Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
Had my Canon 450D for a few months now and really love it. Although I’m still at a beginner’s level and need lots of practice, do adore using it to make photos.
Quite pleased with the default EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens that came as a kit with the camera. However, did feel that I wanted to get in even closer, see more details and get sharper results during figure photoshoots or while snapping photos of flowers.
Started to look around online and was drawn towards macro lenses, where Canon’s EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro USM and EF 100mm f/2.8 macro USM lenses both received positive reviews.
Seeing the great photo results that fellow otaku comrades Anony and Meronpan both obtained with the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro USM lens, and after some helpful advice at the photography store, took the plunge and got the EF 100mm f/2.8 macro USM.
When equipped with a hood, the 100mm macro lens looks rather spectacular, certainly if compared in size to a compact lens like the 18-55mm. What I hadn’t anticipated though is its significant weight, certainly on a 450D body which is rather light, it’s a heavy lens.
Will need lots of practice and savvy on how to hold the camera properly to make stable shots with this lens.
For those among you curious about the wallpaper background used on my desktop in the above image, it’s the artwork of Allean from “Queen’s Blade” that you can see here.
In the meantime have been able to do some macro photography already and while there’s still a lot left to learn and tons of practice needed, did manage to make some nice photos already, like those of a stained glass lamp, flowers and other plants.
You can see more grouped in the macro shot posts.
Blue Blue Wave 
You may want to check into getting some extension tubes…they are rather cheap on ebay.com (could be less than $10.00), they fit between the body and the lens, and help to show great details in very close-up work.
If you would like to see some shots I have taken using them just e-mail me and I’ll send you a few.
Good luck taking your photos.
Raven
http://cherokeebydesign.wordpress.com/
ooo grats on a nice get! ^^
real fun lens, lookin forward to results ^^
Yay, congrats on getting a new lens! It’s a great lens, especially for figure photography 😉 Of course, it’s awesome for flowers, insects, and just about everything else too ^^ Looking forward to some pics.
Oh wow, so 100mm lenses lets you take macro pictures then,,,..
I would love to see your pictures using the lens. 🙂
Yeah, that is one of the problems with the lower-end dSLRs – they’re just way too light. The moment you start getting any decent lenses for them, holding them becomes an ergonomic nightmare. Constantly the lens is pulling the front down, and after a few hours of shooting your wrist may as well be broken :p
One of the reasons why I like the D300, the thing is built like a tank, both size and weight wise :p
But yeah, congrats on the purchase, can’t wait to see what you shoot w/ it ^_^
@cherokee
Thanks for the tip! ^^
Do see most extension tubes don’t have any contacts though, so you loose the ability to set auto focus and lens aperture.
@meronpan
It’s a fun but challenging lens.
@anony
Seeing the wonderful photos you and meronpan made with it motivated me towards this particular model.
@phossil
This one is the macro model, Canon has a 50mm, 60mm, 100mm line up in their macro lensens.
@Michael
Depends on how you look at it, when I held the Canon models, the 450D was just my size and weight, it fit the best for my hands (small hands). So for me with a normal or light lens the 450D is perfect… just I hadn’t anticipated that lens would outweigh the 450D by that much. ^^;;
Heh just for comparison… body of the 450D is 475g vs d300 at…. 830g :p Yeah ^_^;
I swear one day ill break into your home and steal all that sweet stuff you have.
I need to save up some money and get a DSLR before I can dream about stuff like this ^^;
@Blowfish
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Well what budget went into acquiring this camera and lenses is money I can’t spend on other goods like figures, manga and such.
Rest assured your figure collection is far more impressive than mine. (I max out at 15.)