Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens Review

Prospective buyers of a macro lens for a Canon EOS system can't make a better first choice than this 100mm Macro. The extra length over a 50mm macro gives much better working distance (space between lens and subject) in the field, and EOS-compatible lenses by other manufacturers match poorly with accessories and are nowhere near as sharp.
Compared with the earlier Micro motor 100mm Macro that Canon made (which I also own), the USM lens focuses *very* fast. The USM lens also can accept a tripod collar (by use of a small plastic adapter)--I recommend you buy the collar with the lens, as adjusting to a vertical composition with a tripod means repositioning everything. The front element is not recessed in the USM model, which makes lens cleaning easier. And build quality is improved--the earlier model was prone to its switches breaking (could fix it yourself with the ordered part, but really annoying) and eventually the Micro motor gearing gave out (no trouble so far with the USM ring motor). The USM model will work with Canon's 2x teleconverter by interposing a 12mm extension tube, allowing 2x magnification with lots of working distance.
I will quibble with another reviewer--Canon does make sharper lenses (notably their 90mm tilt-shift lens, which is a better choice for studio product photography), and sharpness compared with the earlier model is virtually the same.But this is still one of the sharpest lenses you can buy, and ergonomically a huge improvement over its predecessor.
If you are building up a set of lenses for outdoor/nature photography and you do occasional macrophotography, this might be the first or second lens to buy. If you work significantly at magnifications greater than 1:1, consider the Canon 65mm 1x-5x Macro zoom (which I can push to a decent 10x with the teleconverter).
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