Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens
The Canon EF 50mm f/2Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens is one of those lenses that flies under the radar. Everyone is talking about the latest offerings from the lens manufacturers but this older lens is a great performer. It’s been around for a while and takes it’s time hunting for focus in autofocus mode but on a tripod, using manual focus for food or product photographer, this lens is amazingly sharp.
As one professional photographer put it: “It is used every day in our professional studio for commercial photography. Price is excellent. Image quality is tack sharp across a wider stop range than the Sigma 50mm macro. The Sigma goes 1:1 and is also tack sharp but not across as wide a stop range. This lens and Canon’s 100 mm macro is tack sharp for product photography.”
The Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 compact macro lens is lightweight and compact for general-purpose standard focal length shooting and for close-up 1:2 half-life size macro photography. A floating optical system enables sharp delineation at all focusing distances. With a large f/2.5 maximum aperture, the lens is effective in low light and provides shallow depth of field and its truly circular 6-blade diaphragm offers beautiful background blur.
Other Great Canon lenses for food and product photography:
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Fixed Lens
Bring small things into full-sized view with the Canon EF 60mm macro USM lens. Macro lenses can uncover detail that would be impossible to detect by the eye and give new perspective to extremely minute subjects such as insects or the petals of a small flower, and this lens is no exception. The 60mm lens offers an angle of view that’s equivalent to a 96mm lens on a 35mm camera, along with a floating optical system that can focus down to life-size 1:1 magnification. The inner focusing system, meanwhile, is driven by a silent and powerful ring-type ultra-sonic monitor (USM), meaning the lens’s overall length never changes during focus. Ultimately, the multi-purpose lens is equally at home shooting macro shots, portraits, or available-light photos. Like all Canon EF-S lenses, this lens is restricted to the EOS 20D, EOS Digital Rebel, and EOS Digital Rebel XT cameras.
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
The EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM has a true macro magnification ratio of 1:1, meaning the object you are photographing in real life is the same size as on your camera sensor. This versatile lens gives great results in portrait work and handheld movie-making, thanks to its ability to achieve a shallow depth of field with beautiful bokeh, along with built-in Hybrid Image Stabilization and lightweight design.