Macro lens?

[Toogy]

Excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of buying a macro specific lens? Like the Canon 100mm macro?
Can these lens be used for anything else?

[ScottE]

A macro lens is designed to focus on objects much closer than ordinary lenses. This allows photos of extremely small subjects. It is also designed to have a flat plane of focus at short distances while other lenses have a curved plane of focus that is equidistant from the lens. The flat plane of focus allows photos of flat objects such as stamps that are in focus from corner to corner.

Most modern macro lenses give excellent results at longer distances as well. Some older models (Nikon) were soft at longer distances. An exception is the 65 mm 1x-5x macro lens that cannot be focused at any non=macro distance. That is a specific tool that can only be used for very small subjects as very close distances.

The 100 mm Canon macro lens if one of the sharpest lenses available at any distance from 10 inches to infinity.

Scott

[steibeldj]

A macro lens is designed to focus on objects much closer than ordinary lenses. This allows photos of extremely small subjects. It is also designed to have a flat plane of focus at short distances while other lenses have a curved plane of focus that is equidistant from the lens. The flat plane of focus allows photos of flat objects such as stamps that are in focus from corner to corner.

Most modern macro lenses give excellent results at longer distances as well. Some older models (Nikon) were soft at longer distances. An exception is the 65 mm 1x-5x macro lens that cannot be focused at any non=macro distance. That is a specific tool that can only be used for very small subjects as very close distances.

The 100 mm Canon macro lens if one of the sharpest lenses available at any distance from 10 inches to infinity.

Scott

Thanks, I learned something new today. :D

[Raj]

As Scott mentioned, 100 mm macro is a excellent telephoto & macro lens. It also gives very impressive results when used for portrait shots.

[ducdubbq]

i have the sigma 105 and have used it as a macro (its very good imho) and as a long portrait lens. its quirky compared to the canon but cheaper and I thought it was worth the money. and when you get a nice saturated photo of a flower or your socks, its just great. but i would go with the 100 range (100, 105, ect..) rather than the wider 50/60 or the 180 super longs.

[Dante King]

Love my tamrom SP90 Di Macro.

http://www.danteking.com/pics/bee1.jpg

[Citizensmith]

Macro lenses in general are better (and more expensive) than non-macro equivalents as they have to be designed very well so no flaws show up in macro use. With one exception (the Canon MP-E 65mm) they are all usable for normal photos as well.

[soupdragon]

The canon 100 macro is on my 350 nearly all the time.

It's so sharp at all focus distances I am surprised it does not sport the 'L' designation.
From portrait to macro in no time flat plus full time manual focus what more could you want?
The downside as far as I can tell is, you cannot use tele-converters with it (I just find that incredible)
Come on Canon, get it together!

[Dante King]

LOL soupdragon, you cant have it ALL in a lens. LOL

[soupdragon]

What does LOL mean by the way? I'm not to good at these abbreviations yet.

[Jon]

Laughing out Loud. See the Acronym Server (http://www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym) for all those odd bits we lard our conversations with.

[rdenney]

Macro lenses are optimized for extreme closeups, while normal lenses are optimized at infinity. They are also highly corrected for distortion (as in no barrel or pinchushion distortion) and flatness of field for copy work. Most good macro lenses use floating elements and other fancy tricks to make the lenses perhaps well close up, and these allow the lens to also perform well at infinity for general-purpose use.

I use my 50mm Compact Macro for copy work, and find I can outperform a flatbed scanner for copying old photos. The (very) slight softening effect and the excellent color rendition of the 10D makes photo restoration quite easy. Plus, I can copy a whole photo album in a couple of hours and have CD's to hand out, when it would take a week with a flatbed.

The 50mm Compact Macro has nine elements, including floating elements. The fancier normal 50mm lenses are a plasmat design with six elements with none floating. They just don't have the same degree of correction.

Rick "who would have gotten a longer macro lens if he did bugs instead of copy work" Denney

[Rjohn518]

Hey Dante--NICE photo! I love the colors and clarity.

I for one have the Sigma 105mm macro, and I have found it to be a very capable lens. I shoot a lot of medically-oriented macros, and the Sigma has done very well. Haven't used the Canon 100mm, so can't compare.

Bob

[Dante King]

Thanks Rjohn518. Just love the tamron. 6 year warrantry and included hood and pouch dont hurt either.

[ant]

hey guys, just got a question. if i wanted to take good close up photos, with the entire object in focus, of say 1:18 and 1:24 scale models, would a macro lens be what i would need? Ive tried with my 300D kit lens and it cant focus on the whole object. what lens would anyone recommend. thanks guys.

[rdenney]

hey guys, just got a question. if i wanted to take good close up photos, with the entire object in focus, of say 1:18 and 1:24 scale models, would a macro lens be what i would need? Ive tried with my 300D kit lens and it cant focus on the whole object. what lens would anyone recommend. thanks guys.

When you say "can't focus on the whole subject", what do you mean? The front of the model car is focused but the back is blurry?

The solution to that problem isn't with the lens, but rather with the need for more depth of field--that distance in the subject field where things appear to be acceptably sharp.

Try it again in Av mode, with the lens aperture setting to 16 or 22. The shutter speed will be slow (unless you are in daylight) so use a tripod.

Rick "noting that depth of field is always very narrow in the macro range" Denney

[roanjohn]

Excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of buying a macro specific lens? Like the Canon 100mm macro?
Can these lens be used for anything else?

For everything far and near. This is a very versatile lens that will only limit you when you want to track fast moving objects.....otherwise, this lens will do portraits, insects, buildings, flowers and everything in between.

Ro1

[cactusclay]

I second that.

[willg]

i use an extension tube and get pretty good results...what are the benefits of a dedicated macro lens?

[rdenney]

i use an extension tube and get pretty good results...what are the benefits of a dedicated macro lens?

If the results you get from your extension tubes are acceptable, then you have your solution.

Macro lenses are optimized for close focus rather than infinity. And they are highly corrected for distortion and flatness of field, so they can be used for copy work. To make them versatile, they usually have floating elements and other features to keep their performance high at infinity. My 50mm macro lens has nine elements rather than the seven in the 50/1.4 and six in the 50/1.8, both of which are double-gauss designs. The extra elements are for the extra corrections.

Rick "whose usual trick of mounting an enlarger lens on bellows doesn't work for this camera--the bellows are too expensive" Denney