AF on a SL?

Thanks so much

Chris

Option would be a Adapter from Nikon F to Leica L to reuse my Nikkor 105 Makro, but i guess that AF with this lens will never happen.

Edited January 17 by PhotoCruiser

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[Photoworks]

Panasonic 100 mm is Macro and internal focusing

Sigma 105mm Is macro

[Stef63]

…not a straight forward choice :

LEICA APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 120mm f/2.5 + Leica S to L adapter

It may not have the fastest autofocus on the SL, but it will offer outstanding image quality. Considering everything, prices have dropped significantly, making it a more attractive option.

Edited January 17 by Stef63

[LD_50]

I have the Sigma 105 in L mount. I think it is better than my old Nikon 105 in F mount. 

[GFW2-SCUSA]

I use the Sigma 105 macro which is excellent in my opinion both in build and image quality. 

 

[PhotoCruiser]

Wow, this was fast!

 

vor 8 Minuten schrieb Stef63:

…not a straight forward choice :

LEICA APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 120mm f/2.5 + Leica S to L adapter

It may not have the fastest autofocus on the SL, but it will offer outstanding image quality. Considering everything, prices have dropped significantly, making it a more attractive option.

That sounds interesting, i don't need a ultrafast AF for macro, but faster as my hand focusing manual and 120mm will give me another that more distance to not scare animals (what can be a problem), i will have a look at this lens

Yes, the Sigma ART lenses are really great and still affordable lenses, i have a Sigma 15mm EX DG i used for underwater photography and for the price it's a nice lens and it's flaws do not really matter underwater.

So the actual Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art L-Mount will have working autofocus with the SL2 or SL3, or another model?
https://www.sigmaphoto.com/105mm-f2-8-dg-dn-macro-a

Chris

 

 

 

[Olaf_ZG]

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I recently bought the Panasonic. I love its weight, because of that, it is an easy add on while traveling. But, I am not a macro shooter, so you for sure might have different standards then I do.

[BernardC]

9 minutes ago, PhotoCruiser said:

So the actual Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art L-Mount will have working autofocus with the SL2 or SL3, or another model?
https://www.sigmaphoto.com/105mm-f2-8-dg-dn-macro-a

Yes, it will work with any L-mount camera.

[LocalHero1953]

I have the Sigma 70 Macro in L-mount, which I use in AF mode for negative copying.

For Leica in L-mount there is the Apo-Macro-Elmarit 60mm which is superb if you can live with your sensor in APS-C mode. In SL terms it is small!

Edited January 17 by LocalHero1953

[PhotoCruiser]

vor 14 Stunden schrieb LocalHero1953:

For Leica in L-mount there is the Apo-Macro-Elmarit 60mm which is superb if you can live with your sensor in APS-C mode. In SL terms it is small!

Thanks, i saw it but i understood that it's manual focus only?
I would buy a original Leica lens if price is below 5000 and right focal length and working AF. but i could not find one what surprised me a bit.
I did a search also for Zeiss, Voigtländer and other high quality lenses, but all have manual focus only what surprises me even more the Sigma has one with working AF and the others, much more expensive ones not.

There is a many many years long arguing in underwater photography regarding focal length as a shorter distance between lens and motif is underwater better as water has always particles who create blur and backscatter, so more near gives better quality photos.

However, tis works well for still life macro and 60mm is the best focal length,
but not very well with alive critters as the will be scared and escape, so a longer focal length of 90-120 is better for wildlife, under water and above too. 

So 60mm would be ways too short for my use

Chris

[PhotoCruiser]

vor 14 Stunden schrieb Olaf_ZG:

I recently bought the Panasonic. I love its weight, because of that, it is an easy add on while traveling. But, I am not a macro shooter, so you for sure might have different standards then I do.

Thanks!
This one: LUMIX S 100mm F2.8 MAKRO

It has right focal length and AF, and it's 1/3 of the weight and half of the length of the Sigma 105 macro what would matter to me as i do sometimes macro in the field.

So it seems i need to investigate further in build and image quality of the sigma and the Panasonic.

Thanks so much to everybody!

Chris

[dg4mgr]

vor 9 Minuten schrieb PhotoCruiser:

So 60mm would be ways too short for my use

Note the L-mount Apo-Macro-Elmarit 60mm @LocalHero1953 mentioned is a TL lens, and your SL will go to APS-C mode. So you have the view of a 90 mm on full format, as you wanted.

The Leica Macro Elmarit R 60mm f/2.8 however is a manual focus R lens for full format.

 

[PhotoCruiser]

Thanks dg4mgr for clearing that!

I found a old post from me regarding the Q2 and macro and there are 3 macro shots i did with my D800 back around 2013.
For whatever reason you need to click on the link below my first post to show them, at least i had to do so, maybe my browser?
Feel free to click on them, the moray eel explains why i prefer to have long distance between me and the animal....

 

[LocalHero1953]

22 minutes ago, PhotoCruiser said:

Thanks, i saw it but i understood that it's manual focus only?

The TL lens (i.e. L-mount) is autofocus (but has a focus ring if you set the camera to MF)

[Stuart Richardson]

15 hours ago, Stef63 said:

…not a straight forward choice :

LEICA APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 120mm f/2.5 + Leica S to L adapter

It may not have the fastest autofocus on the SL, but it will offer outstanding image quality. Considering everything, prices have dropped significantly, making it a more attractive option.

I have this, and I also have the Sigma 105mm Macro. They are of more or less equal sharpness and freedom from aberration in my testing.  The Sigma is much more practical as it is much smaller and lighter, focuses to 1 to 1 without a closeup lens and costs much less, even with the low prices of the S lenses now (keep in mind, you need the expensive S adapter L). I think the Leica might have better bokeh at times and a slight advantage in some weird areas (I found that at high magnification specular highlights in the bokeh have a smoother look in the 120mm than in the 105mm, where they can have a slight distortion on the Sigma), but overall the Sigma makes so much more sense. Smaller, cheaper, focuses faster, lighter, and most of all for a macro lens, more or less equally good optical performance and focuses to 1 to 1 natively.

[PhotoCruiser]

Thanks so much Stuart,

this is very valuable information for me and probably others who are looking for a macro lens on a Leica.

I knew that the Sigma ART lenses are highly regarded by many but i thought that the macro Summarit would produce clearly higher quality images than the Sigma.

Smaller and lighter would matters to me as i mostly carry the macro lens with me, but the Panasonic is much smaller and lighter.

Thanks for your review,
that put the Sigma in front and the Macro Summarit in last position, except i would discover that the Panasonic has same quality with much less size and weight (what i doubt but not exlude)

Chris

[wjdrijfhout]

I have both the Sigma 105mm DG DN Art and APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60. While they are autofocus, don't expect them to be fast in any way. I find myself still often just leaning in and out to focus, rather than rely on the AF. The compact 60mm is a real gem, and if I'm ok with the 26MP (the APS-C crop on the SL3), it is definitely my go-to lens for flowers, product closeups etc.
Another lens you may want to look at is the Laowa 90mm ultra-macro APO. I know it is manual and not what you are looking for, but the 2:1 magnification ratio can become very addictive very fast. I own the predecessor, the 100mm version, and love it a lot. Especially for insects, like you do, this lens is worthwhile checking out.  

[PhotoCruiser]

Thanks to all,
i ordered and got the Sigma 105mm macro and am very happy with it (btw: with the Sigma 14mm ART and 28mm ART as well)
As mentioned, the AF is not very accurate and tend to hunt if contrast is low, but that was also a issue on my Nikon D800 and Nikkor 105mm macro. I shot many photos of small dead things i found around in my house and used either AF or manual. As i shoot often alive small critters manual is not a good option as the move and i end with out of focus photos.
But for non moving things i found manual focus more comfortable and used my iPad and the Fotos App as display and remote trigger what worked well. Only complaint is that the after shoot preview on my iPad 12.9 6th gen is very low quality and to see the photo better i need to close the remote function and use the library to get a better quality photo. A bit wired as the iPad has a excellent screen.

Chris

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[wattsy]

The OP seems to have already made his decision but it is worth pointing out (for the benefit of others reading the thread) that the Panasonic 100mm F2.8, whilst the most desirable option in terms of size, weight and AF speed, has a rather short working distance of only 10cm for 1:1 reproduction. This can be a problem if, like me, your primary purpose of the Macro is to photograph skittish wildlife (in my case butterflies). The Sigma 105 provides another 5cm or so of working distance which isn't much but you take what you can. As with most equipment decisions, there is no single best answer and you have to compromise somewhere.

Edited February 13 by wattsy

[PhotoCruiser]

Yep!
I wrote the same about focusing distance in another tread and it may is important to some, to others not really.
10 cm min focusing distance can pose also a problem to illuminate the object correctly if not using a ring flash.
In theory the shortest focusing distance is best as less air/dust/etc (or water) is between object and lens but for wildlife it can become a problem.

Chris