Stu Warner
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 p.2 #6 · Anyone recommend a 100mm f/2 semi macro? | |
Thanks everyone for some very useful suggestions. You have given me a few more alternatives to look at, and helped me concentrate on just a few key things.
First of all, I should say that although I do have 1.6x cropper right now, I am planning to buy a new full frame body when the EOS 5D update comes out. This 100mm lens is being purchased with that in mind.
I should also say that I very much enjoy travel photography (who doesn’t?  , and I am the kind of person that likes to take my whole kit on my travels rather than feel I do not have the most appropriate lens with me when I need it for a certain unplanned shot. That means that I do value a lightweight system. I love macro work and shallow depth of field work, so I have simply forgone the usual 2 or 3 “travel zoom” lenses in favour of a few primes in my most used focal lengths. Hence the 24/50/100/200/(400 with TC) setup. I need a single 100mm that does everything I require at 100mm, otherwise I will invariably find I have a perfect shot in front of me which requires the 100mm lens I left at home.
So my problem is that at 100mm I want a fast lens that also focuses close. Canon does not offer such a lens, which is why I am looking elsewhere and asking for opinions on this forum.
I have read reviews about the EF 85/1.8 and 100/2 from Canon, and found that both have pretty nasty CA/purple fringing at wide apertures and neither focuses very close. They both perform verry well when stopped down just a little though. I could add my Kenko extension tubes to either of these, but even with all the tubes attached I would be struggling to achieve anything like 1:1 reproduction. I find working with ETs to be a slower and less satisfying process than simply focusing a macro lens, and would much rather use the tubes to occasionally give me additional extension on top of what I can already achieve with the bare macro lens. So I need a lens that focuses close in the first place, without adding additional ETs or TCs. Canon, Sigma, and Tamron all offer perfectly good 1:1 macro lenses, but they are all f/2.8, an this is just too slow for how I want to use a 100mm lens in the non-macro world. Same goes for the Viogtlander, and the Zeiss 2.8 macros. 100mm is the perfect indoor portrait and museum close-up focal length, so I need a fast maximum aperture to allow hand holding and subject isolation from backgrounds. There will be many circumstances in museums and informal parties when I will not want to use flash, and every stop extra aperture is invaluable to me.
Thanks to the discussions on this thread, I have decided to try to find the Zuiko 90mm f/2 (1:2 semi-macro). If I do not find this by the time the CZ 100mm f/2 is available, and if I have in the meantime managed to save enough money, I will buy that instead (providing the reviews are good). I’ll also look at the Zuiko 100/2 – thanks for that one. I am prepared to be patient and save up for exactly what I want, rather than go through a series of expensive and frustrating upgrades to get what I always knew I wanted in the first place.
Once again, thanks everyone for your help. Honestly, it is greatly appreciated.
Also, if anyone does find an OM Zuiko 90/2, please post here or send me an e-mail. I will keep an eye on KEH. Cheers guys!
Stu.
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