Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

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I am truly enjoying this lens and its Macro capabilities.

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I wanted to get into macro photos and by most reviews this is the lens to have, or at least in the Canon world. Using it on a APS-c (70D) so portraits are a bit limited but that is not my intended use. I am learning about shooting macro and the lighting and camera adjustments necessary. All my shots so far have been indoors. This lens brings out details you never notice by eye. It is amazing and very enjoyable to use. Looking forward to improving my skills and the spring flower/bug season. I did see some comments on it being plastic. I see no problem with that and wish my 70-200 f2.8 had a hi-tech plastic body to get some weight off.

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I love this lens. You can take pictures of someone across the room as easily as you can focus in on a fig thats less than 12" from your lens. Absolutely unreal range of focus. f/2.8 provides reasonable light for most subjects with a tripod and appropriately long exposures as well as delightful bokeh (depth of field blurring). Highly recommend this lens to anyone that wants to take pictures of things extremely close up with the convenience of auto-focus.

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This is by far my favorite lens. Its excellent for walk around. At 100mm you do find yourself having to step back quite often. But if you like closeups then this lens seems like an almost must have. I had borrowed one for a few weeks and I was very sad to give it up so I ended up getting one for myself. So glad I did. Being limited to 100mm makes me look at things differently and is slowly making me a better photographer.

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So, I have a 40mm 2.8, a 50mm1.8, a 85mm 1.8, 24-105 F4, and the beastly 70-200 2.8 ll. Of all these, the lens I reach for most is the 100mm 2.8L. Its light, so I can carry it for long periods of time, its nicely sharp, arguably as sharp if not sharper than my 70-200, it has the shortest focusing distance of all the lenses I have, and it has image stabilization. Ive been enjoying it for my flower photography, but I love it even more for my portrait and headshot photography.

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Ive recently been spending a lot on increasing my L lens collection. Im kind of glad that this wasnt my first purchase because the standard would be set very high. With most Ls you are paying for premium glass, however, there are still some that are better than others. This stands at the top of the class. Super fast AF, colors are beautiful, lens is extremely sharp, and of course the macro feature. I tend to love IS on anything above 50mm. While I do have the 135L; that is also a great lens, I find that this one suites my needs better, and the 135 lacks IS. Canon and Tamron make some great macro lenses. I also have Canons 35mm macro that is tact sharp if you are looking for something wider.

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This 100mm 2.8 IS Macro is just crazy. Tack sharp wide open (amazing for portraits), superb resolving power even on a 5D Mark III, and the Hybrid IS... WOW, not only is it amazing for still shots, but for VIDEO, its like having a gyro or SteadyCam! And for the price, this could be Canons best value-per-dollar lens. Ive owned the non-IS version which is a great lens, and I do own the 70-200mm/2.8 IS II which obviously can hit this focal length, but the lightweight 100mm with the Hybrid IS allows a certain freedom and is basically a blast to shoot with. It also comes with an EXCELLENT lens hood (not sure why the Canon site pushes it as an optional accessory), and I use that hood everywhere, even indoors. It keeps all stray light off the lens and makes for amazing contrast. Cant recommend this lens enough. Oh, the Macro part! Almost forgot! Obviously the Macro is an awesome feature and I use it for details shots at weddings, and because of that IS, no tripod needed. Its the perfect focal length for portraits, and because its lightweight and has IS you can get away with much slower speeds handheld, something more difficult on the user-heavy 70-200mm/2.8. If you pull the trigger on this 100mm you wont regret it.

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I have been shooting seriously for nearly 4 years, but this was my first macro lens. I shoot with a 5D mark II body, which pairs beautifully with most L glass, and this lens is no different. I will admit there is a bit of a learning curve with macro, especially since Im very used to shooting with a wide aperture and shallow depth of field. Cranking my ISO and using a higher aperture was not someting I was used to (since most of what Ive shot has been moving bugs and thus, a tripod would be of little help). After a couple of months of shooting with it, however, the manual focus is no longer an issue and I have been thrilled with the images Ive gotten with it. Not only is it a beautifully sharp macro lens, it makes a great portrait lens and has quickly become a favorite of mine for portrait work. The color is also great and my images have needed very little processing SOOC. I am extremely pleased with this lens and will say that it is WELL worth the money spent. If you find macro intimidating, dont! There are plenty of online tutorials and with this awesome lens youll be getting gorgeous shots in no time! Its added an entirely new perspective to my photography, I LOVE this lens!

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I currently carry the following lenses and have been using them since the noted purchase date: 17-40mm f/4L (Sep2010) 40mm f/2.8 STM (Aug2012) 50mm f/1.4 (May2010) 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro (Jan2011) 70-200mm f/4L IS (Feb2012) I could go back and forth between this 100mm Macro and the 70-200mm f/4L IS on which lens is more optically impressive. It makes little sense to compare the two lenses directly since they are designed with different purposes. However, anyone familiar with this macro or the 70-200mm can appreciate that I hold both lenses in similar esteem. Obviously, as a macro, this lens is designed with the ability to reproduce objects at life size on the cameras image sensor. The lens excels at this task tremendously with regard to optics and handling. Being completely new to macro photography at the time of puchase, my initial thoughts about the hybrid IS system were mixed - Although the system functions as designed, I had to admit that I still found a tripod to be absolutely essential for true macro shots. The manual focus system was rightly given a build standard higher than most lenses. The large size of the focus ring (relative to lens axis) combined with the fine gearing of the focus mechanism makes manual focusing efficient and precise. The auto focus includes a switch that locks out certain focus distances to eliminate unnecessary focus hunting and to improve focus speed (options include full range, 0.3m-0.5m, and 0.5m to infinity). The autofocus speed itself is acceptable but not remarkable (and is USM driven and quiet). However, as this is not a lens designed with action shooting as a priority, I will happily give up some autofocus speed for the gain in precision. Since my initial impressions were formed, I have adapted reasonably well to the practice of combining the hybrid IS system with my 7Ds continuous focus for handheld shots. After learning to use this technique efficiently (which isnt quite as simple as picking settings and going shooting), I am capable of handheld "near macro" (not quite 1:1) shots that Im not embarassed for others to see. Id still consider a tripod (or support of some kind) to be essential for true 1:1 macro shooting. Early on in my ownership (before I established a workable handholding technique) I was telling people to simply buy the non-L/non-IS 100mm Canon macro lens. Since that time, I have changed my advice to "buy the L if you can afford it but you wont regret buying either lens".

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4.5 stars for this lens. All in all its a great macro and portrait lens. Ive used this lens on both 6D and 70D - for fullframe camera 100mm is very nice for portraits; on crop its a bit too long, but not bad as well. I keep it on my 6D 90% of time only to replace it at times by 16-35 f4 and 50mm f1.8 for wider angles. Bokeh and sharpness are overall excellent at wide open. 0.5 stars taken away for not fast enough autofocus even with proper range selector set. Its much harder to refocus moving subjects compared to some other lenses (even compared to kit 55-250mm stm one on 70D). For those interested in macro and portraits this is probably an ideal lens. For portraits-only 135mm F2 is better for the similar price, but has no IS or macro capability. Ive used this lens both with kenko 1.4x extender and macro tubes -- both work great with it for additional range & zoom.

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