# Looking For Macro Lens Recommendations



## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

My wife just purchased a Canon 60D last year and it's great for taking full tank shots, but I'd love to get a macro lens to help me take better shots of individual plants close up. I'm hoping not to spend more than $300 for the lens. Any good recommendations?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM is an amazing lens. You can pick one up for about 300 bucks if you look around. I use this for a lot of my plant shots. The lens does have a bit of a narrow field so you have to back up a little more than you'd think to get pictures. It is extremely sharp and is actually an L class lens (the highest quality lens category that canon makes).

I know AQUASAUR uses a EF 50 mm/f2.5 Compact-Macro and EF 50 mm. f/1.8 II to take pics of his fish a lot. His photos look pretty good I have to say. So you might consider one of these lenses.

You'll also need an external flash in order to get correct lighting. Either buy a macro flash ring or the Speedlite 580EX II flash which is a good flash all around. It helps to get a flash cable as well so you can position the flash away from the camera.


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## kendrid (May 17, 2010)

What I do for flash is put the flash on top of the tank pointing up (buy a off camera cable). When it fires it fires into the lights and reflects back down into the tank. This method works really well.


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## kendrid (May 17, 2010)

Oh - be sure to check if Sigma or Tamron make macro lenses for Canon (I am a Nikon use). They are 3rd party but usually work well for the price.


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## Charlie 1 (Aug 24, 2007)

Zapins said:


> *EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM is an amazing lens. You can pick one up for about 300 bucks if you look around. I use this for a lot of my plant shots. The lens does have a bit of a narrow field so you have to back up a little more than you'd think to get pictures. It is extremely sharp and is actually an L class lens (the highest quality lens category that canon makes).*
> I know AQUASAUR uses a EF 50 mm/f2.5 Compact-Macro and EF 50 mm. f/1.8 II to take pics of his fish a lot. His photos look pretty good I have to say. So you might consider one of these lenses.
> 
> You'll also need an external flash in order to get correct lighting. Either buy a macro flash ring or the Speedlite 580EX II flash which is a good flash all around. It helps to get a flash cable as well so you can position the flash away from the camera.


Are you sure about picking up the Canon 100 2.8macro "L" lens for 300.00?
I suspect it`s the older 100 Macro 2.8 EF lens, that one is not an " L" lens.
That said it works fantastic & like Zapins said it is sharp, the canon 60 mm 2.8 Macro EF lens is said to be sharper than the 100 mm, I can`t say since I only have the 100 MM.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

kendrid said:


> Oh - be sure to check if Sigma or Tamron make macro lenses for Canon (I am a Nikon use). They are 3rd party but usually work well for the price.


I'm a Nikon person myself. But will back up Kendrid's note on the Sigma lenses. Yeas ago I did some lens testing comparing my Nikon Lenses with Sigma lenses on film cameras and there was only a slight bit of improvement with the Nikon lenses that in my mind were not worth the extra money. If your doing sport photography where you need a long dept of field and a fast shutter speed the Nikon lenses are worth the extra money. But when you can run longer shutter times they are not worth the extra cash.


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