You are quite right about a tripod, it is the best way to eliminate shake, but for hand held, IS can be a wonderful addition allowing a wide choice of f stop or shutter speed and now a 4 stop advantage.

When using a tripod, it is best to turn off the IS since if there is no shake the electronics can go ape!

I use my canon 100 mm Macro f2.8 for portraits on a full frame Canon EOS 5 III but I also use it for macro on insects and flowers where tripod use is limited "in the wild" I just bought a nice carbon tripod made for a 26 lb camera (overkill is good) and a Really Right Stuff large ball head. The RRS ball head is the finest head I have ever used and it is US made. The Canon is made in Japan which is not China folks. Most Nikon's are now made outside Japan.

I would shoot it at ISO 2000 to 4000 with a Canon EOS 5 III or a Nikon D4.

You have to keep the exposure short to get a sharp moon shot. With today's low noise optical senors you can go for the high ISO shot and still have very little grain or noise

See exposure at ISO 12800 1.8th second f2.8 EOS 5 III 24-105 @33mm

Lauderdale beach Florida

Of course with the 200 mm at f2.8 your subject needs to be in Montana in order for you to get a portrait!

For reasonable distance use a 85 up to 135 mm lens at f2.8 or less.

The Canon EOS 5 III and the 24-105 is a great choice.

However note that this is a F4 lens and if you want to "blow out the background" to emphasize the subject a f 2.8 lens or lower would be better.

Now for my ultimate tip on this. Go with the canon MACRO 100 mm L f2.8 Image Stabilized lens for portraits. It has great sharpness, allows short depth of field and its also a great image stabilized close up lens for flowers etc. It works better than the 24-105 but the 24-105 is also a great general purpose lens. I have both.

The ultimate Canon lens for portraits is the 85 mm f1.2, but it is hard to use and has no IS.

See enclosed photo @f2.8 on the 100 mm IS Macro L

Canon 100mm f2.8 macro @2.8

I enclose a picture took with a Canon 24-105 L on my Canon EOS 5 III. Location South Daytona Beach, Florida, overcast day @105 mm and auto ISO.

One lens many shots and easy to carry.

Daytona Beach EOS 5 III


My cat EOS 5 III 100 LIS Macro

The 24-105 F4 IS is a much more useful zoom range and the picture quality is good. Traveling? Well this is the one lens to take along.

However, if you buy the 24-70 2.8 you have no IS and you will need to take a light telephoto >100 mm with you if you travel and this is a pain. JMO

I was able to shoot close up pictures of individual flying seagulls with the 24-105 at 105 mm and IS and they came out wonderfully.

It turns out that I have all three cameras the Canon EOS 5 mark III, the Nikon D800 and the Sony a7R.

The best photographs are from the Canon as far as pleasant to the eye, color and detail. I use the 16-35 f2.8, the IS 100 2.8 macro as a portrait lens and a 60-200 IS 2.8 Mark II. I also have a 1.4 converter and a few other lenses.

For the Sony, I have only one lens the 35mm f4 and it takes excellent pictures and now I wait for the next lenses in the full frame line from Zeiss. It is a great travel camera but I need to use the battery grip on it for a good fit.

For the Nikon, I essentially have all their lenses. My issue with Nikon is the slight blue shift of their standard settings. The glass is generally not as good as the Canon L and the EOS 5 body with battery pack feels better in my hand with all lenses although the D800 looks better, but that is of no use to me.