bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I have the Canon 100 mm Macro and I am having a GAS attack. I was wondering if there would be any benefits to purchasing the 180 mm lens. I am shooting with a 60D, 80D and 6D Mark II. Thanks

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

To put it bluntly, probably not, given the 100L.

The 180L is amazing. The focal length givens an amazing working distance, even full-frame. The lens is regarded as a top-5 sharpness in the entire line. But, the AF is weak. It hunts more than it locks. If you can get a subject that lets you manually focus in Live View, like the spider example, it's a wonder, especially when working from a tripod. But, tracking the bee was a mixture of skill and luck where I missed half the bee targets as the lens zoomed out and in rather than grabbing and holding focus on a clear subject around the center AF point.

Your current subjects or desired targets will help determine if this AF functionality will be an issue.

Chicago Orb Weaver by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Chicago Bee by Paul Sager, on Flickr

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Thanks

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have both Tamron 90mm f/2.8 & 180mm f/3.5 macro lenses. The 180 seldom comes out of my camera bag because it's too long to use with a ringlight at the distances I normally work at. Unless you need the greater working distance of the 180mm lens, I wouldn't bother.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I have both lenses and the biggest advantage to the 180 is, you don't have to get all up close and personal as you do with the 100.

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Great shots

Jerrin1 Loc: Wolverhampton, England

I don't know what the Canon 180mm costs, but I owned a Sigma 180mm f2.8 OS macro (Nikon fit) and it was outstanding. Very heavy but I really could not fault it. 1:1 at 49cm. I bought mine as an "excellent" condition secondhand copy. It cost £800 instead of £1300.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Long after buying it I discovered the 180mm will fool your software into thinking you are using a different lens. Both Aperture and Lightroom think it is another manufacturer's lens. Nota big deal unless one is perfect, as is this lens. Get it, enjoy same.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I have both Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro and EF 180mm f/3.5L USM Macro (as well as Canon MP-E 65mm, Tamron 90mm and 60mm macro lenses).

The Canon 100mm is by far my most frequently used close-up and macro lens. The 180mm is rather specialized. I only mostly only use it when shooting critters that are particularly shy or that bite and sting. It's more of a "tripod required" lens, more difficult to get a steady shot. It's also slower focusing than the 100mm (which is no speed demon). And it renders extremely shallow depth of field.

Don't get me wrong... the 180mm is a wonderful lens. It's just a lot more specialized than the 100mm, in my opinion (though perhaps not as specialized as the MP-E 65mm).

This gives you some idea how shallow the depth of field can be with the 180mm:



The pissed off California tarantula below isn't a particularly great photo (at least I focused on it's eight eyes!), but is a good example of the type of subject where the 180mm might be my preference for its extra working distance!



BTW, if you use the Canon MT-24EX, MT-26EX Macro Twin Lite or MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite flashes, they cannot be "clipped on" to the front of the 180mm the way they can with the smaller diameter Canon macro lenses. A Macrolite adapter is required and will cause some vignetting on the 180mm, which uses 72mm filters. The EF 100mm "L" IS lens also is larger diameter, uses 67mm filters, and requires a different adapter. All other Canon macro lenses use 58mm filters and all the Canon macro flashes can be clipped directly onto them without any adapter or vignetting (except for the old 50mm f/2.5 "Compact Macro", which uses 52mm filters and requires an adapter).

A work-around with the MT-24EX and MT-26EX is to use a separate dual flash bracket to mount the flash heads independently from the lens. With my MT-24EX I use a Lepp/Stroboframe dual flash bracket, which unfortunately is no longer manufactured (there are some others, I haven't used and can't say how well they work). The dual flash bracket also allows much more versatility positioning the flash heads.

I don't use my MR-14EX Ring Lite on "lower magnification" macro lenses. I just don't care for the lighting effects of ring lights at less than, say, approx. 2:1 magnification. So I only use it on my MP-E 65mm, which is fits directly.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Distance with skittish critters. Otherwise not much reason.

henryp Loc: New York, NY

I do. :-)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/112541-USA/Canon_2539A007_Telephoto_EF_180mm_f_3_5L.html