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Archive 2014 · Canon Macro Lens?

  
 
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · Canon Macro Lens?


johnctharp wrote:
Something to consider- the 100L isn't just a great Macro lens, it's a great all-around lens; literally good for anything.

However, for the same price Sigma's 150/2.8 APO OS Macro has four advantages:

1. Working distance- obvious, but I promise you that with smaller things and high magnifications that the 100L can be too short!
2. The Sigma is APO (apochromatic)- and the Canon isn't even close. You have to treat the 100L like the 85/1.8 and avoid high-contrast scenes and bright highlights in order to limit longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Zeiss' macro lenses have the same issues.
3. The Sigma comes with a tripod
...Show more

1. True. But then again you could use an 180mm macro lens to have even more WD. Or a tele lens with tubes (300/4L IS seems to work very well).
2. The Sigma is not a true APO lens, although it's way better than either Canon or Zeiss. There are some traces of bokeh fringing (magenta more noticeable than green), at least from the test pictures at Photozone.
3. True, but you can buy one for Canon 100L - at a cost.
4. Virtually any lens can take a teleconverter - just not Canon's or Sigma's teleconverters.
+5. Better background saparation due to longer FL, but not necessarily better bokeh.

OTOH, there's the extra weight and volume as inconveniences. Granted: it's still reasonably compact and light, specially when compared to the bigger 180mm macros. Also, bokeh is not the best, being somewhat nervous on the foreground and still not perfect in the background.

But no doubt we're splitting hairs, here. All are excellent lenses, with very few 'less then excellent' things to point at.



Nov 24, 2014 at 07:10 PM
Glenn NK
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · Canon Macro Lens?


Origin Unknown wrote:
Thankyou, so i'll effectively be getting 160mm with my 7D from the 100mm, it being a 1.6 crop?


Wish I had the new one; have the non-IS 100 mm version.

On the 30D the effective FL works very well; on the 5DII I find it too short.



Nov 24, 2014 at 07:11 PM
onesickpuppy
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · Canon Macro Lens?


Well...which macro to get has been a age old debate...my friend states it has to be a 180...another says
the 60 is the way to go.....I decided to get the 100L because to me it works!!!

Great portrait lens
Great macro lens
Fits in my bag with the rest of the herd really well.
Cost is reasonable

I think that you won't be disappointed with it



© onesickpuppy 2014

In the Garden




Nov 25, 2014 at 01:32 AM
Origin Unknown
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · Canon Macro Lens?


Thanks again! Well if I put a 180mm Canon or Sigma on my 7D that's gonna give me an equivalent 288mm lens!!!! I may as well get a microscope! Surely the opposite can apply and you can have too much reach?


Nov 26, 2014 at 10:29 AM
adrianb
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · Canon Macro Lens?


sorry to jack this thread, but i don't wanna start another one.

besides canon's ancient 180mm 3.5L macro, what other choices one has?

like Sigma APO macro 180mm 2.8 EX DG OS HSM ? How does this stack against the Canon's 180?



Nov 26, 2014 at 10:55 AM
jcunwired
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · Canon Macro Lens?


Lensrentals/Lensauthority is having a Black Friday sale on used equipment. The 100L, rated 9.5 is selling for $729.


https://www.lensauthority.com/products/canon-100mm-f-2-8l-macro-is



Nov 26, 2014 at 11:59 AM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · Canon Macro Lens?


adrianb wrote:
sorry to jack this thread, but i don't wanna start another one.

besides canon's ancient 180mm 3.5L macro, what other choices one has?

like Sigma APO macro 180mm 2.8 EX DG OS HSM ? How does this stack against the Canon's 180?


Tamron 180/3.5 Macro Di. Had one and it's excellent. Of course, there are no such things as 'bad macro lenses' - at least from the main lens companies.

The Tamron is usually cheaper and is lighter than both Canon and Sigma equivalent lenses, and optically as good.



Nov 26, 2014 at 01:37 PM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · Canon Macro Lens?


Origin Unknown wrote:
Thanks again! Well if I put a 180mm Canon or Sigma on my 7D that's gonna give me an equivalent 288mm lens!!!! I may as well get a microscope! Surely the opposite can apply and you can have too much reach?


You're mixing things.

Regarding focal length, using a 180mm lens on a cropped camera will give images with a field of view equivalent to a 288mm lens on a full frame camera, no doubt, but the magnification will be exactly the same with both cameras.



Nov 26, 2014 at 01:44 PM
Origin Unknown
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · Canon Macro Lens?


Thanks all. So, another question, at 'roughly' what sort of distances will I be from say a bee on a flower with a 180mm lens, for the bee to fill the frame/view in the viewfinder?


Nov 26, 2014 at 04:18 PM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · Canon Macro Lens?


Origin Unknown wrote:
Thanks all. So, another question, at 'roughly' what sort of distances will I be from say a bee on a flower with a 180mm lens, for the bee to fill the frame/view in the viewfinder?


At 1:1 the working distance (the distance from focus plane to the front of the lens without hood) of a 180mm macro lens is around 25cm. I've done the measurement to my Tamron 180 Macro Di (which I don't own anymore) but I can't remember the exact numbers. A quick search in the internet revealed that the working distance of Canon 180 Macro is 24cm.

At 1:1, regardless of the lens used, you'll be able to fill the frame with an object with the size of the sensor:

Crop - 22.4x15mm (7D2 data; it seems there are slight differences in sensor sizes, even within brands)
Full Frame - ~36x24mm



Nov 27, 2014 at 05:14 AM
Origin Unknown
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · Canon Macro Lens?


Thanks for the info. Ummm, I've got around 2ft away from butterflies on a flower many a time and they've flown away! Lol!!! From various people I've contacted, the Tamron 180 is a great lens, I'll sell my Tamron 90mm and have another think about which lens to buy after Xmas. Getting new discs/brakes on my car is kinda important at the mo! 😩


Nov 27, 2014 at 12:20 PM
danski0224
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p.3 #12 · p.3 #12 · Canon Macro Lens?


You won't be getting too close to butterflies with 180mm unless you are lucky or they don't mind humans...

Not sure how the Tamron would work with a 1.4x teleconverter.

You may want to look into use of your chosen 180mm lens with a 1.4x converter, or give the 300mm f4 Canon some consideration if you want to go after butterflies.



Nov 27, 2014 at 12:50 PM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #13 · p.3 #13 · Canon Macro Lens?


danski0224 wrote:
You won't be getting too close to butterflies with 180mm unless you are lucky or they don't mind humans...

Not sure how the Tamron would work with a 1.4x teleconverter.

You may want to look into use of your chosen 180mm lens with a 1.4x converter, or give the 300mm f4 Canon some consideration if you want to go after butterflies.


Or you can get up early on the morning and won't need to 'go after' butterflies (or other insects) as they barely move until the temperature raises. There are some inconveniences on using a 180mm macro, specially handheld.



Nov 28, 2014 at 03:21 AM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #14 · p.3 #14 · Canon Macro Lens?


Origin Unknown wrote:
Thanks for the info. Ummm, I've got around 2ft away from butterflies on a flower many a time and they've flown away! Lol!!! From various people I've contacted, the Tamron 180 is a great lens, I'll sell my Tamron 90mm and have another think about which lens to buy after Xmas. Getting new discs/brakes on my car is kinda important at the mo! 😩


Or you can think again and keep the Tamron. How did you go from 100L to a Tamron180? Although they're both macro lenses, they're quite different lenses...

My advice (the last one, since you don't seem to value my opinions): don't make hasty decisions based on the hype of these fora. Been there, done that, most of the times I regreted and lost money...



Nov 28, 2014 at 03:38 AM
danski0224
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p.3 #15 · p.3 #15 · Canon Macro Lens?


Pedro Claro wrote:
There are some inconveniences on using a 180mm macro, specially handheld.


Can you elaborate on this?




Nov 28, 2014 at 06:40 AM
Pedro Claro
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p.3 #16 · p.3 #16 · Canon Macro Lens?


danski0224 wrote:
Can you elaborate on this?



Yes.

There are, essentially, two drawbacks:

1 - The longer the lens, the harder it is to keep steady - that's common sense, but in macro/close-up the problem can easily be multiplied by 2 or 3. Even the natural movements of your body as you breathe are enough to compromise focusing (and forget AF, no macro lens is fast enough to focus to allow Ai-servo AF). It's very, very tiresome to handhold a reasonably heavy lens, having to compensate for the small movements of the camera. This problem is much less pronounced on a ~100mm lens and the new versions of macros (100L IS, Tamron 90 VC, Sigma 105 OS) benefit a lot from stabilization.

2 - A longer working distance is not always desirable. Sometimes, in the field, there are situations where you will not be able to put a camera and a huge 180mm macro lens far enough to focus. It depends a lot on what and where you shoot, but it happened to me occasionally when taking pictures of mushrooms that I found among bushes.

Not exactly a drawback, but another limitation, is the reduced efficiency when using tubes on such a lens. For instance, using all three Kenko tubes (12+20+36mm) on my Zeiss 100 I can get 1.16x (native 0.5x), and on my 100L (native 1x) I can get 2x. On a 180mm lens it should get you only about 1.4x (native 1x), the same you can get with a 1.4x teleconverter. This could be important if you need to go beyond 1x frequently.

IMHO, a 180 macro lens is somewhat cumbersome and should be, mainly, a tripod mounted lens. A ~100mm macro lens is a much more handholdable and manageable lens. If you do your homework and learn something about butterflies, you won't need to be too far away from them to get their picture. The same for other insects and arachnids.




Nov 28, 2014 at 07:28 AM
Danpbphoto
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p.3 #17 · p.3 #17 · Canon Macro Lens?


I have owned all the Canon macros, even from Canon's film days. I own the EFS-60, 100mm IS and 180mm. I love them all even though I don't use them often enough..well my 60 and 100 anyway.
IMHO, the 180mm is excellant! The bokeh is excellant, sharp on any body. The DOF is why it is my most used lens.
The 100mm IS is an exceptional lens also...now my EF-S 60 is truly a sharp sharp lens....

Hard choice but for over all...180mm is my best and most used CANON macro....
My rose images on my website show all 3. The 100mm yes is a fine choice..
Dan



Nov 28, 2014 at 09:14 AM
Origin Unknown
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p.3 #18 · p.3 #18 · Canon Macro Lens?


Danpbphoto. Thanks again, yes they are fine lenses, I've taken a look at the 100L and some Tamron lenses today and I must say the 100L is the one, it feels great and the image quality is stunning! Great lens!


Nov 28, 2014 at 03:12 PM
danski0224
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p.3 #19 · p.3 #19 · Canon Macro Lens?


Pedro Claro wrote:
Yes.

There are, essentially, two drawbacks:

1 - The longer the lens, the harder it is to keep steady - that's common sense, but in macro/close-up the problem can easily be multiplied by 2 or 3. Even the natural movements of your body as you breathe are enough to compromise focusing (and forget AF, no macro lens is fast enough to focus to allow Ai-servo AF). It's very, very tiresome to handhold a reasonably heavy lens, having to compensate for the small movements of the camera. This problem is much less pronounced on a ~100mm lens and the new versions of
...Show more

Thanks for the responses.

For point 1- yes, it can be difficult to hold steady and breathing *will* mess up your focus. While the tendency is less with the 100mm macro, it is still there.

For point 2- interesting. I have not yet run into a situation where the 180mm could not be focused because it was too close and moving away a bit was not possible. I have wished for a swivel screen, though.

I have run into situations where the 180 was simply too much lens and the 100 or 150 provided better framing. I guess it depends on what you are taking pictures of- I doubt the 180 would ever be "too much" if your primary focus was bugs and other (assumed) small objects. Other things like flowers, the 180 can be too much.

The Sigma 150 macro is my favorite- a little more than the 100 and a little less than the 180. I have noticed that the AF on the Sigma isn't quite equal to Canon, and that is my only small complaint.

Good info on the extension tubes, I have not explored those enough for macro, but I have used them to shorten MFD on a Nikon DC 105.

Almost all of my pictures are done either handheld or from a monopod. I have been forcing myself to use the tripod more often, and using the Nikon 105 and live view has sorta forced that. I do wish that that lens had a collar.

I do find the monopod with a swivel head to be almost invaluable because of the additional support for handheld shots. 100% handheld (no monopod or other type of rest) with either the Canon 180 or Sigma 150 is challenging due to the weight and length of the lenses, and I do not consider myself strength challenged.

Edit to add: Handheld with a 1D series body is much easier for me than with the 5 series. Holding onto the camera is much easier, and the 1D "grip" doesn't loosen or flex..



Edited on Nov 30, 2014 at 09:04 AM · View previous versions



Nov 29, 2014 at 07:27 AM
danski0224
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p.3 #20 · p.3 #20 · Canon Macro Lens?


Origin Unknown wrote:
I've taken a look at the 100L and some Tamron lenses today and I must say the 100L is the one, it feels great and the image quality is stunning! Great lens!


Don't forget to include the lens collar. Canon doesn't include it with the lens, and it is almost invaluable for monopod or tripod use.




Nov 29, 2014 at 07:29 AM
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