Reviews for Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

Excellent Macro and Portrait Lens!

Strengths: Sharp, fast, great bokeh (foreground-background blur quality), excellent value

Weakness: Sometimes hunts in low light

If you are in a market for a dedicated macro lens, then you probably have found it! Canon makes three dedicated macro lenses -

1. EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
2. EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
3. EF 180mm f/3.5 L USM

- with the 100mm f/2.8 almost certainly being the best value. It is very sharp, fast, and produces a beautiful foreground-background (bokeh) blur around the subject. Flowers, insects, amphibians, small reptiles, etc. are perfect subjects for macro photography with this lens.

Watch the nature photographer emerging from within you, as you hunt around the yard, parks, streams, etc. for suitable subjects.

As a bonus, this lens also functions rather well for portraits.

The single, very minor drawback is its tendency to hunt in low light situations. Even if you love autofocus, you will quickly enjoy the control you gain by utilizing manual focus.

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Great Macro lens

Strengths: 1:1 MACRO pictures; Very very sharp image; great blurring effect at f/2.8; very quiet; small size!!

Weakness: Canon does not provide a hood with it...even for the price of >$450 we pay for the lens; sometimes gets confused while autofocusing.

Amazing lens! Very sharp MACRO images and very sharp portraits too. I use this lens to take passport photos, very clear indeed! As for closeups ... it gives you all the possible details...you have to use it to believe it!!

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Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

Strengths: Sharp images, great with tiny detail, small, light, fast focus.

Weakness: None.

This lens is great for both macro and portrait photography. It captures the smallest subjects with great detail. It is great to not be adding extension tubes and close-up filters to do macro shots anymore. A dedicated lens is much more convenient. The quality of the photos are excellent. It feels like an L series lens without the L series cost. This lens also has a great focal length and good background blur which make it good for portaiture.

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Good Macro Lens

Strengths: Excellent macro lens.

Weakness: A bit heavy and price.

I had been looking for several months for a good marco lens for my digital rebel. After trying several marco lenses (sigma 105mm, tamron 90mm, and canon 100mm), this lens turn out to be the sharpest of all and AF is very fast compare with others. If you are interested in taking super sharp macro picture, this is the lens for you. By the way, you can use this lens as a normal 100mm lens also.

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It's really a hidden L lens, it's that good!

Strengths: Fast & quiet USM internal focus, sharp images, good for low/available light shooting.

Weakness: NO LENS HOOD (CANON, you can do better)

I read a lot of reviews before I bought this lens, and it's really as good as many people recommended. It focus really fast and quiet and thanks to the internal focusing, therefore, it's very easy to attach and use a PL filter. I do notice that in very low light or completely white/dark background, the focusing will hunt for a while before it can lock on the subject. All in all, it's really a hidden L-quality lens that you can buy at this price except my 17-40mm L lens.

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Canon EF 100mm Macro

Strengths: excellent macro lens

Weakness: 58mm filter, no hood.

Very sharp image. Focusing is fast and quiet. Caveat, this lens is addictive. I found myself spending hours shooting insects and flowers:) Since most Canon L lens are 77mm. I have to spend extra bucks to buy a filter for it.

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Superb

Strengths: Incredibly sharp, Internal focusing, 1:1 Macro, 58mm Filter

Weakness: None

This is an incredible lens. Internal focusing and USM really make it different from other macro lens. Internal focusing ensures that dust will not get it easily. USM makes fast and silent focusing. However, USM is not as fast as some other lens such as 85mm 1.8. The lens can double a a good portrait lens on full frame body. On 1.6x crop digital body it might be a bit too long.

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Great macro lens

Strengths: Sharp, fast focus, Good quality lens

Weakness: Heavy, could not take very close to subject

This is my first macro lens for my Rebel XT. I was selecting between ef-s 60 and ef-100. I've tried both ef-s 60 is smaller by half and ef 100 Macro is a bit heavy , buying the tripod collar is highly recommended. I also impressed this lens can take very perfect portrait as it's bonus!

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Discover a whole new world with this 2-in-1 lens...

Strengths: Sharp pictures, nice background blur, focus limiter, fun factor

Weakness: None for the price

This is a great lens when you consider the price of this lens relative to other Canon lenses, the picture that you can produce from it, and that you can use it as both a macro and protrait lens (assuming you don't mind your protraits being nice and sharp). The macro capability is a lot of fun to play with and puts a new prospective on everyday items, though new macro lens users should realize that 1:1 ratio is only obtained at the closest focus distance. You can pull some amazing details out of an object that you can't see with your naked eye.

Focusing is fast and quiet, and with a focus limiter switch, it helps to prevent too much focus hunt depending on your situation. Having Full Time Manual focusing also helps when you're taking macro pics for precise and selective focusing. Background blurs out nicely.

Would have been nice if Canon included the lens hood and tripod collar...

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Nice macro and portrait lens.

Strengths: Very clear macro and can focus specifically on subject with large aperature setting. Can be used as non-macro lens and might be a better choice than the regular Canon EF 100mm f/2.0

Weakness: The lens hood is not included with the lens so it will cost an extra $40.00 to make the lens system "complete"

I originally bought the non-macro version of the Canon 100mm lens, but returned it and bought this one instead. I wanted the macro option and payed the extra $130 to upgrade to this lens. Although I don't have much use for macro now, it does very well and I took pictures of my kids toys for fun.

Since I have a Canon 20D (1.6x factor, so equivalent 35mm focal length is 160mm), the 100mm length is more useful outdoors, unless you are in a big room and can back up enough to take the picture. Might be good for candid shots, but can't get close enough to interact with the subject.

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superior lens!

Strengths: extremely sharp! close-up shooting ability. very fast, silent and accurate focusing. solid build. nice contrast and color. reasonably lightweight and cheap after rebate.

Weakness: lens hood is expensive.

I had thought that I would not keep this lens even though I bought it with two other lens - I just went for the triple rebate and am not quite interested in macro photography. But after a curious test shot, I was thrilled at the result. It was sooooooo sharp even wide open!!! I was completely overwhelmed and decided to keep it.

After triple rebate, it is reasonbly cheap ($410), even cheaper than its Tamron 90mm competitor. The build quality is like an L lens, but not as heavy as an L.

I like the close-up ability of this lens. It gives me a lot of fun to take portrait - still I am not in the area of macro photography. Auto-focus is fast and silent. I do not use mannual focus since 300D's small viewfinder makes it very difficult. Auto-focus is very accurate and usable. Images by this lens are superb! Contrast and colors are great.

Overall, it proves to be like the old quotation: a non-L L lens. A must-have even for portrait.

My only complain is the expensive accessaries like lens hood, which is needed for this lens.

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An excellent lens for nature photographers

Strengths: Price, build quality, very fast auto-focus, sharpeness

Weakness: none

This lens was a perfect addition to my Canon 20D. The quality is very close to the L lens, but the price is still reasonable. The lens focus super fast, and you can get the front element as close as 15cm from your subject. Color are perfects and sharpness is great.

Lens can be use for portraits and macro photography.

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A near-perfect macro lens

Strengths: sharp! fast focusing

Weakness: lens hood is not in the package

It's a well-built lens from Canon. Solid feeling but not too heavy, balanced in hand with eos 20d. Perfect for macro or portraits. One of the best lens I have ever had.

Sharpness is unbeatable. Focusing is fast and accurate, even at low light situiations.

The lens hood (which i think is necessary) is not supplied, which is the only drawback. The optional lens hood is rediculously expensive.

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Best Canon Macro Lens

Bestcovery experts have rated the Canon 100mm EF USM Lens as a best pick for the Best Canon Macro Lens. Bestcovery's experts recommend the best products and services for a particular need based on extensive research and evaluations. Click below to see Bestcovery's full review of this product.

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Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

Testseek.com has collected 16 expert reviews for Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro and the average expert rating is 84 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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