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Lane48
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Registered: Sep 3, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Nov 4, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $435.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Excellent image quality, very sharp, AF is fast and accurate, solid build, USM, price
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Cons:
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Canon not including a hood
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This is a wonderful Macro and mild telephoto lens. I have been shooting with this lens for 2 years. The image quality is excellent. I have found it to have excellent sharpness from f/2.8, and excellent color and contrast. I do not believe that there is a better Macro lens out there in this focal length. That being said, we will have to wait and see how the new “L” version performs. The autofocus is very good on this lens. However, I find that I use manual focus most of the time due to preference on my part. I find the size, weight, and balance to be perfect for my Macro shooting. Now, if we could only get Canon to throw in the hood like other lens manufacturers. I find it annoying that I have to spend additional money for hoods every time I purchase a Canon (non-L) lens. I prefer to shoot with the hood installed.
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 Nov 4, 2009
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jankson
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Registered: Sep 4, 2009
Location: Sweden
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 13, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Super sharp,Perfect on everything,AF very fast and accurate,very fun to use,fairly cheap for the result you get.
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Cons:
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No IS,no lens hood for free
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Buy this and you will have lots of fun!
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Sep 13, 2009
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sunpole
Online
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Jan 3, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 216
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Review Date: Sep 11, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, good build quality and solid glass
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Cons:
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No IS obviously, but if used on a tripod not a problem
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This is a L lens in disguise, good build quality and stunning macro pictures.
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Sep 11, 2009
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Mark Pomerleau
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Registered: Jan 7, 2007
Location: N/A
Posts: 27
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Review Date: Aug 22, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $470.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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sharp sharp sharp, excellent quality
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Cons:
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lens hood not included, tripod ring spendy
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I have had this one for over 3 years now and it has been an awesome lens. When I use it for portraits, it is so sharp that you can count the hair follicles on a person's eyebrows. I will use it a little bit for marco work with flowers and other items that I want to get close to as well. It's a little too slow mos tof the time when I try to use it indoors even if I boost the ISO all the way up. In those cases, I have to use my 50 1.4.
Most of the portraits on my website have been taken with this lens:
http://www.markpomerleau.com
I am able to use this lens on my tripod with my Rebel XSi without a tripod ring. It's a little front-heavy, but it works.
No complaints with the performance of this lens at all. If I could justify spending money on the 85L, I would get that one for myself. But this one is in my price range and does that job well for my purposes.
And the neat thing is that when I bought it in 2006, it was $470 from B&H, and today they sell it for $570. If I wanted to sell it, I would imagine I could get what I paid for it 3 years ago especially since it is built well.
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Aug 22, 2009
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RobDose
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Registered: Jun 5, 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jun 16, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharpness, Overall image quality. Price. Macro!
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Cons:
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Looks funny without a hood on.
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This lens is gem. I originally bought it for photographing Jewelry but soon found it to be an amazing portrait lens.
The 100mm focal length is obviously perfect for portraiture both headshot and full body if you have the room. Due to its construction, the clarity of the image is very inspiring. It makes you want to go to India to photograph intricate fabrics :D
On the 5D mark 2 there is no obvious signs of unsharpness due to the high resolution sensor. I am not sure what the limit of this lens is but it's no where near 21 megapixels.
Compared to the 135L as a portrait lens, apart from the obvious aperture difference, there is only a minor amount of saturation lacking but not enough to be worth worrying.
I have been using this lens in a professional environment for a few years now and would recommend it to anyone.
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Jun 16, 2009
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Enche Tjin
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Registered: Jun 14, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jun 16, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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I bought Canon Macro 100mm for fun, because of the deep cashback from live.com in the thanksgiving week. First I think if I don't like it, I will sell it, but the lens is just too amazing to be sold.
Canon Macro 100mm is quite affordable and do a fantastic job. No wonder a lot of professional use and recommend it. The lens is primarily use for macro, for small things. The lens have ability to focus really close to object so that the camera can capture a life size image.
The depth of field is very shallow, especially wide open at f/2.8 as you can see in some samples that I have uploaded. So, f/8 or higher is recommended if you want to capture a sharp object.
But the shallow depth of field is not bad thing for many people, it helps the photographer to point out where is the most interesting part of the picture.
The focal length of 100mm, make it ideal for portrait lens because it flattens out the facial features and blur the background making the subject more appealing especially girls portraits.
The color contrast is also very good, it turns everyday boring object becomes interesting.
Physically, the lens are slightly longer and heavier than most general purpose lens, the built quality is almost similar to 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM and slightly better than 50mm, 85mm primes.
The focusing bar is big make manual adjustment becoming very easy (manual focus is important for Macro work to ensure accurate focusing, although the auto focus is very fast due to USM (UltraSonic Motor). We can adjust the focusing to macro range (close up) or standard to long range.
This lens focal length is bit too long for indoor shot and in crop sensor camera (Rebel series, and X0D series) but ideal for full frame camera (5D, 1D(s) series), but it is perfect for outdoor.
Other alternative for APC-S camera is the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM which is smaller more suitable indoor and have almost equal price and image quality. The drawback is the EF-S lens can't be use in full frame camera if you want to upgrade later.
Please check out my blog at www.radiantlite.com for sample photos, video tour and more reviews.
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Jun 16, 2009
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dlborges
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Registered: Nov 5, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 2
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Review Date: Jun 14, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Great focusing, crystal clear imaging, beautiful bokah, image depth of field like nothing i've experienced in other lenses.
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Cons:
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no complaints other than this is one ugly and odd shaped lens. Oh, just thought of something useful to say - The lens cap was far too expensive (B&H of course).
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I've used this lens seriously on only 3 outings, one of which produced what I consider a winning image for a lifetime. I took this poppy image at UC Davis in the Arboretum, standing up, no tripod, on a whim. There was a distracting green leaf at the bottom left corner of the image which I removed, but other than that the image has a few minor spot removals and moderate cropping.
http://dlborges.zenfolio.com/p151239449/hfc7d2b1#hfc7d2b1
I love this image for the clarity, the depth and three dimensionality, bokah and color combination.
http://dlborges.zenfolio.com/p151239449/hfc7d2b1#h223c827f
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Jun 14, 2009
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Phil UKNet
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Registered: Oct 20, 2007
Location: Thailand
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Apr 6, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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Capable of very good image quality and amazing sharpness. Good build quality - feels solid. When taking macro shots, provides a decent working distance.
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Cons:
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Inconsistent focusing was my major gripe but this may have been a fault with the particular copy I had. When used as a portrait lens, the focal length is a little too long on a 1.6x crop body. No lens hood or tripod mount included. Some AF hunting in low light.
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I feel like I am the only person ever to have had a problem with this lens. At its best, it was capable of all the positive things I have read about.
However, the copy I had didn't focus consistently. Maybe it was user error but I've been taking photos for a long time and I have never experienced the same kind of problems with other lenses.
Maybe I just got a bad copy?
Anyway, I couldn't live with a lens that I couldn't trust ... so it went. I still want a macro lens but my dilemma now is do I go for the 60mm EF-S, or chance my arm and go for another 100mm hoping it will be a better copy this time?
I've posted a few image samples at the following link. Click on the thumbnails to see large versions.
http://phil.uk.net/photography/canon_100F28.html
You can see the amazing sharpness in some images, but in others you will notice they are slightly soft. I haven't posted the ones that are very soft.
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Apr 6, 2009
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retrofocus
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Registered: Apr 19, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 647
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Review Date: Mar 28, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $338.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharpness, color reproduction, AF speed and reliability
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Cons:
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no lens hood included, additional Canon tripod collar is too expensive
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I bought this lens unplanned in an unopened box when CircuitCity closed down. Before I used the Sigma 105 mm f2.8 macro lens which always provided me with very satisfying results.
The more I was surprised to see the better performance of this Canon lens. Main difference is the AF - the Canon lens works very reliable with center focus. I always needed to use the Sigma lens in MF mode while I can use AF with the Canon lens much more often.
Optically both lenses perform equally well - the Canon is track sharp and has an excellent color reproduction. The lens body designa of both lenses are different - while the Sigma front lens lies protected inside of its lens body, the Canon front lens is located on one end of the lens body. So far I did not observe any lens flare problems with the Canon lens due to this.
As with the Sigma lens, the Canon 100 mm macro lens can be combined with extenders to increase the max. magnification.
Unfortunately Canon does not include a lens hood here (never for all EF lenses) and of course also not the optional (much too) expensive tripod collar.
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Mar 28, 2009
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Bobby Yarner
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: May 1, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 309
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Review Date: Mar 17, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $490.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Very sharp
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Cons:
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Build–but not really an issue
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This is very sharp.
i use this to make stereophotographs.
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Mar 17, 2009
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mmari
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Registered: Mar 20, 2008
Location: Singapore
Posts: 20
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Review Date: Mar 11, 2009
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Recommend? |
Price paid: $450.00
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Pros:
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sharp sharp sharp even wide open, fast af, non rotating/extending front element, works with 3rd part TC (kenko)
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Cons:
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hood & tripod collar sold separately
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sold my 1st copy buy i miss it so i bought another one. couldn't be any happier with this lens.
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Mar 11, 2009
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bobby_novatron
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Registered: Feb 15, 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 1
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Review Date: Feb 15, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $700.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Incredibly sharp, fantastic colors, nice contrast, very pleasant smooth bokeh.
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Cons:
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Size and price. Fixed focal length makes portraiture a little fussy.
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Everything that people say about this lens is true. It is pure magic. This lens has taken my photographic hobby to "the next level". It takes incredible macro shots but also takes simply beautiful portraits. I cannot say enough positives about this lens.
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Feb 15, 2009
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