My personal choice would be the 100mm focal length, if gives a very nice seperation of the subject and background and a less clutered background. I would rather go longer than shorter, but thats just me. It also gives me a little more room for those shy critters that are spooked easily. But a shorter focal length gives you more DOF and easier to hand hold, so it's a trade off.
I would go for the refubished 100mm macro if I wanted AF liked above. If you could live without AF a old manual focus macro lens are a dime a dozen and you could spend the rest the money on lighting or another lens. Since macro is many times very magnification constrained, a small change in focus makes a big difference in your framing (Think 1 to 1). The 1-5x 60mm f/2.8 macro lens doesn't have AF for this same reason. This more of a problem at high magnifications levels than lower ones. But I think you get the picture....
Cheers,
John.
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