Praise for the Canon 60mm Macro (w/Samples)

pyanez

(Samples at bottom)

Lets face it, you'd be hard pressed to find an optically bad macro lens. In my experience the 60mm is every bit as sharp as the other macro I've used (Canon 100mm, Sigma 150mm and 105mm, and Nikon 60mm and 105mm VR). So rather than compare the Canon 60mm (disclaimer - one of my favorite lenses ever) with any of these other fine macro lenses, I'll just point our some reasons why I find this lens so incredibly useful and used:

1. I like to travel light. The Canon is barely larger than most 50mm 1.4 lenses. It also does not extend when focusing - something no other compact macros can do to my knowledge (Nikon 60mm, Sigma 50, Canon 50mm f2.8, etc). This lens packs wonderfully into almost any small bag for your kit.

2. Since the lens does not extend and is compact (see above) it can be used with the onboard flash even at 1:1 without casting a shadow on your subject -- not sure if any other Macros can pull this off. This allows me to travel even lighter since I don't have to pack off camera flashes or on lens macro ring flashes. Purists will scoff at onboard flash use, but I think that I've gotten some damn good photos using it, especially since I would have had NO photo at all since I would rarely if ever carry the amount of equipment required to do this otherwise.

3. The lens has a very nice ring-USM focusing system. As fast or nearly as fast as any lens out there.

4 Price. Yes I have a budget, not many true macros out there that go for less.

5. Absolutely wonderful bokeh, oh so buttery!! Canon talks about rounded aperture blades, yadda, yadda - something they did works well here. While the background smears wonderfully together, the lens is amazingly sharp wide open.

6. 60mm on a crop body is 96mm - that combined with #5 makes for a very nice portrait lens. Got more use from this lens for that reason than the Canon 85 1.8 (a wonderful lens) that felt a bit long on my 30D.

7. For reasons of it's compact size, light weight and quick focus, the lens is JOY to hand hold (hey less stuff to carry!!). I've even have used the lens very successfully holding the camera in one hand.

Down-sides?

1. You have to work pretty close/stealthily with a 60mm macro - more so than a say 150mm Sigma, but this is well worth the trade off for the Pros outlined above - size, on-board flash, etc

2. No can do on FF bodies - not really a problem since I can't afford these bodies. It might also not be the ideal lens to use with Adriana Lima - but for the same reason, I'm not too worries.


There you have it, some samples:

Bokeh:

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/79071462

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/79083170

Macro with on-board-flash:

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/61531223

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/79048687

Sharpness wide-open (or nearly so):

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/59467741

Holdability (one handed shooting):

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/59467741

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/76299503

Portraits:

http://www.pbase.com/pyanez/image/60356474

Many more examples here:

http:/www.pbase.com/pyanez/macro

ziggy53

Great review and wonderful images. thumb

UP N MTNS

pyanez wrote:

(Samples at bottom)

Lets face it, you'd be hard pressed to find an optically bad macro lens. In my experience the 60mm is every bit as sharp as the other macro I've used (Canon 100mm, Sigma 150mm and 105mm, and Nikon 60mm and 105mm VR). So rather than compare the Canon 60mm (disclaimer - one of my favorite lenses ever) with any of these other fine macro lenses, I'll just point our some reasons why I find this lens so incredibly useful and used:

Very nice review and great pic's..
I was looking at the same len's then got to use a Canon 65mm f/2.8 1-5x and fell in love with it but it's alot of dough:cry . After seeing your great pic's I'm now very confused/torn on which one to go with?

Anyone wanna push a new guy in the right direction?

Thanks

h4rri

ALLDRTY wrote:

Very nice review and great pic's..
I was looking at the same len's then got to use a Canon 65mm f/2.8 1-5x and fell in love with it but it's alot of dough:cry . After seeing your great pic's I'm now very confused/torn on which one to go with?

Anyone wanna push a new guy in the right direction?

Thanks

This lens is a beautiful bit of kit and the one single lense I regretted having to sell when I went full frame. With the crop factor on the EF-S series camera's working distance isn't too bad and about the equivalent of the Canon 100mm I know have to use.

I prefer the size, weight and general construction of the 60mm, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat if it was FF compatible

Obligutary [sp?] macro shot:








Originals at http://www.randomphotos.net/macro

UP N MTNS

Just got back from the camera shop and went with the Canon 60mm...Have been playing with it just a few minutes and already like it.

Thanks to pyanez and h4rri for sharing there experiance with the 60mm.


UP N MTNS

Tee Why

You bring many good points about the lens. I haven't thought about the no extending/flash shadow thing personally.

This lens would be truely good if it was a EF and not an EF-S mount lens. It would truely make this lens soooooooo versatile.
Put it on a cropped sensor, and it's like a 100mm 1:1 Macro. Put it on a full frame and it's like a normal macro.

Oh well, guess you can't have everything.

pyanez

Tee Why,

In this case you probably can't have everything and an equivalent lens for a full frame (FF) camera would probably be at least a bit larger and heavier.

To be honest, it's not too much of a concern to me. As an example a few months ago I had an aborted move from Canon to Nikon, I seriously considered keeping a Canon body just to continue using the 60mm -- for my style of shooting (ie traveling light), this was pretty extreme thinking, but it had some advantages. My decision to stick to Canon simplified my life fortunately :-)

I really think that if I were to win the lottery tomorrow, I'm not sure I would be so interested to move to a FF camera/lens system, I'd miss my 10-22mm and 60mm macro's size and weight advantages too much. So while FF compatibility would be nice plus, for me it's not really a significant feature or lack thereof.

James S

Great review. I am considering buying this lens and selling the 85mm 1.8

Can it replace the 85mm and be a good portriat lens as well?

The 85mm is my favorite as of now and I hate to part with it if the 60mm won't do the same work as the 85mm for portraits.