Rebel XT - 100mm or 100mm macro

Not sure on which one to purchase - the 100mm or the 100mm macro. I mostly
shoot auto / motorcycle racing and other events with some social photography
thrown in for good measure. Suggestions would be appreciated!

John
Rebel XT
50mm f1.8
200mm f2.8L II USM

 

Do you need to produce images from 1:2 imagings, that is, images of
things 2" across fit onto your sensor? If not, don't get the macro.

 

I bet your 200 is great for racing, get a 1.4X teleconverter when you want
to get a bit more reach. The 100mm macro would not be good for racing, the
focus is not fast enough, I don't think the 100mm f2 would be fast enough
either. I use a 24-105 f4 L IS as a day to day lens, it has worked well for
bicycle racing where you can get close enough to fill the frame, for
auto/motorcycle racing, it would not have enough reach, I use a 70-200 f2.8
L along with a 1.4X TC, this combo works well on a 30D.

Jean

 

Hello John.

I would go for the macro.

Macro photography is great fun. If you have a go using close-up lenses and
you like the results then you will end up by buying a macro lens. By the
way, I would always go for the 100mm Canon macro in preference to the Sigma
105mm macro. The Sigma is slower, hunts more when focussing and is clumsier
to switch from auto to manual focus.

By all means have a look through the reference books about macro photography
but the best way to find out about it is to try it for yourself.

Regards, Ian.

 

The 100mm macro will probably do, but unless you want/need
macro, ...

AF is something you usually don't use at all in macro photography.
You focus by moving the camera back or forward ...

Yep, see how the lens feels ...

-Wolfgang

 

Hello again. I have to admit that I do use autofocus in my macrophotography.
There is a reason for this - I usually have the camera in one hand and a
reflector or flash or a piece of the vegetation (keeping it off the subject)
in the other hand. Moving backwards and forwards is then not something that
I can do easily.

Regards, Ian

 

You probably mean close-up photography. If you are not at a very high
magnification, autofocus works pretty good. Macrophotography is
supposed to mean approx. 1:1 photography (by which I mean that the
subject and image have about the same size.)

It's hard to autofocus at 1:1 because for one thing, the effective
aperture is now twice what it was at infinity (f/4 becomes f/8) and
autofocus usually needs a bigger aperture... and for another thing,
when you are at 1:1, focusing using the focus ring (whether auto or
manual) changes the image size without changing the focus that much.

KS

 

For action shooting the AF on a macro lens will not be satisfying in my
experience macro AF is designed to move slowly & tediously.