C100: Macro lenses with good Dual Pixel AF results?

Right, got Rick's Canon Macro 100mm 2.8 L IS. Consider it sold.

Wow, what a lens. What a mind boggling lens.

Dual Pixel AF is 'okay' - it does get a little lost at times. I feel happier driving it in manual most of the time. But when you need it, when it's those little 'twinkle' shots, DPAF really helps.

But wow, how sharp is this thing!? Absolutely love, love, LOVE it.

And yes, LOL - great for portraits! Tested it over the weekend with an outdoor chromakey shoot. Smaller aperture, longer length, all helped resolve every last bit of fly-away hair.
 
MattDavis said:
Right, got Rick's Canon Macro 100mm 2.8 L IS. Consider it sold.

Wow, what a lens. What a mind boggling lens.

Dual Pixel AF is 'okay' - it does get a little lost at times. I feel happier driving it in manual most of the time. But when you need it, when it's those little 'twinkle' shots, DPAF really helps.

But wow, how sharp is this thing!? Absolutely love, love, LOVE it.

And yes, LOL - great for portraits! Tested it over the weekend with an outdoor chromakey shoot. Smaller aperture, longer length, all helped resolve every last bit of fly-away hair.
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I have found the L version of this lens is a lot better than the non L in my opinion. But it still tends to hunt too much....sometimes never finding the focus at all. I can be just a tad short of focusing on an object and the DPAF goes the wrong way.....very slowly. Then it gets to the end and comes back and get's closer but just stops. If I kick it off and zoom in just past the focus and let the DPAF find it, it seems to be ok.

It does feel like a great lens. Does your version clank a little when dismounted? Apparently the IS mechanism is free floating when you remove power and it can move around inside the housing. Most people report this, but some say theirs doesn't.
 
Yes, mine clanks too when dismounted. Worried me when I first got the lens soon after it was launched.

I have had a bit more time to play with it on my Canon C100 with DPAF now and, sure, what you report does sometimes happen with focus...no worries as there is always good old manual focus! Because of tnis behaviour, I would not totally rely on DPAF for any really critical one time only "money shots" with this lens - but then I have never relied on any auto focus system on my Sony, Panasonic and Canon cameras for those shots.
 
+1 on the 'Clank' - my loaner does it.

Reminds me of the HVX200 - though I believe it was more of a 'Clonk'. For a while, there was a habit of newbie baiting - whenever the inevitable thread started 'should mine be doing this?', there would be a dogpile of 'no, send it back!' answers before someone would work out (usually by searching FAQ) that of course it was fine.

Right. Now to negotiate a price to keep the loaner. LOL
 
Just finishing up a shoot for a client where I needed extreme closeups of their products shot in a creative way. I had a turntable and with the 100mm Macro, I was able to get some amazing shots. I manually focused only half of the time. I let the DP auto focus do its job and I'd say 90% it was spot on. the products were sometimes only 5-6 inches in front of the lens and when it would rotate that would vary but a few inches as parts came towards the lens. It behave like a champ and basically rack focused on it's own. Color me impressed. This lens is great. Now....I'd like to test it on some interviews or shooting portrait style shots. I'd love to see that.

To be clear, at extreme macro distance, the 100mm autofocuses at a slower, more natural looking rate than most other lenses I've tried at longer distances. This lens produces very natural rack focus pulls, but unfortunately you need to doing macro work to see this.
 
bengiles said:
.....Here are some pics from series I cut back in 1999 at Pinewood with the Star Wars model team.....

View attachment 85203View attachment 85204

Funny in hind sight, but she was a monster to live with...

Ben.
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I just love how you nonchalantely dropped that into conversation and then moved past it....details of this experience Ben.....DETAILS.

If ever a topic deserved a meander off the beaten path....this would be it.
 
What would you like to know? I find it hard to pitch views on this forum, as I lived a previous existence as a broadcast film editor and often assume - sometimes wrongly - that others have similar experiences and backgrounds.

I'm also away on location at the mo, but will happily jot some thoughts when I return on Sunday.

Ben.
 
Well just wanted to know how it felt to be working on/working in a place with so much Film history....great experience it must have been on that point alone.

Had a nephew who once went to a Bond Convention In Pinewood where he got a lovely snap with Britt Ekland....that's the closest I wil ever get to it....was a fan of Bond and just finished reading a Biography on Cubby Broccoli which was very interesting.
 
The 100mm L Macro is an awesome lens.

Shot this on the Sony FS7Q + Canon 100mm Macro L using 4K RAW to HD finish. Lots of shots cropped in for a "Super" Macro.

 
Well, got back from first 4 day shoot. The 100mm 2.8 L USM Macro performed brilliantly.

Following up on Icicle22's experience, Dual Pixel AF is great - but get this: you can manually focus whilst AF is on! In fact, there's an odd feel where you can whip the focus to where it should be, then it sort of takes over - you can feel it. If it starts to drift (again, you can feel it), you can nip that back a bit.

The image stabilisation was absolutely essential - things moving too fast in too cramped an environment to be using a tripod. C100 ideal for this, being small with 'downsampled 4K' richly detailed look, though I also had a GoPro3+ for 'reverse angle' shots. Tokina 11-16 was used too.

The challenges were more around the odd light sources used alongside lots of daylight, and that I had to shoot European fluoros at US 29.97fps frame rates - again, Canon C100 flawless in this tricky situation, GoPro footage needed some deflickering. Shot a day's worth of GVs in Paris using 550D and 18-135 - far more positive reaction when asking permission than if I'd gone with even a C100.

Lots of 'sizzle reel' stuff to insert... So sorry can't share footage until October, though. LOL

Some reviewers of the 100mm 2.8 L USM IS tend to be a bit harsh with the high cost and superfluous IS. Odd. It was the manual override of AF and the super steady IS that make this a great VIDEO lens.
 
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