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Canon 50mm Macro
Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro. enlarge TRICK PHOTO: Move your mouse over it to see it extend! I'd get mine here, here or here. It helps me publish this site when you get yours from these links, too. December 2006 Top Specs Performance Recommendations In a Nutshell This 50mm macro works great if you want an alternative to a normal 50mm lens with super-close focusing. It's the least desirable of all Canon's macro lenses, and the least expensive Optically it's great, but the others are far more convenient and even better optically. It's not a good choice if you want it primarily for macro use, since the far superior Canon 100mm f/2.8 doesn't cost much more. If you're using it on a small sensor camera and can't get the 100mm macro, at least get the the 60mm EF-S macro, which is priced midway between these two. Either of these gets twice the magnification and make none of the noise focusing. This lens feels like it's from 1986, and for all I know, it probably is. This 50mm lens is capable of making extraordinary macro images, but the 100mm makes it much easier, and performs much better at ordinary distances than this 50mm. Good News: 1.) Scary-fast focusing. 2.) Small. 3.) Sharp. 4.) No Distortion. Bad News: 1.) Poor autofocus accuracy at large apertures. 2.) Focus motor sounds like it came from a toy car. 3.) Requires moving a switch to swap between auto and manual focus modes. 4.) Only gets to half life size unless you buy, carry and insert more accessories. Basics This is Canon's cheap macro lens, made with noisy old technology. The optics are fine, however for anything other than copying documents you'll thank me when you get the Canon 100mm instead. The 100mm doesn't cost much more. If you do want to copy documents, any $50 flatbed scanner today is far better than any macro lens. With any 50mm macro you have to get too close. You block your light, get an unnatural point of view and annoy the bugs you're trying to photograph. The 100mm lets you step back and have enough room to work. Canon's 100mm gets to 1:1 (life size) without any foolish adapters. This 50mm only gets to half life size (1:2) unless you buy more parts. Top Introduction Performance Recommendations Name: Canon calls this the Canon Compact Macro Lens EF 50mm f/2.5. EF means there's a loud motor that does the focusing. It doesn't have the silent ultra-sonic motor (USM) of newer lenses like the 100mm. Focal Length: 50mm. Used on a 1.3x camera it gives an angle of view similar to what a 63mm lens would give on a 35mm film camera. On a 1.6x camera it gives an angle of view similar to what a 81mm lens would give on a 35mm film camera. See also Crop Factor. Maximum Aperture: f/2.5. That's 1/3 of a stop faster than f/2.8. Optics: 9 elements, 8 groups. Diaphragm: 5 blades. Stops down to f/32. Filter Size: 52mm. Close Focus: 9-1/2" (23cm) from the image plane (the back of the camera). Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:2, half life size. A cockamamie extra-cost adapter lets you get to 1:1. Working Distance: The lens sticks out quite a bit, so 9-1/2" from the image plane means it focuses only 4-1/8" (10.5cm) from the front of the lens. This is why you really want the 100mm: how are you going to get light in there with only 4" of clearance? Size: 2.659" diameter x 2.477" extension from flange (67.54 x 62.93mm) focused at infinity. It extends to 3.466" (88.04mm) from the flange at the closest focus distance. I measured these figures personally. Weight: 9.530 oz. (270.2 g), measured, naked. Case: LP814. Introduced: December 1987. RATED MTF Canon rates it as decent; but nowhere near as good as the 100mm Macro. See Canon's MTF curves as printed in Canon EF Lens Work III.Top Introduction Specs Recommendations Autofocus Color Color Fringes Construction Distortion Falloff Filters Flare Flash Macro Serial # Sharpness No IS It's a decent optical performer, but dated mechanically. FOCUSING back to Performance or back to Introduction. The focus is fast and noisy. It's fun to watch the barrel go flying in and out and listen to the little motor sound as if it's about to explode. Mouse over the photo at the top to see it work (sorry, I prefer silent websites). Speed AF speed is FAST! Sound and Noise The motor is very noisy. It sounds like the motor was pulled from a toy car. Autofocus Accuracy AF accuracy is poor. This is a problem if you use it at large apertures. I suggest not using the larger apertures with autofocus. On my 5D, XTi and 30D it tends to focus behind the subject at close distances and a little in front of the subject at infinity. It does this consistently and most of the time. Stop down to f/5.6 and the results are much better. If you look at your images carefully you'll see significant losses of sharpness due to defocus at f/2.8. When shooting macro I shoot at a true f/16 - f/32 to make the best of the limited depth of field. Manual Focus You have to move the switch on the lens from AF to MF. Once you do that, it works great. You can flick it with a finger tip. It doesn't creep on a copy stand. Manual Exposure Unlike the Nikon AF macros, the f/stops on this Canon lens don't automatically correct for extension as you focus more closely. You'll have to make these corrections the hard way, and they aren't marked on the lens. You'll have to find the instructions, which aren't online or included with this loaner lens. This is only a problem if using an external exposure or flash meter. It's not a problem when using the camera's own meter. It will drive you whacko if you're in a studio with one set of strobes and try to copy the f/stop between Canon and Nikon cameras. COLOR FRINGES back to Performance or back to Introduction. It's great. There aren't any color fringes for gazebo and lawn furnishings specialists.
I see no differences from my other Canon lenses. back to Performance or back to Introduction. Exterior: Plastic with metal hood attachment and metal forebarrel. Filter Threads: Metal. Switches: Plastic. Mount: Metal. Internals: Metal helicoid with what looks like a plastic follower. Noises when shaken: a little clunking (this is normal). Made in: Japan. DISTORTION back to Performance or back to Introduction. None for most intents and purposes, even critical ones. Looking really hard on a full-frame camera I was able to see a maximum of 0.2%, worst case. This is great. back to Performance or back to Introduction. Falloff is fine. Stop down a stop and it's gone, even on full-frame. Here are shots of an Expodisc on my 5D full-frame camera. This is a tough test which shows even the slightest falloff as displayed here. You'll almost never see this in normal photography. Ignore the minor exposure variations between frames. On smaller sensor cameras this almost entirely goes away, even in this test, because they only use the middle of the image. See Crop Factor.
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FILTERS back to Performance or back to Introduction. On my full-frame 5D I can use four regular 52mm screw-in filters with no vignetting. Five filters vignette at infinity and work fine at close distances. There's no need to worry about filter vignetting even with a full-frame camera. Smaller sensor cameras are even less subject to it (see Crop Factor). FLARE AND GHOSTS back to Performance or back to Introduction. No problem. This is a dangerously blinding California midday sun exposed two stops more than I would for daylight, against a deliberately dark growth of bushes. Only an idiot would do this, and the flare is still minimal. I'm not going to worry about flare; I'm going to worry about my eyesight!
Crap Tree. 50mm Macro, Canon 5D, f/5.6 @ 1/125, ISO 50. USE with FLASH back to Performance or back to Introduction. Even at the closest focus distance of a few inches I get no shadows from the built-in flash of my Rebel XTi. The XTi's built-in flash exposes as well at close distances as it does at far. MACRO back to Performance or back to Introduction. It goes to half life size. That means the photo will cover double the dimensions of your film or image sensor.
at closest focus, full image on a 30D.
100% crop from above, no extra sharpening. f/6.3 @ 1/250, ISO 100, 30D. These snaps are from a 1.6x 30D. You won't be able to get as close an image with a 1.3x or full-frame or film camera. (see Crop Factor.) SERIAL NUMBER back to Performance or back to Introduction. The serial number is on the bottom rear of the barrel, engraved and filled with white paint. SHARPNESS back to Performance or back to Introduction. Sharpness is usually excellent, as you'd expect for a macro lens, especially at close distances. Beware autofocus. It's usually off at large apertures, which almost ensures soft images. Be careful: stop down to f/5.6 to be safe. Here are my observations at 100% on these various cameras at various distances. Letters correspond to center - side - corner, or center - corner. Possible ratings are E - VG - G - F - P. These are subjective. Don't fret over differences between adjacent grades.
*Watch the focus, which is usually off. Mine focused a little in front of the subject at infinity. This means without correcting focus the sharpness was only good, and if you manage to get perfect focus the sharpness was excellent. Try your own and see. Everything at f/8 and F/11 were excellent. F/16 and smaller suffers from the limits of Diffraction, as do all lenses. See also How Sharpness Varies with Aperture. Good luck getting anything sharp at the closer distances. The 50mm lens is excellent at these distances for which it is designed, but good luck finding an interesting subject flat enough to take advantage of this lens with its paper-thin depth of field. My friends who photograph butterflies for a living spend a lot of time trying to get their subjects to lie in the same plane. back to Performance or back to Introduction. The 50mm f/2.5 Macro has NO Image Stabilization. TIP: In dim light, fire several shots and pick the sharpest. Blur is a random event, so if you fire enough shots, you'll eventually get a sharp one even at speeds of 1/4 second! Top Introduction Specs Performance The 50mm macro is a swell lens, and a swell replacement for a traditional 50mm lens if you don't want to be limited by the close focus distance of a regular 50mm lens. I'm not a fan of this 50mm for real macro use, since if you're primarily interested in macro the Canon 100mm Macro is much, much better in many ways. Better means much more usable. Image quality is almost the same, if your don't mind the weird perspective and lighting issues from getting too close with this 50mm lens. The 100mm is always astoundingly sharp, while this 50mm isn't as sharp at infinity at large (portrait) apertures but it is as sharp at macro distances. This 50mm often gives malfocused images at large aperture with autofocus while the 100mm is always dead-on. The 100mm focuses silently while the 50mm whines like a toy car. The loud AF motor is fun. It really wails like a banshee as it focuses super fast. I give it credit for trying, and it succeeds. Of course forget about sneaking up on subjects silently. Get the 100mm for that. PLUG If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone. It also helps me keep adding to this site when you get your goodies through these links to Ritz, Amazon and Adorama. I use them and recommend them personally . Thanks! Ken
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