G'day all,
The trip to Pemberton went very well and this lens performed quite nicely. I haven't got around to posting a reply about it because I haven't prepared any of my macro shots for display yet.
A little summary of the lens wouldn't go astray though....
The F/2.8 was very nice in some situations, and even when using it at slower f-stops like F/4 ad F/8 the shutter speeds were much better than what I am used to. I usually use my 70-200 F/4L with 10, 15 & 25mm extension tubes. This lns made me realise that the extension tubes really do have an effect on light loss.
The nicest thing about the F/2.8 was being able to hand-hold it in more situations than I would have with my other configuration.
It's focusing and build quality really feels L quality to me. It doesn't have the weather seals, and the switch isn't L quality, but the focusing is equally fast and silent.
As a 100mm telephoto focusing is the issue. Focus adjustments must be extremely fine for objects at a distance, as compared to close objects where it is much easier to achieve accurate manual focus.
Images from the lens were always sharp and had good colour, as far as I could tell. It's a bit tricky to tell with macro when the depth of field is often so shallow.
I wasn't as impressed with the boost in magnification it gives me vs my other setup. In theory it goes to 1:1 where as my other setup is 1:0.32 at best, but it wasn't too often that higher than 0.32 magnifications were realised.
I probably used a tripod for 70% of my macro shots rather than 90% I would have with my 70-200 & extension tubes.
Image quality I think is comparable between my options, the 70-200 with extension tubes delivers just as sharp and contrasty images I think.
What the 100mm F/2.8 doesn't give me which the 70-200 with extension tubes does is flexibility. The zoom of the 70-200 gives more opportunity for cropping differently and felt like it was better for being futher away from the subject (more than about 50cm). But that's very subective.
I haven't done any exact side-by-side tests of the lens with my other setup, all this is just what I think from use of the two over the few days. I'm no lens expert, so please don't take it all too seriously!
Btw, my fiance's 24-105 worked very nicely with her existing extension tubes to produce excellent macro shots also. Without the extension tubes it's macro capabilities are of course more limited.
Pics to come eventually.
Roger.