Irix 150mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 Dragonfly review

Irix wowed us with its first two lenses, and now the manual prime upstart is back with its take on a macro lens

Digital Camera World Verdict

If you're after a well-specified macro lens with a longer than average focal length for shooting easily-spooked subjects like insects, the 150mm Dragonfly is a great choice, providing you can do without autofocus.

Pros

  • +

    Great build quality

  • +

    Attractive pricing

  • +

    Solid image quality

Cons

  • -

    Focal length too long for some

  • -

    Focus ring overly sensitive

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Irix burst onto the lens market recently with 11mm and 15mm ultra-wide full-frame lenses, and both handled and performed very well in our testing. Having succeeded in the wide-angle sector, Irix is now closing in on the macro market, and its first attempt here is the 150mm f/2.8 Dragonfly.

As macro lenses go, 150mm is a relatively long focal length, but it's ideal if you want to shoot live subjects like bugs, or indeed, dragonflies. The lens's 1:1 magnification ratio means your subject is reproduced at the same size on the image sensor as it is in reality, meaning you can get a large, detailed image of a small insect yet be positioned well back from it, reducing the chances of you being rumbled, or simply casting an unwanted shadow with your camera.

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Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.