New 100mm f/2.8L

[LeeKen]

My new lens arrived yesterday.

I found out that it's more difficult to use than I had imagined. Not that there is any fault with the lens, just that I need some pointers, practice and a change of my thought process. Out of the 100 or so shots I took, there were a few decent efforts.

Any comments and tips would be appreciated.

[finnbay]

It is an incredible lens. Biggest thing to get used to is DOF. If hand held, it comes and goes quickly. One way to battle that is to have your camera on a high burst rate, start just out of focus range and slowly move forward as the shutter is playing machine gun. Still have a lot of unusable images, but should be able to catch at least one that is sharp.

[LeeKen]

Ken,

Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try this evening.

[Paul]

LeeKen, I know what you mean, i picked up the same lense this spring and I can honestly say, I have not had the most success with it. Defintaly a learning curve to this lense.

[Steve Foss]

Ken's tip is a good one. The faster the burst rate of the camera, the more likely you are to up the number of keepers as you move slowly forward. But you've got to be steady and stable as you move forward, too, and subject motion can continue to play a role even with the technique. You often take a burst of 10-12 images in order to get two sharp ones, so it could be considered a wasteful technique, but if you are on the run and don't have a tripod or the time to set up, you can still make things happen.

But in general, the switch to macro demands a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release or the camera's self timer to get best results. Even though the IS on Canon's new macro can dampen camera hand shake, it often isn't enough to get good results. As mentioned DOF is razor thin with wide open aperture at that extreme close range, and even stopping down to f8 and up doesn't buy you a lot of DOF at that range. So what generally happens is, in order to get a decent DOF, you stop the lens way down, which brings shutter speed way down, which is what requires the tripod/shutter release.

With the subject that close to the lens, a number of potential technique flaws that don't appear with standard photography can suddenly come trotting out to soften/blur otherwise excellent photographs. So with the tripod, remote release and manual focus, I have new macroistas choose a static subject like moss, lichen, mushrooms, etc, things that don't introduce subject motion by being windblown, and spend some hours just working with the gear to get familiar with the unique demands of macro.

Whole new game indeed, but a very rewarding one. I like macro more than most types of photography. It forces you to slow down and pay close attention to your subject and surroundings. Those are always good things. It's easy after hiking and photographing an area repeatedly to think one knows the space well, but it's only when you get down on your belly for a few hours and work your way through the understory that you really get the lay of the land, so to speak.

[HawgMan]

You have a great lens to explore with & will capture excellent pics! Aren't you glad that the learning curve is w/ digital rather than film!!!!!

Shoot On