Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens | Opinions Please :)

[Adz]

Hey all,

I am looking to get into some amateur macro work with my 1100D Christmas present.

Would this lens be the right move to go for? It is all my budget would really stretch too. I would love to read other peoples thoughts or personal experience if you have used this lens.

Also, do I need any other equipment that I haven't considered? I have a tripod and remote.

Thanks,

Adam

[MjrTom]

Hey Adam,

I own one of these lenses

It is an exceptionally good quality macro lens which is nice and compact as well.

Optically it's up there with the big boys and comes very close to the optical quality of my 100mm f/2.8L IS USM macro lens.

The auto focus on the 60mm is very quiet and pretty quick as well although you will find for most macro work that you will want to manually focus anyway.

If you follow the link in my signature to my Flickr account and look in the insect and flora sets you should find a lot of examples where I have used this lens. (would directly link you but replying to this post via my phone.)

One thing with macro is that you tend to shoot at f/8 to f/16 therefore to keep the ISO as low as possible a flashgun can come in use.

I personally use a Canon 430EX II with an off camera sync cable but there are other options as well

Any questions give us a shout

[MG1]

I love my original (non-IS) 100mm f2.8. The build is almost 'L' standard and the optics excellent. Can save you a few bob too if you look around. Many upgraded to the new 'L' version.

For greater than 1:1 I have some Hoya macro rings, but tbh I rarely use them.

[MjrTom]

MG1 has made a good point, quite a few people have switched over to the 100mm L lens so the pre-owned market has quite a few of these lenses available.

Its a very nice lens although twice the size and weight of the 60mm

As promised here is a direct link to my photos using the 60mm Macro

[mattias]

Just bought that one myself and I'm very pleased with the quality!

A good macro and portrait lens indeed!

Will be interesting to find out how it performs at the night sky scene as soon the clear skies appears.

Best!

Mattias

[MjrTom]

I would be interested to know as well, not had the time to test it myself as I tend to use the 50mm f/1.4 for the occasion Astro imaging I do

[jgs001]

Adam, any macro lens needs to be very good to produce the goods at macro levels. The 60mm looks to be an excellent option on a budget. I'm sure it would produce good results for Astro also, but stopped down to maybe f/4 (worth a try wide open, it's amazing the results, even if the edges are horrible... the 50mm f/1.8 springs to mind...)

[Psychobilly]

Focus at infinity can be very touchy indeed with macro lenses which and optimized for focusing close up...

[Adz]

Thanks for all the helpful advice all.

Why is the infinity focus difficult with this lens then? I thought it was just at the far end of focus (like on my manual focus 35mm lenses).

It has got to be easier that trying to find infinity with a nifty fifty...

I am also considering the 100mm f/2.8 macro as well...

[MjrTom]

Yeah its far easier than the toy lens they call the EF 50mm f/1.8.

The problem is that as you approach infinity the amount of movement decreases.

to go from 0.2m to 0.44m is 1/4 of a turn, to go from 1m to infinity is approx 1/16th (slightly less) of a turn of the focuser

Also due to the full time manual focus the lens allows you to focus past the infinity mark on the lens meaning you just cant use the infinity mark as its not accurate enough.

[Adz]

Dammit why don't they ever make them like that anymore! My Canon 50mm had perfect focus for infinity when using my 35mm camera.

I could take better wide field shots with that than modern lenses!

Thanks for the help