Macro lens: What is the difference between the Canon 24mm 35mm and 100mm macro lenses? I want to take close ups of butterflies and other insects and flowers. This will be my first...

kashka51

What is the difference between the Canon 24mm 35mm and 100mm macro lenses? I want to take close ups of butterflies and other insects and flowers. This will be my first experience with a macro lens. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Leitz Loc: Solms

kashka51 wrote:

What is the difference between the Canon 24mm 35mm and 100mm macro lenses? I want to take close ups of butterflies and other insects and flowers. This will be my first experience with a macro lens. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

The focal lengths are different.

smussler Loc: Land O Lakes, FL - Formerly Miller Place, NY

The working distance to capture a 1:1 image is greater with the longer focal lengths. For insects, the 100mm is probably the best choice.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

There are differences in minimal focusing distances to achieve the 1:1 ratio. With a 100mm lens your minimal focusing distance will be greater than with a 24mm or 35mm lens. For shooting live skittish subjects the farther you can be away from your subject and still achieve the 1:1 ratio the less chance of spooking your subject. My macro lens is 180mm.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Are you sure there is a 24mm macro lens? The 35mm 'macro' options are either specific to the EOS mirrorless cameras or to the cropped-sensor DSLR bodies. Without knowing your camera type, it's hard to say if either of these lenses is a valid option.

The shorter the focal length of the macro lens, the less useful the lens is for live / moving subjects. You have to be so close to the subject to fill the frame, as a result, you scare off the subjects that can move away. For your desire of butterflies and other insects, 100mm is the minimum needed. Non macro lenses, zoom and prime, at 200mm and longer are better tools.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

CHG_CANON wrote:

Are you sure there is a 24mm macro lens? The 35mm ... (show quote)

Yes, I agree that if you want good closeup shoots and not true macro shots you can achieve that with a 200 or 300mm zoom lens.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

kashka51 wrote:

What is the difference between the Canon 24mm 35mm and 100mm macro lenses? I want to take close ups of butterflies and other insects and flowers. This will be my first experience with a macro lens. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Canon used to make a fantastic 180mm macro, this would allow you to shoot skittish subjects much easier than any of the others.
I am a Nikon shooter, I have been using a Nikkor 200mm f4 macro since 2008 while heavy and slow it is a fantastic lens.
I have a friend the uses the Canon 180mm and loves it.

Canisdirus

One thing not mentioned is the relationship of distance and camera shake when doing macro. The closer you are, the easier it is to control. Yes you might scare some critters off...but the ones that don't...are the gold mine critters. Then the smaller focal length will yield more stable images. Talking about handheld of course. Tripod...go long...but what a slow and cumbersome way to shoot macro.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

This is an insect. In this case it's a wheel bug. Taken with the Canon 2.8L 100MM. Taken from a distance of about 12" (guessing)

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

Canisdirus wrote:

One thing not mentioned is the relationship of distance and camera shake when doing macro. The closer you are, the easier it is to control. Yes you might scare some critters off...but the ones that don't...are the gold mine critters. Then the smaller focal length will yield more stable images. Talking about handheld of course. Tripod...go long...but what a slow and cumbersome way to shoot macro.

Why would camera shake be easier to control the closer to the subject you are? Since I shoot with small apertures to achieve greater DOF I use a ring light attached to the lens which allows me to shoot with faster shutter speeds usually at 1/200sec.

Canisdirus

JRiepe wrote:

Why would camera shake be easier to control the closer to the subject you are? Since I shoot with small apertures to achieve greater DOF I use a ring light attached to the lens which allows me to shoot with faster shutter speeds usually at 1/200sec.

Just physics...any movement is increased proportionally by distance.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

CHG_CANON wrote:

Are you sure there is a 24mm macro lens? The 35mm ... (show quote)

I wondered about that too. 24mn for a m5/4 perhaps, no Canon, Nikon, Pentax, or Sony that short for a macro. Go with at least a 100mm Canon Macro.

agillot

for larger insects , if you want the whole thing , a telephoto , like a 400mm that focus close work well , you are feet away, so you dont scare the thing .now if you want only the head , you need a macro , in that case a 100mm or longer is the choice so you are not too close to scare the thing away .a regular tele , zoom or not work well when using a spacer between the lens and body , you get closer that way .a spacer kit is around $50 , it come in 3 thickness .

User ID

Leitz wrote:

The focal lengths are different.

But that doesn’t necessarily constitute a difference. Your actual familiarity with what you pretend to know is huuuugely deficient.

@OP

User “Leitz” is known for that problem. You’ll get used to it. If you’re aware of what his user name means then you might already understand him :-(

So you have those three FLs that can be applied to different sensor sizes. Shorter FLs are limited to small sensors, but for butterflies and such you’ll want the longest one, to allow more working distance from your live subjects.

If you happen to be using a small sensor, combining that with the longest FL gets you the most working distance ... but it’s only about a foot (depends on size of butterfly and how you compose the shot).

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

kashka51 wrote:

What is the difference between the Canon 24mm 35mm and 100mm macro lenses? I want to take close ups of butterflies and other insects and flowers. This will be my first experience with a macro lens. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Go with at least a Canon 100mm Macro or longer. There are longer third party macro lenses. As someone pointed out to at least 180mm. Be your camera Full Frame or APS-C a Canon 100mm will give you good images. I shoot close-ups and macro of Flowers and Sea Shells all the time. Focus stacked at times too. I own a few Pentax 35mm, 50mm, and 100mm Macro lenses and I find the 100mm s most useful and rarely us the shorter ones these days. I kinda wish for even a longer one if I could afford it and there was a Pentax mount. Oh, by-the'way, you do not need an AF lens for Macro as you should shoot macros with all manual settings anyway. Though moving insect might be easier in some cases with AF if you know how to use it here correctly.