Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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177 of 177 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing lens, amazing fun!, May 13, 2004
I got this lens a couple years ago and use it extensively. It is well constructed and easy to use with any Canon EOS body, though it must be focused manually. This is the only tool I know of that enables easy *field* photography above 2x magnification. I have stalked the tiniest insects and peered into the hearts of flowers with this astounding lens, and my transparencies are crisp and clean every time. It comes with a tripod ring (same one as several other Canon lenses use, just in black), which greatly aids switching to a vertical format without having to reposition everything. Buy the MR-14EX ring flash with this, as it is impossible to see *anything* in normal daylight conditions at 5x. Its focus lamps frequently help in obtaining sharp pictures, though even they can't provide enough light to help you much when the lens is stopped down. A focus rail is also helpful--I use the Velbon macro slider since it moves in two directions, not just one. Tripod use is essential, as 5x magnification only covers an area about 5mm by 7mm. The biggest advantage to owning this lens is that I travel less to do photography--I spent several hours on my patio this winter photographing white flies, moss, spiders, and anything else that visited the potted plants there. Plunk down in a field and *stay there* a while, and you'll start to notice the small things around you.
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74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, tricky lens, July 30, 2007
I had to knock one star off of the rating because this is lens is so difficult to use. It is definitely not for the point and click crowd. But once you get the hang of it, it's produces beautiful and stunning images. It's borderline microscopic photography, as you'll see details you can't see with your eyes.
Great images, but there's a lot of caveats...
First off, this is a manual focus lens in the old-school sense of the word. Meaning there is no focus ring and you adjust the focus by moving the camera or subject backwards or forwards. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except, as noted elsewhere, the focus distance is amazingly short. It's time consuming to manuever everything into place and get focus on the bit your interested in.
Also, you have to really stop down to f16. This produces two problems. 1) you need a lot of light on the subject. I'm using two 1000w strobes in soft boxes, which may be a little overkill, but not by much. 2) dust on your sensor is in razor sharp focus. This is a big problem, so make sure you know how to clean your camera sensor.
Finally, this is not a lens for running around and shooting. You need a tripod and you probably want a remote control, because the process of clicking the button will probably introduce some (if not a lot) blur. It's super sensitive to movement, so if you have the shutter open for any length of time, make sure there's no wind or the table doesn't shake minutely as you walk across the floor.
Bottom line is if you have the time and patience you can tease amazing images out of this lens. You don't need to be a professional, but you do need to understand the difference between professional images and point-and-shoot happy accidents is the time and thought that goes into creating the image. This lens will reward time and thought.
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94 of 100 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Fabulous, October 16, 2004
I mainly use this lens inside the studio, so I use studio lights to control the lighting of a subject. The higher the magnification, the more lighting is needed.
I use a tripod to photograph and either move the subject in focus, or change the magnification from the magnification ring of the lens. I set the aperture to f/16 (smallest aperture for this lens) to make sure I get maximum depth of field and sharpest result.
The magnification mechanism works by increasing the distance between the glass and the film/sensor. So if you move the magnification ring fast enough, you can feel some air flowing, just like the bellows. I used this lens on a Canon EOS 10D and forgot to clean the shutter chamber from dust, the magnification movement from 5:1 to 1:1 pushed some of the dust particles on the sensor, so make sure you clean the chamber.
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