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

The reviews say it all. Not just Amazon's. Everywhere you go it's the same.

A lot of Canon L series lenses with a lot less reviews than this lens don't come close to an overall 5 star rating like this one. This lens is sharp (it will show you the resolution your camera is capable of)/colors and contrast are good/distortion level is good/focus is fast and quiet/clarity is good. (you could replace all those goods with great) Oh, and when it comes to the macro side of this lens... the customer photos say it all.

I have rented some L series lenses that I wouldn't pay what this one is going for and honestly (I hope Canon isn't listening) if this had an L series price tag on it, it would be worth it.

Personally I hate paying a lot of money for lenses that are lacking in color / contrast and clarity quality and with distortion that reminds me of a 10 cent magnifying glass. And focus,,,,, well there are a lot of lenses out there that make you lie to yourself that what you paid for them was worth it.

It is refreshing to buy a lens at a very good relative price and know it won't just sit with the other overpriced ones you seldom use. For me personally I feel this is a great lens at a good price. A lens that I don't have to make excuses for, and highly recommend.
A couple coments by other reviews really hit home to me about this lens. One said Canon makes a few really great lenses and this is one of them, and the other said something like after looking at their photo's they wondered why they didn't just leave this lens on and shoot with it all the time.

I bought Canon Macro 100mm for fun, because of the deep cashback from[...]in the thanksgiving week. First I think if I don't like it, I will sell it, but the lens is just too amazing to be sold.

Canon Macro 100mm is quite affordable and do a fantastic job. No wonder a lot of professional use and recommend it. The lens is primarily use for macro, for small things. The lens have ability to focus really close to object so that the camera can capture a life size image.

The depth of field is very shallow, especially wide open at f/2.8 as you can see in some samples that I have uploaded. So, f/8 or higher is recommended if you want to capture a sharp object.

But the shallow depth of field is not bad thing for many people, it helps the photographer to point out where is the most interesting part of the picture.

The focal length of 100mm, make it ideal for portrait lens because it flattens out the facial features and blur the background making the subject more appealing especially girls portraits.

The color contrast is also very good, it turns everyday boring object becomes interesting.

Physically, the lens are slightly longer and heavier than most general purpose lens, the built quality is almost similar to 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM and slightly better than 50mm, 85mm primes.

The focusing bar is big make manual adjustment becoming very easy (manual focus is important for Macro work to ensure accurate focusing, although the auto focus is very fast due to USM (UltraSonic Motor). We can adjust the focusing to macro range (close up) or standard to long range.

This lens focal length is bit too long for indoor shot and in crop sensor camera (Rebel series, and X0D series) but ideal for full frame camera (5D, 1D(s) series), but it is perfect for outdoor.

Other alternative for APS-C camera is the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Digital SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLR Cameras which is smaller more suitable indoor and have almost equal price and image quality. The drawback is the EF-S lens can't be use in full frame camera if you want to upgrade later. Visit my blog [...] for sample photos, video and more reviews.

When I first read the reviews on here that say how this lens is sharp and is a good walk-around lens, I was a bit skeptical. I'm a zoom lens kind of guy and I own a 17-55mm lens. Don't get me wrong, I love my 17-55mm zoom lens, but having said that, I will tell everyone now that if I knew what I know now, I would suggest anyone switching to an digital SLR to start off with this lens. It offers a lot of flexibility/advantages that I highly recommend it. No one wants to waste money on a great lens that you won't use. Fortunately, this is the answer to all your general purpose needs and more (macro).

Lastly, you probably noticed I gave this lens a 5/5. I never give anything a 5/5 because I don't believe it could be that perfect. Also, this lens persuaded me to post my first review on Amazon because I feel everyone should know about this lens. If you want to see examples, I've posted a few butterfly pictures and portraits for you to see the true sharpness of this lens (all hand held shots)

Advantages:
1. It's super sharp! I thought my 17-55mm was sharp, but I think this one is sharper.
2. USM - fast and silent focusing
3. Fast lens (great for low light and pretty background blurring)
4. 1:1 macro lens (get those amazing close up pictures)
5. Focal length is perfect for portaits

Wishful thoughts:
1. It would be nice to have IS to get even more versatility out of it. Either way, it's definately not a show stopper at all!

every time I look at images taken with this lens I ask myself "why dont you just use this lens every time?"

Best $500 I have ever spent on photo equipment, period. I had no idea lenses could do this at ANY cost.

Blows my zooms out of the water and is noticeably better than any prime I own or have ever owned.

not much of a list for comparison but better than my:
17-55 2.8 IS
28-135 IS
28-105
50 1.8
kit lens (aka doorstop)

The only thing I wish it had was IS because with a 1.6x sensor crop you basically have to shoot 1/200 sec or better to avoid handshake blur. I go for 1/250 just to be sure.

get it, you will love it, i promise.

This lens gets 5 stars from me on all counts - color, saturation, sharpness, contrast, clarity and bokeh. This one sentence should sum up my review. Just for reference, I own the 135/2L and the 70-200f/4L IS lenses, both incredibly sharp, high quality lenses and this ranks very much among the two in quality. I also own the 85/1.8 and 50/1.4 and I would have to say that the 100/2.8 outranks the 85 and the 50 in IQ, color, saturation and contrast. While the 85 and 50 are both excellent lenses, the 100mm just holds its ground. I do have to add that the focus hunts quite often, which is more a characteristic of macro, and something that I am ok to put up with. If slow focusing or hunting is not good enough for you, you may want to consider the other two macro lenses in the canon line up.
For those who are interested in seeing proof, you can either see my amazon pictures or view my flickr links (please leave comments)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32764858@N04/sets/72157617678618513/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32764858@N04/sets/72157618608105062/
This lens has never failed me in any situation. Even though I have had this for just 3 months, I have been tremendously pleased and very happy with the quality of the images.
This lens has brought out a whole new dimension in my photography and I couldnt be more pleased. If I have a gripe, it is with Canon - they dont provide a hood for the macro lens, which you can very well debate if that is even necessary for for a macro. The other gripe I have is that the macro ring lite flash is >$400! Either ways, it has nothing to do with this lens itself, which is why the 5 stars.