At £460, the Sony DT 16-80mm is certainly not cheap, although we can't figure out why. It has a focus scale viewable through a window on the barrel, but it doesn't have the swift focusing of Canon's USM or Nikon's Silent Wave motors

Massively expensive, Slow, Average image quality

Poor image quality, slow conventional focusing and a lack of extras make this a disappointing buy, especially considering its price. Sony needs to rework its range to score higher

There's a lot of 'retro' about this Sony lens, from its appearance and finely ridged focus ring to the grumbling autofocus motor. The autofocus also seems as slow and imprecise as anything from 25 years ago

Good optics in general

Overpriced, Terrible autofocus

A vastly overpriced lens, given the poor performance it put in

This Sigma is a heavyweight among macro lenses at 900g, and comes with its own tripod mounting collar as standard. Closest focus distance is 0.38 metres but with a focal length of 150mm, you don't need to get so close to start with

Attractive, Good HD pictures, Good value for money

Non-high def material disappoints, Mediocre sound, Image quality not the best

With its 150mm focal length, HSM autofocus and sturdy tripod collar, the Sigma has plenty going for it at this price

Apart from an extra 10mm in focal length, the Tokina macro lens bears more than a passing resemblance to the 90mm Tamron. Similarities include noisy and slow Autofocus, a non-rotating front element and the same push-pull mechanism on the focus ring

Solid performance, Decent price

Noisy, slow AF, Difficult to use

This lens requires more work than some but at this price it's still a reasonable buy

Tamron's SP 90 is the cheapest offering in our macro group but the standard of build quality and sturdy construction definitely doesn't give this away. Mount options include Canon, Nikon, Minolta (now Sony) and Pentax

The Pentax 100mm Macro looks like an old-school lens, with its lockable aperture ring at the back and a huge 'clamp' switch on the side, for locking focus. Autofocus itself is hit and miss, with a noisy motordrive

Many macro lenses are bulky, taking up more room in your gadget bag than you'd like, and weighing you down in the process. By comparison, the Canon EF-S 60mm is as small and light as the average prime lens of the same focal length

This Four Thirds lens has 'macro' on the side but only a 1:2 magnification ratio. It relies on the 2x crop factor to bring objects up to size. Despite this, the 50mm lens feels more like a 100mm on Olympus bodies

Sharp optics at wider apertures

Long-winded focus options

The optics are sharp enough at wider apertures but there's precious little else that appeals for the money

The recently launched Nikkor 105mm is the first macro lens to feature vibration reduction. What's more, it's Nikon's new, second-generation VR system, which claims to give you a four-stop advantage

Excellent autofocus, Vibration reduction works well

Expensive

With a decent range of features on top of good optics and VR, the Nikkor is worth every penny

With its zoom range of 11-22mm, this lens sounds wide until you put it on an Olympus body, where the 2x crop factor turns it into a 22-44mm lens. This means the angle of view is less than with any other lens in its class

Good handling and optical performance

2x crop factor negates wide angle

High in price and also in crop factor, the Olympus fails to give really ultra-wide photo opportunities