Wide macro lenses

I am more or less researching the market for a "wide macro" lens.

I used to own the Tokina 35mm macro on my 40D, which is an absolutely stunning lens. The more serious macro work I normally do with my 100mm macro (often with 36mm tube), but I really like the wider option for macro, since it gives a perspective that you don't often see.

The lenses that come to mind are the Sigma 24mm 1.8 (which is only 1:2.7 but still an impressive magnification for such a wide lens), but it's got quite a lot of disadvantages: "being a Sigma", heavy, awkward AF/MF switch, poor AF compared to what I'm used to - though not too important for macro.
For a lens like that I'd ideally want it to be good enough to also replace my Canon 28mm 1.8 - but it's not...

Another (less wide) option could be the Canon 50mm compact macro, or the Zeiss 50mm f/2 macro, both will do 1:2, or the Sigma 50mm f/2.8.

It seems there's a few decent 50mm options, but I'd really like to focus my attention around the 35mm length. However, it seems there's not a whole lot of options here...

Any recommendations or people with similar interests who've already found what I'm looking for?

Hi Michael,

The reason you don't find any is because lenses shorter than 35 mm on a dslr tend to be retrofocus lenses of fairly long build construction compared to their FL. At close focus distances the WD with short lenses may become so short that in order to get an object in sharp focus, it would have to reside inside the lens due to this longer lens construction, and/or require extension tubes of thicknesses which don't exist (very thin ones).

For 35 mm lenses this isn't too bad yet, as one can often get away with a very simple construction, but adding more lens elements as required for shorter FLs makes this very difficult.

Furthermore, at larger AoVs, it gets exponentially more complex to create a well corrected macro lens which can also shoot at infinity, again adding to the complexity, and thereby the length of the lens.

Shorter macro and micro lenses do exist, but they tend to be specialist lenses, designed to work in macro mode only, often at very large magnifications, and they either need to be mounted to bellows or microscopes.

Personally, I have used a TS-E 24 (Mk I) for macro work, and that works quite well, but at maximum magnification with a 12 mm extension tube and a little tilt for optimum sharpness, the object already touches the front element.

I have attached an example, a close up of a nib on a fountain pen, at approximately 1:0.9, taken with a 400D at F/16, 200 iso, indirect flash, and some tilt in the direction of the nib slit. The pen point was almost touching the front element here, as in, less than 1 mm away from it. Just an experiment, and not a great pic, but it does show what is possible .

Kind regards, Wim

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Thanks for the reply and example, Wim. I've thought about using tubes on my 28 1.8 to get a bit closer (like 1:2 or so). However, what I'm mostly looking for is a versatile outdoor lens, where I can switch between landscape and semi macro. The Tokina 35mm was excellent for this, but it seems I'd have to delve into the 50mm's to get similar functionality on FF.
If it's possible I'd like to go a bit wider, but I haven't been able to find anything that can do this.

If you get wide enough, even a typical short tube (my shortest is 12mm) won't work--you won't be able to obtain focus. I tried this last spring with my 15-85, but I no longer recall quite how wide I was able to go. Nikon makes an 8mm tube that allows you to go wider, but that doesn't do us Canon shooters any good.

TweakMDS wrote in post #13712039
Thanks for the reply and example, Wim. I've thought about using tubes on my 28 1.8 to get a bit closer (like 1:2 or so). However, what I'm mostly looking for is a versatile outdoor lens, where I can switch between landscape and semi macro. The Tokina 35mm was excellent for this, but it seems I'd have to delve into the 50mm's to get similar functionality on FF.
If it's possible I'd like to go a bit wider, but I haven't been able to find anything that can do this.

On FF I would definitely go for a 50 mm in that case.

There is the excellent 50 F/2.5 CM indeed, the Sigma 50 F/2.8, and the Zeiss ZE 50 F/2.

On FF this even have a slightly wider AoV than the Tokina 35, and frankly, they are likely to be better too. The Tokina has some field curvature wide open, and is slightly less sharp at the edges and corners - speaking from personal experience here. The 50 CM is better in this regard.

I have never handled the Sigma 50 F/2.8 yet, and the Zeiss only for a few shots, so I can't really say anything about these two. From tests they appear to be slightly sharper than the Canon 50 F/2.5 CM, with the Zeiss probably being the best (but also the most expensive one).

Kind regards, Wim

Well I took a look down the Canon lens table I have to see what the closest-focusing short-focal-length lens options are. Remember (as I'm sure you're aware) the nearest equivalent to the Tokina 35mm on FF is the 50mm f/2.5 macro, which will give you almost exactly equivalent images in terms of angle, framing, and DOF. There is a "Life-size Converter" you can add to this lens to go from 0.5x up to 1x life size.

To go wider, I notice the MkII version of the TS-E 24mm focuses closer than the MkI, to give up to 0.34x without tubes. None of the current non-macro primes gets you very close; the best being the 35mm f/2 at 0.23x (this is still pretty close for most subjects). Looking at your gear list you already have two of the closer-focusing zooms in the 24-105L and 17-40L (0.23x and 0.24x respectively). Interestingly, the most extreme would seem to be the new 8-15mm fisheye zoom, which according to the table can give 0.39x - this must be almost in contact with the front element.

I hope this helps a bit.

I made some macro images with my Samyang 14mm f/2.8. One time the bee was in contact with the front lens - but she didn´t careed.
To use shorter focal lenses with macro I DIY made a 8 mm thick manual extension tube (see homepage). I think I have to make a even shorter one.

Furthermore I made experiments with a relay lens system with a very short CCTV lens and a macro lens as relay lens - to get wide angel and big DOF. But the quality I got was not good enough.

I guess I'll keep an eye out for a nice used 50mm compact macro or sigma 50mm macro, whichever finds it's way to me first. The Zeiss is probably oh so nice, but I think it would become too pricey.

Very interesting tip on the 24TS-E MkII though, I didn't know it focused so close. Maybe one day, although I think that wouldn't really be the right lens for me to take into the field the same way I use the 35mm macro...

I used a 12mm tube on a Canon EF 20/2.8 to make this shot: