Quote:
Originally Posted by PCH
... Andy, Mark, Greg, Dave - do you guys agree or disagree with this course of action?
Cheers  |
Agree. I have that lens and it's excellent. It consistently ranks among the top Canon lenses in the photographic community. Google "Canon lens ranking" and choose the bobatkins site. You'll find a list of lenses there ranked by actual users. Both the IS and non-IS versions of the 100 macro are in the top 20. If you look at the list of best lenses under $600 you'll see the non-IS 100mm macro in first place.
As someone has already mentioned, flash is important with macro. You're often very close to the subject and this can mean obscuring much of the available light. If you decide to get into macro more seriously you might trawl EBay for the Canon ring flash. It fits on the front of the Canon macro lenses and makes life much easier.
In addition to what Humayun has said, keep in mind that once you settle for a given brand you're buying into a "system". It doesn't matter whether it's Canon, Nikon or whatever ... If you stick to the system you know things will work consistently together. I'm not trying to put you off third-party lenses or accessories. Many, including the macro lenses mentioned in this thread, are very good performers and represent good value ... but there can be some pitfalls too ... such as possibly discovering that things like the macro flash units don't fit the lens.