Product Description

A unique manual-focus lens designed exclusively for macro shooting, between life-size (1x) and 5x life-size - at its maximum magnification, you can fill a 35mm frame with a grain of rice. Compatible with the Macro Ring Lites and new Macro Twin Lite, it eliminates the need for awkward bellows accessories for many macro shooters. The optical system uses a floating system to preserve optical quality at different focusing distances, and features a UD-glass element.

Product Details

• Brand: Canon
• Model: E
• Dimensions: 5.40" h x 5.50" w x 6.80" l, 2.00 pounds

Features

• Dedicated to high-quality manual focus macro photography from 1~5x.
• Supports AE metering with EOS-1N and other EOS cameras
• Compatible with Macro Ring Lite ML-3.
• Removable tripod collar revolves smoothly and locks securely
• Sophisticated 3-group floating system with UD element enhances image quality.

Customer Reviews

Pro Macro lens
I have been into photography for many many year, and have always had a spot for macro pictures. I have used other macro lenses before, but nothing compares to this. It is a speciallity lens, and it can be used for nothing else than macro, but WOW it does it well.
It can produce images from 1:1 to 1:5 ! Yes, 5 times real life, that is CLOSE UP MACRO. It does not have any focus system, so all focus is manual, and can only be done by moving the lens and camera back and forth. I HIGHLY recomend some kind of focus rail system and tripod. ESSENTIAL for using this lens. It can be hand held with success, but it requires a steady hand. It extends to almost 25 cm when shooting at 5x and it is a bit heavy, so get a sturdy tripod.
DOF is very easy to control, and image quality is very high. Highly recomended to the serious macro photographer. Also, ring flash is a MUST HAVE item with this. Optionally one or two external flashes for better light control.

better than using bellows
I bought one of these lenses a couple weeks ago and found it easy to use. I've been shooting macro images for over 20 years and have used all sort of devices and techniques for getting images beyond lifesize. I find this lens much easier to use than bellows or stacks of extension tubes. Being able to simply press the depth of field preview button on the EOS camera body is nice. I wanted to know how this lens compared to my Zeiss Luminar 63mm macro lens for resolution. Under test conditions I found the Zeiss lens to be a bit sharper, but I had to enlarge the images many times and search for the tiny details. I did find, based on limited test subjects, I preferred the Canon lens over the Zeiss in color saturation. I also found at 3X the best resolution for this Canon lens was at f/8. At wide open the image is a bit soft and the corners are noticeably lacking, but stopped down everything improved significantly. At f/11 the image started to lose some sharpness. For the price of this lens I could easily get a used bellows and used Zeiss macro lens and make adapters to fit my Canon 5D (I know, I've done it), but I find I would grab this lens first just because it's so much easier and faster to use. I've used this both in the studio and out in the field. I find I can handhold it for most still objects I want to shoot but it's better to carry along a couple bean bags or tripod or whatever to hold it more steady. I think the next thing I buy will be one of the macro flashes, as getting adequate lighting is a bit tricky. If you are new to the whole macro world of photography and not sure about spending this much on a lens of this type I would recommend getting a used macro lens and some extension tubes, or bellows, and playing with those first. After that you'll really appreciate what this lens can do.

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens
Excellent special purpose lens. Better than expected. Caution: with large magnifications there is very low depth of field, especially that you need to use large apertures to get a good sharpness.