Sony 85mm 1.8 or Sony 90mm 2.8 Macro for Bokeh

[Gaston Lo Russo]

Dear all,
I have signed up and will start the wine photography course. This week I bought the Sony a7 RII. I work for a winery and my plan is to take mainly pictures of wine bottles. I am not planning to use the macro and I love pictures with extreme bokeh as the one attached.
Question: should I buy the Sony FE 85mm 1.8 ($550) instead of the 90mm 2.8 Macro($1,000)?
Please let me know which lens would be your choice for a photo like the one attached .
Thanks a lot!
Gaston

Topic

[Morten Eriksen]

Hi Gaston! You forgot to add a photo. But for general product photography work we highly recommend a macro lens.
The focusing distance on these too is quite different. The Sony 85mm 1,8 has 2.62′ / 80 cm nearest. And the Sony 90mm GM has 11.02″ / 28 cm nearest.

I have the 85mm for portrait works and the bokeh is good. For products, I use the Samyang 100mm f/2.8.
I have used the 90mm GM as well and I love it. The biggest difference is that the Samyang do not have AF but Sony has. In terms of Bokeh, both are equal to my eyes.

So is the question only related to Bokeh use or to shoot the actual product as well?

[pixelrave]

I own the Sony 90mm 2.8 Macro and I love it, everything is tack sharp and the blurriness is nice. The bokeh can be either soft or harsh depending on the light and your F-Stop. I must point out that this lens has an extremely narrow depth of field and you’ll need a lot of light to get most of the subject in focus, or employ focus-stacking techniques. Overall, the build quality is very solid, and it’s focusing ring has the ability to switch to either AF or MF by just pulling/pushing it instead of a button on the side of the lens.