Review Of The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro Lens 

It really is. Optically, the best lens I have. Is your 0.71 adapter the Viltrox one? I have a Viltrox 0.71x speed booster for my M6 Mark 2. I'd like an R7, but it's late to the game now, so I'm waiting for the Mark 2 version.

@@PhilUKNet I went with the Canon version. 2 small annoying things that you need to accept the message when the camera wakes and manually remove fringing since Canon refuse to support it (even though the meta data knows it’s adapted with their own 0.71)). I think that’s a sensible decision to hold out for mark 2, I think rolling shutter will be improved

@mvp_kryptonite Thanks for the info. I'm in no hurry to move to EOS R, and the rolling shutter seems to be the biggest criticism with the R7. Hopefully, that will be fixed or improved with a Mark 2 version. To be honest, I'd be happy sticking with EOS M, but Canon have now abandoned that system.

Thank you! It's a lovely lens. I think the most difficult aspect of product photography, eg wristwatches, is the lighting. It's not easy getting nice, even lighting with no glare or shadows. Good luck, and enjoy your new lens!

@@PhilUKNet - Thank you mate! Lighting is my passion. 20 years in, I'm still obsessive over it like Rain Man! LOL!

Thanks for the compliment! RU-vid doesn't suggest my videos very much, so they get very few views. You need to be a fairly big channel (which mine isn't) before YT takes any interest in you. Never mind. I enjoy it and it always makes my day when I get a good comment. Yep, the bokeh is very nice. Before I started doing tests on lenses for these videos I though that most of my lenses were virtually perfect. However, the tests showed that wasn't the case. Many - even lenses I regarded very highly - have flaws. This was one of the exceptions. It's a virtually flawless optic and it's actually priced very reasonably. Unfortunately, I don't use it as much as I should. I don't do a lot of macro work and when I want a general lens I normally opt for one of my EF-M lenses for the small size and low weight.

My pleasure 😊 Thanks for commenting!

I've actually been using the 85mm f/1.8 a lot recently. My son plays football and there isn't much light in the indoors stadium. Because it's quite fast action, I need relatively fast shutter speeds. I needed a fast, longer than standard lens, and this is the closest I have. It's been great, with no focusing issues at all. I use it wide open most of the time. I had thought about using the 100mm f/2.8L IS for football shots, but I haven't tried it yet. It's quite a bit slower than the 85mm f/1.8. I was thinking about getting an EF 135mm f/2 and using it with a speed booster to gain an extra stop. Focusing problems are very frustrating. Of all the lenses I have owned, I've only had focusing issues with two lenses - EF 300mm f/4L IS and the original EF 100mm f/2.8 macro without IS. People rave about both of these lenses and say how great they are, but the focusing issues I experienced were so bad that I sold both of them. The 100mm f/2.8L IS macro is probably one of Canon's best bargains. Compared to many other L lenses, it's not too expensive, but the IQ is pretty amazing.

@@PhilUKNet Thanks for your response and sharing info about the other lenses. I'll probably keep the 85mm just because of the 1.8 aperture. I mostly do headshots and sometimes wide-open it's dead on, but then sometimes it's off even when the eyes are sharp in the camera, hate seeing soft images especially when it's a great shot of the client. I shoot mostly with a Canon 90D w/EF-S 18-135mm IS USM and the 6D II w/24-105 F/4 IS USM II. I have great success with both these cameras. Both these lenses are fantastic wide-open with quick focus and sharp images almost always. Even though it's a big investment I think I'm gonna go for the 100. 2.8. The only thing I'm worried about is I won't use it that much because I can get almost the same results with my 24-105mm. $1000 is a lot of money to spend just to have a softer background. Well the macro's nice too! Your Swiss knife scenario was funny, but so true I hope it also doesn't just sit in my cabinet. Cheers, Brian from SoCal.

@The Woodys Surf Instrumental Band You have a couple of good bodies, so I am surprised by the 85mm f/1.8 focusing problems. However, when I had problems with the 300mm f/4L IS and 100mm f/2.8, it seemed that other people didn't. The 85mm f/1.4L looks to be a great lens, but it's expensive. If you don't do macro, it's a bit more difficult justifying the 100mm f/2.8L IS macro, but it's still an excellent lens. Hope it works out for you!

Thanks again DD and sorry for the earlier problem. As soon as I upload a video it gets spammed by idiots and while deleting their comments I accidentally deleted yours. Yep, a great lens and I should use it more, but these days I never seem to have enough time. As you know only too well, kids change everything! Keep well.

Phil UK Net yes indeed Phil, and the way I take hobbies now is “seasonal”. When the window comes, we shoot, or fish, or whatever. Btw I saw one of those comments before mine, so I’ll say the same, “can I be your friend?” 😏 That seemed random enough 🤣. - But just a thought, if I ever could choose only 2 lens, it will likely be an all-rounder zoom from wide to entry-medium tele, and a quality true macro/portrait prime lens like yours, because there isn’t any substitute. Not sure about u. Great lens in this vid! A lens to treasure indeed, and I could tell from the photos, there’s something really special and perfect about it. And the R5 could be your be all end all! 😁

@@dude1diligence There are people who wait for new videos to appear and then write these stupid 'Can I be your friend?' messages. That's the thing about RU-vid. There are a lot of good people, but there are also a lot of idiots. You're right, this is a great lens, but there will never be an all-end-all camera! Whatever we think is fantastic now will be old news and unwanted in a few years' time. I need to start using my macro lens a bit more ...

Phil UK Net yes, while that’s certainly true about cameras in general, I can see myself happy with 40mp for the rest of my life. Oh wait, I just remembered that 100mp Fuji medium format is on my bucket list 🤣

I agree. Before I started testing lenses more stringently I never really noticed any defects. When I did start to look more closely I saw that most of my lenses were less than perfect, even my EF 70-210 f/4L IS, which I previously thought was perfect. The exception was the 100 f/2.8L macro, which is virtually flawless. Considering it's not that expensive, it's a phenomenal lens. Thanks for your comment!

If you can find a lens that has been well looked after there shouldn't be any problems with a used lens. Assessing the external condition and taking a few test shots should confirm if it is OK. For the quality it delivers this lens isn't actually that expensive new, but if you can find a good used one for half price it will be a real bargain. It's a great lens!

@@PhilUKNet yes, new is £1000 and I found excellent condition on mpb.com for £600 and excellent condition on wex photo for £500. I am just still thinking because I will switch to Canon R series for sure so my thought was to buy rf 85mm but I need to check if there is an adapter for rf lens to ef mount.

@@paulinap-k8409 I haven't heard of such a mount. I'm not an expert, but I think there will be a problem with flange distances putting a mirrorless camera lens on a DSLR.

@@PhilUKNet - Correct re the distances. Canon don't make an adaptor that allows an RF lens to go on an older DSLR body, such as a 5D Mk IV. Which is a shame!