Customer Reviews

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Digital SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was one of the first lenses that I purchased with my Rebel XT. Now after taking several thousand pictures with it I can honestly say it was well worth the cost. I very rarely have any unsharp pictures with this lens unless it is my own fault by trying to use too slow of a shutter speed without a tripod.

I also have the 180mm f/3.5L Macro Lens, which costs about 3 times more than this lens, and although it is very clear and the extra reach is nice at times especially since it can be used with both the 1.4X and 2X TC's, it is very difficult to use inside without a tripod. The 60mm can be handheld if needed with very good results even if you have to bump your ISO up a little to do so.

I have also used this lens for both inside and outside portrait work with very nice results.

All-in-all, given it's small size and light weight I very rarely leave this lens behind when I go out because you never know when you might see a great macro shot.

I once thought that macro lenses were too specialized and that I would seldom need something so fine that I could photograph the segments in an insect's eye. That was until I bought this lens.

I use it with a Canon 20D. My other lenses include the 17-85 IS zoom (versatile range but slow and not sharp), the 70-200mm f2.8L non-IS zoom (great for those moderate telephoto needs), and a 50mm f1.8 prime (very good for the price). But the 60mm is now my favorite lens, by a large margin. It's on my camera all the time, and the other lenses spend most of their time in the bag.

It's very sharp; it's not heavy or conspicuous, and it handles fine macro photography or standard walking-around work (though not useful for wider angles).

It's a little unfortunate that it doesn't come with a hood - Canon must make a fortune selling those hoods at the prices they charge. I'm probably going to have to buy a hood or hope somebody sees it on my Amazon wish list. It also doesn't come with a case, but if you're keeping the lens in a decent camera bag you don't need a case for the lens.

More important than a hood is some kind of support for camera if you're doing any serious macro photography. With the lens wide open at f2.8 and the subject close to the lens you will only have about 1/4 inch (2-3 mm) of depth-of-field. Your breathing can move the camera enough to ruin your composition or knock the subject out of focus. So I'd suggest investing in some kind of small tripod or a bean bag or something to help hold it still. Of course, you can also boost the ISO and thereby get away with a faster shutter speed, but that's at the expense of a slight loss in quality. Depending on how your pictures are being used, that may or may not be important.

4 starts because otherwise 5 stars is inevitable:
1) Slow autofocus (hunt at times) but is to be expected of a macro lens.
2) built quality not as solid as expected at this price range.

I bought this lens instead for two purpose: Macro and Portrait! I was thinking of buying the 100mm macro plus 85mm f1.8 but this lens saves me buying two lenses! I have been very happy with it as what it is. I don't do flying insects very much so it is not a problem but that said I was able to get 1:1 shot of a fly, see sample here:
[..]

There are other samples in this gallery here:
[...]

The large aperture (F2.8) means that one could have shallow DOF and great for low light such as this pic:
[...]

For portrait, I accidentally took this photo during the London Bombing of a women 'Shocked' by the incident unfolding in the public TV display. It was a coincident that her background inmage was the winning Reuter's photo of Tsunami tragedy and the matching colour of their dresses! I was quite far away so was able to capture her from head to toe:
[...]

This illustrate the capability of both macro and normal photography using this lens. You will not regret it unless your primary aim is to shoot flying insets where longer 100mm or 150mm macro lenses may be needed in this case.

I recently purchased this Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro. The images it produces are sharp, and the color is just awesome. I would say the images are on par with those produced by L-series lenses. The only reason why I give it 4 stars is because it is not built like L-series, but it is still solid enough for heavy use but not abuse. It is mostly plastic on the outside. Many complain that this lens hunts while focusing, ususally in low light. I find this sometimes true, but I've found a work-around. If I know I will take portraits or images farther away, I'll manually pre-focus the lens in that range (near infinity). If I know I'll take macro shots, I'll pre-focus toward the macro side. (This lens doesn't have a focus limiter like the Canon Telephoto zooms.) Then I just let the autofocus mechanism fine tune the focus. Since this lens is so versatile (having the ability to take macro AND far away shots), the autofocus mechanism must rack the optics a lot from near to far. So if your focus starts way off, it takes an extra second for the computer to figure out whether you are trying to focus close or far. So it hunts. I find that a rough pre-focus speeds up the autofocus once you are ready to take the image. Once I pre-focus, the lens has no problem autofocusing even in low light. The 52mm filter size is SO convenient. I can re-use my filters from my manual focus Nikon lenses, and filters of this size are inexpensive. Try pricing a 77mm polarizer and you'll see how expensive those get.

This lens is my favorite as I keep it on my Rebel XT at all times. I enjoy taking macro close-ups and portrait-type shots, which makes this a great lens for everyday use. It is light-weight and not bulky. My last SLR camera (years ago) was a Minolta with 50mm f/1.8 lens, and various other lenses that I rarely used. I usually don't use a zoom lens due to the extra length and weight. Also, most non-professional zoom lenses are much slower at the closest tele-position due to the higher f/stop. With a fixed focal length of 60mm, I don't mind moving myself toward or away from the subject (not a big deal). The pictures always appear to be sharp with good contrast and color saturation.

My opinion on this lens is: "buy it ... you'll like it".
I did ... and I love it.

Good Luck!

I only wish that I had bought this lens earlier so I could have been using it longer. I am especially pleased with the short minimum focus distance - about 3 inches. This allows you to get very close to a small subject and to still fill the frame with the subject.
I have had no problems with this lens and I love it.

the optics are the best i've ever seen. the clarity is great. the abillity to focus on small objects only 2" away allows great macro pictures. however the auto focus is much slower than most canon lenses, but i can focus manually. this is my favotite lens ever.

This lens is well worth the price. The first thing you will notice is the quality when you handle the lens. It has a very solid construction. But once you mount the lens is where it REALLY shines. The clarity of focus is the best I've seen and the focus is super fast. The macro functionality is just awesome. I highly recommend this lens.

This is a great macro lens for a pro or a beginer. It produces very sharp photos, and works great for a semi-telphoto lens and close up portraits. I love this lens for the fact that you can use onboard flash for 1:1 work, any other macro lens you will need alot of light or a dedicated macro flash for up close work. Great price for a macro/2.8 prime lens with USM and full time manual focusing.

Manual focus is recommended during 1:1 work, but it will still work in AF close to 1:1, the focus speed is very fast for normal lighting conditions.

I'm very pleased with this lens. The field is extremely flat; no need for Photoshop corrections, even in scientific photographs. The colors are crisp. It's compact design and light weight make positioning easy.

The working distance is a bit shorter than I'd like, but this not a problem in most set-ups. The alternative is to buy a much more expensive and heavier lens.

The auto-focus works quite well in most situations. In more extreme macro shots, the AF gets the focus very wrong, so for those shots, I usually turn off the AF feature.

All-in-all, a great lens for the price.