 |
|
|
jkurtz
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 5, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 230
|
|
Review Date: Apr 27, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $400.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Super Sharp!! Nice colors. Good for macro and portrait!
|
|
Cons:
|
AF can hunt. Hefty prime.
|
|
|
Hello all,
I have had my 100mm macro for a bit now and can give a little review of what I have found out. The lens is super sharp!! As far as clarity, this lens definitely battles my 17-40L. The lens a little hefty for a prime but nothing that can't be dealt with. Typically, manual focus is the way to shoot with this lens. AF can hunt a bit. But, the quality is by far worth the hunting. In my opinion, the only thing thats not "L" about this lens is the infamous red ring. The true macro is fun to play with. Excellent for portrait as well, however its a little long on the crop (1.6x) camera. Also, sometimes I wish it was a little faster than 2.8, but what can you do?
Overall, the pros crush the cons. Buy this lens!!
Justin
|
|
 Apr 27, 2008
|
|
jfk03
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 20, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 463
|
|
Review Date: Apr 6, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $430.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Sharp, excellent build, reasonably priced, doubles as portrait lens
|
|
Cons:
|
AF hunts
|
|
|
Love this lens.
|
|
|
Apr 6, 2008
|
|
alaina
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 21, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Mar 21, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
Good and accurate AF. Good resolution. Accurate color. Only prime I had with little problem fits different bodies.
|
|
Cons:
|
f2.8 soft
|
|
|
I would not say it is the best non-L but it is good enough for the money. I started in love with primes after several bad experiences with so called L zoom. But for this f2.8 I did not experience much pain. At 100 mm the background seemed very smooth. I wish it could be f1.8. Of course it would be much heavier. The optical design is classical.
|
|
|
Mar 21, 2008
|
|
edelsolar
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Aug 16, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 15
|
|
Review Date: Mar 21, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Very sharp lens, L level in terms of image quality, great macro lens. Good price.
|
|
Cons:
|
Maybe it is too sharp for a non L lens? :-)
|
|
|
I have owned this lens for a couple of years +, still love it as I did on my first day.
|
|
|
Mar 21, 2008
|
|
mmari
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 20, 2008
Location: Singapore
Posts: 21
|
|
Review Date: Mar 21, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
deadly sharp even wide open, accurate focus.
|
|
Cons:
|
hunts when focused at too small objects even under the sun, need IS.
|
|
|
i was looking for ~100mm macro and my bets are Canon, tokina, and tamron.
after asking other forums, canon turned out to be the best choice even with the highest price tag.
after buying a mint 2nd hand, i was very satified. but sometimes i wish i got the tamron180 for longer reach.
if i want to upgrade to tamron180, i can easily sell this for abit higher price than i got it. it's selling like hotcake in the BnS portion of our local photography site.
|
|
|
Mar 21, 2008
|
|
Dr Jimson
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 3, 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 80
|
|
Review Date: Mar 10, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Excellent image quality, good build, good value, easy to use.
|
|
Cons:
|
none
|
|
|
I have found the image quality of this lens to be almost L standard. It is certainly better than a couple of my L zooms.
It hasn't quite got the contrast and colour of the 180L but you have to look hard to see the difference and the increased depth of field sometimes makes up for this. The 100mm certainly is much better value and is easier to use hand held.
|
|
|
Mar 10, 2008
|
|
ch4rli3
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Feb 17, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 9
|
|
Review Date: Feb 27, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
Sharp, solid and affordable.
|
|
Cons:
|
none so far.
|
|
|
very fun to use and great value for someone starting with macro photography.
|
|
|
Feb 27, 2008
|
|
performant
Offline
[ X ]
Registered: Feb 17, 2008
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Feb 20, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $300.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
1:1 magnification,
build quality,
bang for the buck
|
|
Cons:
|
can hunt a little
|
|
|
A truly excellent lens.
The build quality is exceptional.
I use it primary for macro work, but it's also good for portraiture.
The focus ring is very broad and feels nice.
For macro a no-brainer
|
|
|
Feb 20, 2008
|
|
MGSteve
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Feb 17, 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Feb 17, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Image Quality, Solidly built, 1:1 magnification, superb bokeh
|
|
Cons:
|
No IS, can hunt a bit depending on subject & lighting.
|
|
This is my first review on FM, hopefully first of many 
I bought this lens off eBay, shipped in from Hong Kong, was a little nervous of doing so, but given the price it was worth a punt.
And thank god I did. My previous macro, a Sigma 18-50mm EX DC Macro lens was pretty good - nice wide range as well as a decent zoom, but it pales into insignificance next to this lens. Where as the sigma is pretty soft, especially at the 50mm end, this lens is pin sharp - any blur I found was either down to me or the fact the autofocus hadn't quite locked.
There are some sample photos (available at 100%) in the link below, a couple of my cat on the fence are truly superb, only one of them was slightly tweaked in PS to correct a slight over exposure.
The only downsides really with this lens are the fact is hasn't got IS (but then if it had, it would have been quite a bit more expensive as I'm sure it would ended up being an L series as well) and the fact the focusing can hunt a bit. I used it on a 350D, 30D and 40D and it does it on all of them. Mainly when you're up close to something so it fills the frame, but this is really a factor with all macro lenses, so not really a fault of this lense, per se. That said, it definitely does tend to hunt a bit more than my other lenses in low light. is it a problem - no, not really I just use the full time Manual focus ring and give it a helping start.
If you're after a decent 100mm prime, macro or not, this has to be worth a look. The image quality - to me, the most important thing of any lens I buy is absolutely top draw.
Link: http://mgsteve.smugmug.com
Link to cat picture mentioned above - http://mgsteve.smugmug.com/gallery/4353064_MjPfN#255471942
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2008
|
|
sven rose
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jul 9, 2007
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 17
|
|
Review Date: Feb 13, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
overall IQ (sharpness, colours, contrast)
|
|
Cons:
|
No IS
|
|
This lens for macro is a great step forward in IQ and handling in comparison to extension tubes and magnification lenses (or combination of both) on lenses like the 17-55 f/2.8 IS or (better) 70-200 f/4 IS, despite the lacking of IS.
The IQ seems to me little better then the 17-55 f/2.8 IS and quite as good as the 70-200 f/4 IS.
some pictures taken with this lens:
http://svenrose.smugmug.com/gallery/4332779_6BKyq/1/253879616_DcPvQ
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2008
|
|
Conrad Tan
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Dec 8, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 28406
|
|
Review Date: Jan 22, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $440.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Super Sharp... on a tripod
|
|
Cons:
|
High Learning curve...
|
|
|
This is more of a commentary on Macro photography in general. If you are new, be prepared for a relatively steep learning curve. This NOT like landscape, wildlife, etc... it is not easy. That being said, if you still want to try Macro, there is no other lens better than this one for the price, bar-none!
|
|
|
Jan 22, 2008
|
|
hatch1921
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: May 12, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 5899
|
|
Review Date: Jan 1, 2008
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $460.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Tack sharp!!! Solid build...easy to handle. Best in the focal range in my opinion. Did I mention it is SHARP!
|
|
Cons:
|
none
|
|
I've owned this lens for about 3 years now and it has been heavly used. I'm a macro nut!
The lens is VERY sharp and shows every little detail. The focal length on a crop camera works very well for macro work. I've shot this lens on the 20D and the 5D. Very pleased with the results on both cameras.
AF works well even when shooting macro. I shoot the majority of my macro manual focus....but..have used the AF at times.
Setting your camera to AI Servo... you can hear the AF working hard to keep your macro subject in focus.
It can double as a portrait lens...although...expect to spend some time in Photoshop softening skin and cleaning up blemishes. This lens truly shows every detail...good and bad.
All macro lenses take a little longer to focus... really only when you are in a situation where you were shooting something up close and then change to a distance shot. There is a lot of glass in this lens and it take a second to travel.
I wouldn't trade this gem in for another 100mm or lower focal length macro lens. It is a solid performer with amazing optics.
Here are some galleries to images shot with the lens.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hatch1921/collections/72157600425332810/
I have a few shots in there using the MP-E65 as well... but..99% were shot with the 100mm macro.
Well worth the money IMO.
Hatch
|
|
|
Jan 1, 2008
|
|
albertino
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Dec 22, 2007
Location: Italy
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Dec 23, 2007
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
leggero, nitido, economico, contrastato, ottimio sfocato
|
|
Cons:
|
nessuno
|
|
|
decisamente un obiettivo da tenere nella propria borsa.
Definisce come una lama
|
|
|
Dec 23, 2007
|
|
THarley
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jun 3, 2007
Location: Denmark
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Nov 3, 2007
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $750.00
| Rating: 10
|
|
Pros:
|
Sharpness, bokeh, build quality
|
|
Cons:
|
No IS
|
|
|
I was having difficulties deciding which macro lens to buy - they are all very good. Finally i decided for the Canon because of the fast AF which makes it a good action/portrait lens on top of its macro abbilities.
AF is highly usable for macro work as well.
|
|
|
Nov 3, 2007
|
|
Jia Wang
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Apr 2, 2005
Location: Singapore
Posts: 120
|
|
Review Date: Nov 3, 2007
|
Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
|
|
Pros:
|
- Very sharp images
- light enough to shoot macro work handheld
- bokeh is creamy and smooth
|
|
Cons:
|
- may not be very representative, but I tend to feel that the focusing is slower on my 20D as compared to the 40D which I tried on in the shop.
- some hunting when i shot in the 0.3 - infinity mode
|
|
|
I used to own the Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro lens a few years back but sold it due to little usage. But decided to venture into some macro photography lately and went to get this 100mm.
I would tend to compare this to the Tamron 90mm as I suppose it's the closest comparison there is in the market and since Tamron 90mm is also a respectable performer in this range and purpose.
The 100mm is definitely faster in focusing than the Tamron 90mm on the Canon body. Hunting during focusing is also significantly lesser on the 100mm.
Sharpness wise, the Tamron 90mm seems just a wee bit sharper, but I think not to the point where the 100mm becomes inadequate in any sense. It better I suppose since the 100mm can also be used as a fast portrait lens, and with protraits, I tend to prefer not so razor sharp images.
I did a test shoot with this 100mm on some flowers and insects. Results were quite good, I must say, considering I'm just starting out in macro photography. The images can all be seen at
<a href="http://www.pbase.com/jiawang/botanical_garden_macro" target="_blank">http://www.pbase.com/jiawang/botanical_garden_macro</a><br />
Overall, this lens is a value for its every cent lens. Strongly recommended.
|
|
|
Nov 3, 2007
|
|
Hitendra
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Feb 15, 2007
Location: India
Posts: 0
|
|
Review Date: Oct 23, 2007
|
Recommend? |
Price paid: Not Indicated
|
|
Pros:
|
Excellent image quality, superb balance, well built.
|
|
Cons:
|
None
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 23, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reviews
|
Views
|
Date of last review
|
|
210
|
528473
|
Feb 13, 2018
|
|
|
Recommended By
|
Average Price
|
|
95% of reviewers
|
$480.04
|
|
|
Build Quality Rating
|
Price Rating
|
Overall Rating
|
|
9.10
|
9.21
|
9.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
