Digital Photographer - USA (2019-07)

Pro-gradebuild

Theup-marketdesignincludesa

three-positionautofocusrange

limiter,hybridstabilization,a

focusdistancescalebeneatha

viewingwindowandweather-seals.

Price:£849/$799

Canon EF 100mm

f2.8L Macro IS USM

Canon’s top flight macro

lens really sets the standard,

and was something of an

innovationwhenlaunched

whenlaunchedbackin2009,thiswasthe

world’sfirstlenstofeaturea‘hybrid’optical

imagestabilizer.thecrucialadvantageis

thatthesystemcorrectsforshiftinthe

verticalandhorizontalplanes,aswellasthe

moreusualangularvibrationorwobble.this

makesstabilizationmuchmoreeffectivefor

close-ups.evenso,the4-stopeffectiveness

ofthestabilizerforgeneralshootingshrinks

to3-stopsat0.5xmagnificationand2-stops

atfull1.0xmagnification.However,withabit

ofluckonyourside,itdoesmakehandheld

macroshootingarealpossibility.

As with most of Canon’s L-serieslenses,

this one has high-grade construction

completewithweather-seals.Buildquality

feelsverygoodthroughoutand,aswiththe

Nikonandtamron lenses on test,afully

internalfocusingmechanismensuresthat

thelensdoesn’tphysicallyextendatshorter

focusdistancesettings.it’snotparticularly

heavyat625g,butanoptionaltripodmount

ringisavailable,forimprovedbalance.

thering-typeautofocussystemisfast

andprecise,andcomescompletewitha

three-wayrangelimiterswitch.thisenables

you to use the full autofocus range, or to

lock out either the long or the short end. As

usual, full-time manual override of autofocus

is available and, more importantly for many

macroshootingscenarios,manualfocusingis

smoothandprecise.

HelpedbytheinclusionofauD(ultra-low

Dispersion)element,sharpnessandcontrast

areexcellentwhilecolourfringingisminimal.

the Canon lens performs better than any

competitor in this test group on both counts,

as well as retaining better sharpness at very

narrow apertures.

Far right

f16,0.3xmagnification

Shothandheld at 0.3x

magnification, this image

ofamatchboxsized model

benefitsfromthe Canon’s

hybridimage stabilizer

Right

f11,1.0xmagnification

TheCanonedges ahead of

allcompetinglenses on test

forresolvingfine detail at its

closestfocus distance

reviews