MIRRORLESS MACRO MARVELS

For macro, you need a lens that makes the most of your high-res mirrorless camera. We test four of the finest macro lenses on the market

A 'full macro' lens with 1.0x or 1:1 magnification at its shortest focus setting will reproduce small objects at full life-size on the image sensor. That might not sound like a big deal, but when you're filling the whole image frame with something the size of a postage stamp it enables massive enlargement when viewing shots on screen or in print. Indeed, with the mighty megapixel count of some of the latest full-frame mirrorless cameras, you can reveal near-microscopic levels of fine detail.

But there's a catch. Capturing such minute detail and texture places great demands on the optical quality of a macro lens, not to mention the photographer behind it. Shooting macro images demands a high level of precision. Depth-of-field can be wafer-thin, even when using fairly narrow apertures. This demands that macro lenses deliver good sharpness and contrast at narrow apertures, which tends to be degraded by diffusion.

Accurate focusing is also critical, and this demands a lot from the autofocus systems of mirrorless cameras and their attached lenses. Alternatively, many macro photographers prefer to focus manually, often selecting a magnified Live View image to really nail the point of focus. A good macro lens should therefore have a manual focus control ring that operates with a smooth action and a high level of precision.