Waited for a car to drive past and light up these flowers.
macro
Borneo ’16 – KK Bokeh. (Macro Week #21 – Day 2)
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Glass – 03. Vivitar 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 | Sample 1
The focus on the subject gets a little soft towards the top. What I do like is the odd, irregular bokeh on the leaves which would turn out much rounder on the 24-105mm Canon.
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Glass – 02. Miranda 35-135mm F3.5 | Sample 3
Another example showing macro capability at wide focal lengths. You would be able to get a close up shot of the insect/subject as well as create an environment around it using a wider view of the background. This would work nicely in a field of poppies for example.
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Glass – 02. Miranda 35-135mm F3.5 | Sample 1
Since this lens has a significant crop factor (around 2x), the photos on the 35mm end work out as 60-70mm. While not being wide-angle macro, they’re different enough from the 100mm to be interesting to try.
The Miranda also has a slight circular distortion when shot against a bokeh background.
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Glass – 01. Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro | Sample 3
Not so much a street shot as an on-the-move portrait. This lens has a rapid autofocus which gave me a lot of time to compose the shot. Shallow depth of field also gives very strong bokeh in the background.
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Glass – 01. Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro | Sample 2
An example of portraiture, albeit animal, using the 100mm lens. The low contrast gives a lot of scope when battling bright backgrounds and dark subjects. Here I managed to recover detail from the shadows as well as retain colour of the blurred garden through the window.
The very large F2.8 aperture also lets me have a strong separation of the subject and background even though they are close to one another – no more than 40cm.
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Glass – 01. Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro | Sample 1
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This is an example of both the macro capability of the lens and the low light performance. Shot at 800ISO in an evening’s shade, you can see that you can still get a sharp photo. There isn’t much that you can fault this lens for in terms of quality – especially for non-professional photos. It is however a little boring. The photos tend to look the same after a while – I guess that is the case with using any lens excessively.
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Glass – 01. Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro | Test
Here’s a test shot from the 100mm macro. Each of these lenses will have a test shot of this exact scene. It’s a simple set up but does give some information. None of the test photos have been edited or tweaked.
A lens plays some part in the dynamic range received by the camera. I’ve noticed that some of the other lenses, will give an image with more contrast, especially visible as the space below the bedside table is darker than here.
An image with less contrast (like this one) is preffered because you can always add the contrast while editing.
Another quality of this lens is the lack of vignette and very little concave distortion, which is a desirable feature most of the time. Later I will show lenses which have a lot of both vignetting and distortion, and how that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.
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Glass – 01. Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro | Overview
You could say, best for first.. This is definitely the best lens I’ve ever bought or used. I bought it second hand, hence the scratch on the bottom, just below the Canon logo.
With expensive lenses like these, it’s sometimes a good idea to buy used, because the previous owner is likely to take great care of it. This scratch is purely cosmetic and saved me £100 off the retail price… I’ve had it for 2 years now with no problems.
Buying a UV filter for expensive lenses is a must, you can put a price on protection but it’s going to be the cost of a new one unfortunately.. Don’t spend less than £30 on a filter!
The lens is surprisingly versatile. It’s perfect for portraits and can give a very shallow depth if you need it. It is of course brilliant for macro photography and videography. I even used it for some street photography, mainly close ups or long shots. The 100mm on a full frame camera is not as tight as you might think..
Coming up: comparison shots and test sample photos. Questions about the lens are more than welcome.
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