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Canon macro lens - 100mm

Mfg # 4657A006 CDW # 417576 | UNSPSC 45121600

Quick tech specs

  • 100 mm
  • Canon EF
  • f/2.8 USM
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Know your gear

This telephoto macro lens is capable of focusing to life-size (1X) without attachments. Although it replaces the EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, it is a completely new design. It incorporates a ring-type USM giving quiet, high-speed autofocus. The full-time mechanical manual focus gives very smooth manual focusing. For the first time in a 1X focusing telephoto macro lens, inner focusing is used.

The lens length remains constant and a long working distance of 149mm makes worrying about getting too close to the subject unnecessary. Also, during focusing the front ring does not rotate making use of front-mounting accessories like macro ring lites simple and effective. "Three-group floating" focusing construction uses three independently moving groups, which holds focusing-related changes of aberrations to a minimum giving excellent image quality all the way from infinity to life size.

This item was discontinued on January 18, 2022

Enhance your purchase

Canon macro lens - 100mm is rated 4.75 out of 5 by 36.
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great macro lens for beginners. I bought this lens over a year ago. As a portrait photographer wanting to play around in the macro world, this lens is great. It is slow to focus when you're trying to photograph macro and I was greatly disappointed in that. So be patient and just keep working the lens. Since it is so slow on focusing, I only use this lens for Macro, when I know I can take my time. If you're wanting to try macro go for this lens but if you really want to dig in spend a little more money and go to the L series. The photos below were taken by me. Two yellow flowers were photographed at Lowe's in their flower department. The spider Webb was in my rose bushes and very small to begin with. This macro lens really came in handy as you can see. I just misted some water from my water hose onto the web and started clicking away. Again, I just misted water onto a cheep rose bouquet and got lovely images. The white flower is from the yard with a few other super small (dimes size or less flowers and arranged them on the inside of an old wood pallet. I didn't do much editing to any of my images except for the white one. Normal sharpness and some color boost in Lightroom is all these photo needed because I photograph in RAW.
Date published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Love it. I have used this lens so much sonce i got it, really improved my macro photography.
Date published: 2019-06-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Not the right picture There are two different lenses Canon 100mm macro. The picture is for the more expensive model with L IS.
Date published: 2018-09-26T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from great lens This now my favorite lens. Everything about it is great, especially sharpness, warmth. and bokeh.
Date published: 2011-11-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from WOW!!! I own this lens along side the EF-s 60mm macro lens. It is hard to choose which lens to use most of the time! The 100mm macro is super sharp and gives your macro (and portrait photos as well photos the added "punch" and sharpness they need to really stand out. What I like about the 100 over the 60 is that you can use the extension tubes from Canon with this lens. It is a super walk-around lens! The 100mm will take different photos from the 60mm.(the 100mm and 60mm are just as sharp as each other) The background will be more "blurred" with the 100mm than with the 60mm. If you get this lens you will not be disappointed! This is one lens every photographer should have in their bag!
Date published: 2011-09-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from One of my favorite lenses I've owned this lens for about three months now and it quickly became one of my favorite lenses. Shooting in macro has always been one of my favorite styles but I always had to make due with my standard zoom. This lens makes it so easy to create a perfect shot. When shooting in macro, I found it easier to use the manual focus because with such a narrow depth of field, many times it did not find the point I wanted it to focus on. However, It works great if youre shooting portraits. It being a f 2.8, it's shoots well in low light conditions and the motor is nice and quiet. Overall. I'm very pleased
Date published: 2012-05-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Lens really helps our product Let me get my one major gripe out of the way, I wish this lens were an L series. My two lesser gripes, I wish it had IS and that the AF was faster. Now with that out of the way, this lens has become the best thing for presenting our product. Especially on our website. The f/2.8 really helps me get the consumers' eye where I want it in the picture. The blurs are great. To make my gripes pointless, Canon doesn't offer a macro L series with IS, so this is, I believe, the best macro lens available. Portraits look great with this lens. All my portraits I take of myself, I take with this lens. Images are super sharp, an above good lens but below great.
Date published: 2009-02-14T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is nice Good built quality, feels and is very solid, but kind of heavy too though. I know it is made for macros but the portraits look great with this one, when shooting macros at very small distance, it is hard to focus properly because of the small depth of field, you sure need more skills than you expect in order to get sharp focused images.
Date published: 2011-09-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great lens This now my favorite lens. Everything about it is great, especially sharpness, warmth and bokeh. One of superb lens for Macro and Portraits.
Date published: 2011-12-20T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good for sunny conditions, basically I've had this lens for many years now being used on my 60D THE PROS: The image quality is spectacular. Everything is very crisp above f/3.5. f/2.8 is nice but the DOF is way too shallow and the parts that are in focus are not as crisp. The autofocus is quiet but very slow and goes unused for the most part because the DOF in macro photography is often too shallow to use. THE CONS: For being a f/2.8, it's not a fast lens, meaning it's not good in low light conditions. I almost never use it even close to sunset unless I have my lens mounted ring light or a flash. It is heavy as well. Long term use of this lens becomes very uncomfortable on my neck. It is tough to use this lens for portraits. It being a 100mm fixed lens, you have to stand unusually far away from your subject. In retrospect, I wish I spent the money on a shorter, lighter macro lens that has better low light performance and is better with portraits
Date published: 2017-03-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from One of Canon's Finest I use the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro on a 7D body, making its effective focal length 160mm. Not only does this lens take wonderful macro shots, it's a fantastic performer anywhere its focal length suits you, with action shots as its only exception. Macro lenses just aren't fast-focusing, so you can't really fault its tendency to hunt. But once it finds its focus point, it's highly accurate and tack-sharp. I'm pretty sure this is the sharpest lens I've ever used. At the same time, that makes sense to me; when some of the things you can focus on are just a few hundred molecules wide, it HAS to be sharp to resolve them properly. If you're shooting macros handheld with this lens, use a single focus point on the 'AI' focus setting for best results, but the magic happens on a tripod with manual focus at f/32. (Don't forget to Enable Mirror Lockup to eliminate the vibration of the mirror slap.) The 100mm Macro has beautiful color and contrast, along with an almost complete absence of chromatic aberration and very little distortion: it's one impressive piece of glass, worthy of a red strip to be sure. Wide open, the 100mm Macro has a beautiful background blur, and a flawless, super-smooth bokeh. It's comparable to the 50mm f/1.2L in my opinion, pure butter. Grab this lens while there are still copies to be had. It's been replaced by the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS (haven't used that one yet, but I'd bet it's impressive!) The thing is, you can get this lens for a fraction of the cost of the L ...you'd be hard-pressed to find a better value...a MUST have Canon lens.
Date published: 2011-12-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from very sharp lens! This lens is very sharp! Whether you are shooting a macro or portrait, the result is what you are expecting from Canon! the built quality is solid. Although now Canon released a L version of this lens which has IS but if you shoot your object with tripod (which you should if you really want the best macro) then IS isn't important to you. the only L is the weather proofing. If you use this lens indoor or it doesn't expose to any water or rain then you should be fine. The quality between the L and non L are pretty similar. Only if you blow up the pics and the L will show a bit more detail. it won't matter to many of us. for a price like this with the quality, you just can't beat it!
Date published: 2011-03-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from default lens on my camera .extremely sharp focus and clarity. .great for macro and portraits. .auto focus isn't very useful in macro unless the subject is flat(will keep switching focus between the bug or the leaf), you have to switch to manual or select focus to make the lens focus where you want. .makes bokeh like a champ at pretty much any aperture below 16 as long as the subject and lights are far enough apart.(easy since it's a macro) .very smooth manual focus. overall this lens's versatility is impressive for being fixed, and is on my camera more than any other lens i own.
Date published: 2011-03-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent lens: here are some suggestions: The short take: I have gotten outstanding macro photographs of subjects like insects and plants using this lens. Here are tips on what has worked for me: For macro work, I ALWAYS set the lens to manual focus, because the autofocus mechanism just cannot "find" extremely small subjects. As other reviewers have noted, you will need a tripod for macro work. For extreme close-ups or for telephoto work--at least in my opinion--megapixels matter. I traded in my Canon XSi 12 mp camera body for an 18 mp T2i. The increased megapixels allow me to crop macro images without loss of detail. I love the results! I ALWAYS use the optical viewfinder for composing shots. The only time I use the LCD is to check the exposure and the sharpness on images I have already taken. Perhaps other users are more adept, but I find that I can determine neither accuracy of focus nor depth of field using the LCD alone. Because of this focus problem, I initially hated my Canon outfit (after first making the transition from film to digital. But then I purchased a third-party focusing screen equipped with split-image rangefinder and microprism collar--just like my old film camera used to have. Now, using the optical viewfinder, I get nice, crisp results. I love it! The outfit (T2i + macro lens) is a little heavy. The lens weighs 20.5 oz. When I am out in the field, I use a harness instead of a neckstrap, to eliminate the stress to my neck. I have been using my EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro for three years now, and I strongly recommend it. I also find that Canon hardware and software is pretty intuitive, and that it lets me do what I want to do.
Date published: 2012-07-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Wonderful! This was the first lens I bought other than one that came with the camera. I was so impressed with the quality! The pictures are absolutely amazing! So sharp and clean at 2.8, which is good. I also love to use this lens for portraits, I think it makes anyone look good no matter what! That is, if you dont mind standing atleast 10 feet away from them... can be a problem if space is limited, but then you should get the 50mm. I use this for concerts too when I'm too far away for my 28mm. It takes very nice pics at 2.8 even in low light situations. This lens is good to have in your bag no matter what you're doing or where you're going you can definitely find a use for it other than macro shooting, although its a super fine macro lens! The onlything I've noticed about this lens that bothers me is the auto focus. Obviously don't use it for shooting macro beause it will drive you insane, but when shooting other things its kind of show and fishes around alot. I've missed some good shots at concerts because of this but i guess thats waht you get for using a lens that has such a wide range of focus. I would definitely reccomend this to some one regardless, its not bad enough to make me not want to use it!
Date published: 2009-06-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Very Sharp!! This lens is very sharp and one of the sharpest lens I own. I tried to use it for portraits one time but it shows every detail of people's skin, so I switched to 50mm prime (which is another sharp lens) instead. One thing is that I don't like is that you have to stay one foot away from the object to focus when you use as a macro. I can tell this is not L lens because auto focus makes some noise inside. DOF of f2.8 is very shallow. After all this is a macro lens.
Date published: 2010-12-28T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent lens Very fine lens with excellent image quality. Sorry but there is wrong MTF chart on the page of 100 mm macro. If you want to see the right MTF chart, read the Canon Lens Work III.
Date published: 2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from great lens I use this lens for high school sports and macro and I'm very pleased with its results great boke and super sharp.
Date published: 2013-04-04T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Best value macro lens, with TOP quality and detail I've had this lens for 10? years now. It's been a long time. I've dropped it face-first and it took no damage to the elements. It's very well-built. This takes razor-sharp images and has fantastic image quality at any distance. For macro, it's awesome. I use a hand-held flash with a softbox on it and manual focus for most of my macro endeavors. Macro is a specialist's technique on it's own so if you have problems it's %99.99 likely it's you and not the lens. Great lens! Worth every penny.
Date published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM This is a beautiful lens. Quick quiet auto focus. Sharp images. If you're into macro photography you'd do well to consider this lens.
Date published: 2011-03-07T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The best little darn lens Love this lens. At first I found it a bit heavy but now I am used to it and I have very small hands. This lens is very versatile. I have used it for macro work, portraits and even landscapes. The images are sharp and crisp at every range. It took me a while to get used to it at the close range. Let the lens work for you and you will find a faster focus time. This lens also creates a fantastic bokeh at macro to portraits. By far my favorite lens in the bag. You won't be disappointed.
Date published: 2009-06-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from One of Canon's Finest Works I use the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro on a 7D body, making its effective focal length 160mm. Not only does this lens take wonderful macro shots, it's a fantastic performer anywhere its focal length suits you, with action shots as its only exception. Macro lenses just aren't fast-focusing, so you can't really fault its tendency to hunt. But once it finds its focus point, it's highly accurate and tack-sharp. I'm pretty sure this is the sharpest lens I've ever used. At the same time, that makes sense to me; when some of the things you can focus on are just a few hundred molecules wide, it HAS to be sharp to resolve them properly. If you're shooting macros handheld with this lens, use a single focus point on the 'AI' focus setting for best results, but the magic happens on a tripod with manual focus at f/32. (Don't forget to Enable Mirror Lockup to eliminate the vibration of the mirror slap.) The 100mm Macro has beautiful color and contrast, along with an almost complete absence of chromatic aberration and very little distortion: it's one impressive piece of glass, worthy of a red strip to be sure. Wide open, the 100mm Macro has a beautiful background blur, and a flawless, super-smooth bokeh. It's comparable to the 50mm f/1.2L in my opinion, pure butter. Grab this lens while there's still copies to be had. It's been replaced by the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS (haven't used that one yet, but I'd bet it's impressive!) The thing is, you can get this lens for a fraction of the cost of the L: if you evaluate it fully, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better value...a MUST have Canon lens.
Date published: 2011-12-20T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good.... but Nice lens, but Canon needs to stabilized it, to get the full potential when shooting at 100mm.
Date published: 2008-11-30T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great Macro For The Money I just purchased the Canon 100mm Macro lens about three week ago and I am more than pleased with this lens. The auto-focus is a little different up close and sometimes you must manual focus to keep it from hunting around but I went into this lens knowing that. It is a great addition to my camera bag. I have taken some fairly sharp Macro shots with it so far. I figure It can only get better the more I use it.
Date published: 2009-08-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from ALERT: lens hood/case!!!! The Canon gods have listened! Got my new lens this week: SURPRISE: included was a ET-67 lens hood and a LP1219 lens case! This lens is superb - best Canon MACRO lens (non IS) available. Tack sharp, highly detailed images. Used AF first, then MF. Easy to use, with or without lens hood, AF or MF. Very pleased with this prime lens. Thank you Canon! (Used with a new EOS 60D).
Date published: 2010-12-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Fantastic for coins! I bought this lens back in 2005 to photograph rare coins and after more than six years and thousands of photos I am still in awe of it. Surgical sharpness and fantastic manual focus, it still works perfectly and is a joy to use. Depth of field is limited but this is not an issue with coins. Build quality is as good as my 17mm-40mm L-Series Super Wide, amazing considering the price. HIGHLY recommended!
Date published: 2011-11-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great Christmas Present I've always loved macro photography but didn't really have any dedicated macro lenses. I used telephoto lenses with extension tubes for the most part. My wife recently bought me an EF F/2.8 100mm Macro lens and what a difference. Like others have said, it is razor sharp; however, taking macro photos really does require a tripod and all your camera body has (such as mirror lockup and remote shutter release). When you do these, the 100mm macro delivers! You might also want to consider a ring light as your normal flash is useless. When taking macro shots, auto focus does hunt or doesn't work at all which isn't surprising IF you're taking handheld shots. If you're using a tripod then all works well unless the subject is in motion. When that happens I simply switch to manual focus and all is well with the world. The 100mm macro is my sharpest lens with greatest sharpness throughout the frame occurring at F/8. Does it matter that it doesn't have image stabilization? No. All manufacturers recommend turning IS off if you're using a tripod as the IS can, itself, add vibrations. Thus, that's paying for a feature in macro photography that won't be used much. Tests also show that while you might get 3-4 stops IS when not doing macro photography, you'll likely only get 1, maybe 2, stops off tripod for macro work. So is it really worth it? Not in my opinion.
Date published: 2011-12-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from I made the right decision. This is a great lens for macro work. I was going to try to buy a used one but found the prices of used ones to be almost the same as a new one with the guarantee. This attests to the fact that this lens is highly regarded by the photo community. I purchased the new lens and am very happy with it. It is a very good value for the money, and boasts Canon's superior build quality. Great for macro work, sharp as a tack, couldn't ask for more. Kudos, Canon.
Date published: 2009-02-14T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Almost Perfect I've used this lens for 5 months and I find it amazing , everything is excellent with it , sharpness , image quality , fast precise auto-focus..The only thing I regret is the 2.8 aperture which is a bit slow in my opinion especially when taking portraits or relatively big subjects and when a more blurred background is needed..Would has been the PERFECT lens if it had a 1.8 or a faster aperture..
Date published: 2009-05-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from null Love this lens for what I bought it for Macro, but have found my self using a prime lens. Like someone else would love to see it in IS. The other guys have it.
Date published: 2008-12-14T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Superior build, VERY useful I do not understand why this lens is not listed in the "L" family of lenses, it is so well constructed. I really enjoy doing macro photography, and cannot imagine a lens could be any better in facilitating this kind of work. My shots have been consistently excellent, with great definition. If excellence in macro photography is what you seek, buy this lens. I recommend the 100mm F/ 2.8 Macro lens with no hesitation.
Date published: 2009-06-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from GOOD MACRO MY ONLY QUALM IS THE DEPTH OF FIELD, AND TRYING TO BALANCE DEPTH AND AVAILABLE\E LIGHT WHILE TRYING TO KEEP THE SHUTTER SPEED DOWN SO I DONT HAVE TO PUT IT ON A TRIPOD. THE FOCUS IS INCREDIBLY SHARP, MY FAVORITE FEATURE. I WISH THE IS WAS AVAILABLE WHEN I BOUGHT THIS ONE. MY OVERALL IMPRESSION IS I LIKE THIS LENS BUT THIS IS NOT A LENS FOR BEGINNERS.
Date published: 2010-10-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from 100mm Macro Lens I've used maro/closeup photography for over 30 years. I've progressed from belllows to 50mm macro to 100mm macro (within last 5 yrs along with 10D). I am totally satisfied with the 100mm macro for all the macro/closeup photography I do/need. The image results, when set up properly, are always true, sharp, and evenly exposed. It has been a joy to use.
Date published: 2008-11-29T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from null This has been a really great lens. One can really fill the screen with a grain of rice.. or ant.. or rolly polly..or baby toe. It is amazing what you can capture. If you were afraid of spiders before.. wait till you see a leg when taken with this lens! I only wish it had some zoom capability.. since sometimes hard to get close to critters in the garden. Also we use this for portriat lens.. but again.. zoom would be nice since some of the best shots are just grab and shoot.. and not often at the exact distance. Overall.. this is one nice lens.. will make you go around hunting bugs to take pictures of. Oh.. the focus is not always fast.. sometimes ot over focuses.. then under focuses.. have to use manual sometimes.
Date published: 2008-12-27T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Superb, dual purpose lens. SInce I started shooting with 1.6X crop sensor cameras in 2004, this has become my primary macro lens. Before that, on film (i.e., "full frame") cameras, I tended to use the 180/3.5 macro more. With the cameras I'm using now, the 100/2.8 gives me the right combo of adequate working distance from shy or downright nasty, sharp-toothed subjects, but not so far that depth of field is ultra shallow so that I need to stop down a lot and use a slow shutter speed, to the point it's no longer practical to handhold. The 100/2,8 also serves very well as a moderate telephoto lens for non-macro shooting, on any crop sensor SLR. The main reason this lens serves dual purposes so well is that it's got fast USM auto focus. If you are sure to use the limiter switch when shooting at non-macro distances, it's AF will not disappoint (the 180/3.5 does not focus as quickly at non-macro distances, so is less of a dual purpose lens, in my opinion). Now, I know a lot of people use the 100/2.8 for a portrait lens, too. If anything, in my opinoin it might be too darned sharp for that purpose. You won't win points with your mother in law if you take her portrait with this lens and so precisely show every line and wrinkle! Still, it can be used for portraits, no doubt about it. Just soften her images a little in post production, or risk the wrath of your mother in law! It also can optionally be fitted with a tripod mounting ring, very handy, but something that is not possible with some other macro lenses around this focal length. One thing I've never been able to figure out is why the optional lens hood is so large. You certainly don't have to worry about stray light finding it's down there to the front lens element, when you use it! It's a bit of an overkill, but better too much hood than too little, I suppose. Internal focus means this lens doesn't change length when focused, which is pretty amazing and convenient for a 1:1 macro lens. Earlier 1:1 macro lenses grew tremendously, with double heligoid designs. Some tripled in length, which moves the front elements awfully close to small subjects. While I would agree that I.S. is nice to have on any lens and would be somewhat useful on this lens when using it as a moderate telephoto, I have to point out that I.S. is of little real use at macro focusing distances. There is one stabilized macro lens on the market now, and even it's manufacturer doesn't claim very much assistance from stabilixation with tiny subjects at higher magnifications. So, personally I don't see much sense in adding I.S. (and complexity and cost) to this already excellent lens. The 100/2.8 Macro works extremely well with macro extension rings and the MT24EX Twinlite flash, too.
Date published: 2009-02-15T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Still going I purchased my 100 f 2.8 macro in the mid 90’s. Actually I have all three macro lenses, the 50 and the 180 in addition to the 100.
Date published: 2021-09-29T00:00:00-04:00

This page was printed on 4/19/2024 8:46:38 PM.