Lenses

IRIX 150mm F2.8 Dragonfly Review: The Bokeh King

Chris Gampat
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07/08/2019
8 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Irix 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly product images review f1.4, ISO 200, 1-60s,X-T2, Fujifilm Fujinon XF35mmF1.4 R

Last Updated on 09/11/2023 by Chris Gampat

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens, but it’s solid all around. When IRIX announced that their Dragonfly series of lenses would be a bit in between their Blackstone and their Firefly lenses, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Then I got to see it for a bit at Photo Plus East last year, and my expectations were more positive. But what really made me happy about the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens is how it performs on the Canon EOS R. This lens is weather sealed, sharp, has 11 aperture blades to render gorgeous bokeh, accurate focus due to a long focus throw and Canon’s absolutely fantastic rangefinder system, and overall is a very versatile lens. Though IRIX’s options are more for enthusiasts due to the low price and the manual focus, this lens is worthy of being in the bag of any working portrait photographer. It allows for close focusing distance and provides solid image quality.

Editor’s Note: This review received an update in September 2023.

For only $595 with the Sony variant being around the same price, I’m shocked at what it can do.

The Big Picture

In the case of the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens, it’s hitting the ball right out of the park. This lens exhibits great image quality in a lightweight body. Somehow or other the company managed to cram 11 aperture blades, solid weather sealing, sharp optics, and an overall nice feeling into a moderately sized lens. Granted, they’re doing this at the sacrifice of autofocus, but I’m okay with that. IRIX (in full disclosure) allows us to keep the lenses we review. And this is one I plan on using again and again.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens receives five out of five stars and our Editor’s Choice Award. You can snag one for only $595.

Pros

  • 11 aperture blades for super creamy bokeh
  • Weather sealing
  • Great for portraits
  • Fantastic for actual macro
  • When using the Canon EOS R, the system recognizes the AF/AE contacts and aids with focus peaking using the rangefinder system
  • Very sharp
  • It’s really affordable

Cons

  • Now that it’s available for mirrorless cameras (Sony E mount specifically) my complaints are gone.

Gear Used

We tested the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens on the Canon EOS R while using the Profoto B10.

Later testing was also done using the Sony a7r III.

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the Amazon listing

  • Fully weather-sealed housing
  • Patent-pending Focus Ring Lock
  • Rubberized Focus Ring with Rotational Ange of 270º
  • Detachable Arca-Swiss standard CNC machined tripod collar ring
  • Large aperture of f/2.8
  • Aperture of 11 rounded blades
  • 1:1 Macro reproduction ratio
  • Focusing distance of 0,345m

Ergonomics

Taken from our First Impressions post

The IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens looks much like many of their other lenses. You’ll believe this when you see the lens. The difference is in how it feels. The material on the exterior is a cross between their FireFly and Blackstone materials.

With the lens hood attached, the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens gets really big. If you’re focusing to macro distances, I’m sure you’ll not use it.

The front element of the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens is weather sealed, unlike some of the company’s Firefly products. To that end, you don’t need a lens filter to complete the sealing.

Update September 2023

The Irix 150mm f2.8 Macro lens is now available for Sony E mount. Specifically, it works with full-frame cameras. The biggest updates to this lens have to do with the fact that it’s been reformatted for mirrorless. Ergonomically speaking, we’re talking about the addition of a working aperture ring. This ring can be set to the A-mode so that you can manipulate it via Sony’s dials too.

Build Quality

As you can tell from these product images, we put the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens not only through its paces while testing it out in the field but also during this photo shoot. The photographer who would need this kind of durability will perhaps want to photograph macro stuff in the rain. But if you’re a little bit more sane, then you’ll probably care about the weather sealing more: you’ll be out in the field and you’ll know that it can resist a ton of abuse from mother nature. The IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens has weather sealing not only at the mount but throughout the entire lens–including the front element. What this means is that the lens is going to survive most of what Mother Nature will throw at it.

In the field, the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens seemed a bit big for my liking, but this is partially due to the EF to RF adapter on the Canon EOS R. While I still wish this lens was made natively for the RF mount or Sony FE, I can appreciate how lightweight it is. If this were an optic from Sigma or Zeiss, we’d expect our wrists to hurt from a day of photo-walking. But instead, the, IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens was a joy to have attached to the camera. And colloquially speaking, that’s what mirrorless is all about.

“As you can tell from these product images, we put the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens not only through its paces while testing it out in the field but also during this photo shoot. “

Ease of Use

The IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens is a manual focus lens; that will immediately intimidate a number of photographers out there in a fashion synonymous to someone who doesn’t want to work with a camera in full manual mode. The truth is, if just take your time and have a bit of patience you’ll be rewarded with better images and fewer photos to go through in post later on. If manual focus turns you off, then this lens is not for you. But with the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens, the use case can go a number of different ways.

  • With Canon EOS DSLRs, the lens will get autofocus confirmation when working with a specific autofocus point.
  • With the Nikon DSLR system, the camera and lens will work together to get focus when using the Nikon rangefinder system.
  • With the Canon EOS R, the camera and lens will work together in a fashion similar to the Nikon rangefinder system.
  • With the Sony FE system, you’ll need to magnify the output because their focus peaking is garbage and useless.

If you’re used to shooting film or working with manual focus lenses, this will be as easy as pie. I prefer to slow down and carefully acquire focus on a subject; it’s fun and more deliberate. As a result, you’re more involved with the picture taking process.

Update September 2023

There isn’t much of an update here when it comes to speaking about the ease of use. Unfortunately, Sony’s focus peaking hasn’t improved all that much overall. That goes even for later and newer Sony cameras than the Sony a7r III that we tested this lens on. So with that said, use a tripod when using the Irix 150mm f2.8 Macro lens. Otherwise, we recommend that you shoot at low continuous burst with a flash. This will compensate for any problems you have with your own breath shifting the focus when focusing down at macro ranges.

Even beyond that, all manual focus lenses have issues with image stabilization when shooting handheld if they’re telephoto lenses like this.

Focusing

When using the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens, you’ll need to manually focus it. The focus throw is long and the focusing ring isn’t as rigid as some offerings from Zeiss. It is smooth and easy to work with. The feeling is a nice one and also facilitates you getting the shot. As this is a longer focal length, it doesn’t make any sense for you to zone focus with it. At the macro ranges, focusing will become more critical and you should use a tripod when possible. But, believe it or not, I didn’t need one because the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens is so lightweight and easy to hold.

Update September 2023

Focusing with this lens is still really difficult at macro ranges. However, I didn’t have any issues with camera shake — which is a nice continuation of what I experienced with the other variant of the lens. Focusing is really only difficult if you’re using the Sony system.

Since then, we’ve tried to use this lens adapted to new Canon RF cameras and have found that the settings just don’t work anymore. That’s quite unfortunate as I really liked this lens.

Now, for Sony cameras, I’d probably only ever use it with a flash and at a fast shutter speed because telephoto manual focus lenses can be difficult to work with.

Image Quality

The IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens exhibits great image quality overall. The bokeh is just beautiful and the feeling of the images is very organic. There is no micro-contrast or trickery: it’s just the pop from the 11 aperture blades and the sharpness that the lens renders. The title of this piece calls this lens The Bokeh King, and it indeed really is. Photographers of all types will not only love the bokeh, but they’ll also appreciate the sharpness, color rendition, and how fun this lens can be. If you’re a Canon EOS R owner with the adapter, you’re in for a real treat.

Bokeh

This photo was shot at f4.5 and focused very closely. You can still see how gorgeous the bokeh is and the overall field of view. I don’t know a single photographer who would complain about this. The 11 aperture blades do a number to create smooth bokeh when combined with the optics.

Chromatic Aberration

In our tests, we found no chromatic aberration. Let’s move on.

Color Rendition

The colors from the IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens are nice. Canon renders scenes a bit warm when shooting in Auto white balance, but beyond that you don’t have much of anything to complain about.

Sharpness

What I’m most shocked by is the sharpness. I didn’t expect this lens to be that sharp. I shot the above photo this way to be able to see how sharp it could render a sliver of the scene and then deliver falloff and bokeh. Nice, right?

On Sony

On Sony cameras, the performance is really about the same that you’d expect with the Canon variant. The lens’s optics are the same. And it’s really then only about setting everything up to work as best for you as possible. Here are some sample images we shot with Sony.

Extra Image Samples

Who Should Buy This Lens?

If you’re still shooting with a DSLR, then this is a nice lens to consider. But adapting it to your mirrorless camera system might create some problems you didn’t foresee. If you’re shooting mirrorless, then consider it for Sony. But also know that at the macro ranges, this lens will be very hard to work with simply because of how Sony’s focus peaking and magnification aren’t all that friendly.

11 aperture blades Bokeh build quality canon Canon EOS R color ease of use focusing IRIX 150mm f2.8 Dragonfly Macro Lens macro nikon sharpness sigma sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.