Canon 60mm or Tamron which one to go for ?

[coolnipu]

hi all,
I am planning to buy a macro lens and my budget is not too high. Now I am considering canon 60mm and Tamron 90mm. I read many reviews and it seems a tie to me. So can someone please suggest which one will be the right choice? Though I have a tripod but I am planning for hand held photography. And also I am planning to take pictures of butterflies and other insects as well. So if you consider the IS factor, sharpness, length of the lens, weight then which one will you recommend?

Thanks a lot for your time.

[PatrickH]

I'd opt for the longer focal length of the Tamron if you are considering insects. The 60mm Canon will have you up pretty close.

If you can stretch your budget just a bit more, I'd actually recommend the Canon 100mm 2.8 over both of the other lenses. The fact that it doesn't extend while focusing and superior image quality put it on top for me. I have had great results with it, both for portrait and macro applications.

None of these lenses utilize IS (The Canon L does), so you will either have to keep your shutter speed up (no too hard outdoors) or use a tripod. Honestly, even if I had IS on my lens I'd probably still use a tripod for a decent percentage of my macro shots. It makes it much easier to compose. Keeping your subject in focus at very close distances can be tricky without a tripod as the depth of field is very shallow. Even small movements forward or back can blow your focus. You can narrow your aperture to give you more depth, but then you will likely need the tripod to manage a low shutter speed.


Best of luck,


-Patrick

[Dave Throgmartin]

Using flash(es) can be very helpful with macro photography.

Dave