Canon MP-E 65mm f/2 – Unbeatable

I bought this with some trepidation. Having read every review i could find, some people said it was unusable handheld beyond ~2x magnification. I must state clearly this is not true. With a good flash (i use the 600ex-rt), you can go to 5x, though iso of up to 3200 may be required, depending on the situation. It *does* show up every speck of dirt and oil on your sensor – i had never seen any before, but even a clean chip will show dust with this lens on a bright background. This is unavoidable, but not a big problem in my opinion (and not a fault with the lens). The mp-e will open new worlds. I have tried various combinations of lenses, extenders, reverse macro setups, and this is the best solution for going beyond 2x that i have found. Image quality is excellent within the bounds of optical possibility, and it is a lot more portable and convenient than anything else i’ve tried. I haven’t found adding extenders on is worthwhile – softness is limiting, and you may as well crop an image taken with the lens alone (though some others seem to make this lens work with the canon ef extender 1.

Before you read this review make sure you’ve read the other excellent and informative reviews on amazon. I won’t cover old ground but hope to make a few things less foggy to potential buyers of this lens. By now you probably have already bought or used (or are thinking of buying) a canon 100mm macro and now want to take things further. I love the 100mm l is and the mp-e is the perfect partner. The 100mm has is to be sure (which is great, even at 1:1 and that does make a difference), is damn sharp and light. But where the mp-e shines is that it starts at 1:1 and goes all the way to 5:1 (and is as sharp if not sharper than the 100mm). The focal length of 65mm means it’s not too hard to take sharp shots (with good light of course, but more on that later) at 1:1 without the need for image stabilisation. The downside is that this has no autofocus at all, choose your magnification of choice and move the lens back and forth to focus, more tricky but you quickly get used to it. Another caveat is that this lens has a maximum as well as minimum focusing distance and cannot focus to infinity. This means that larger subjects such as dragonflies are the domain of the 100mm macro and other lenses.

I had to think hard before investing in this lens – as it is an expensive purchase. But i am delighted with the quality of the initial results. With a steady hand it is possible to get good results at up to 2 times multiplication – for anything greater than this you will need to use a tripod. There is no autofocus with this lens so you will need to manually focus all your shots – i have invested in a focusing rack/positioning plate to help get objects in crisp focus. Trying to gauge how close to get to a subject to take a picture can be tricky at first and you will need lots of patience for ultra close ups of insects. It is a solid and well made lens that is a bit heavy and does extend to a bulky length – these are not criticisms but just to advise this is not a light/compact lens. If you can afford it then do buy one – you will be delighted at the results and the magnification possible. This lens really has opened up macro photography to another level for me.

The canon mpe6528 mp-e65mm has an extremely solid and hefty feel to it weighing it at almost three quarters of a kilo. The lack of any focusing ring is not an issue as your dealing at such close proximity to the subject. The use of a ring flash with this lens is almost mandatory as the depth of field is miniscule even at f16 and above. Also the use of a tripod is recommended. The quality of the images, as expected with a canon, is exceptional. I’ve been using the lens for insect photography and i’ve still not managed to achieve an exposure of more than 3x as focusing at anything beyond this takes a huge amount of effort and patience. Still, i would highly recommend this lens for extreme macro photography. In reality there is nothing else like it.

Nothing much to add to already well written feedbacks that i fully support. Just want to add another 5-stars to this excellent lens.

This lens is a must have for anyone wanting to do macro photography. It is a big lens and the pictures are out of this world, so close up, you can really get in a bug’s faceit takes a little practice and a steady hand or tripod but when you start taking pictures you will be blown away.

• extreme close up quallty

• A microsocpe lens

• A superb Canon x1-x5 magnifying macro lens

It is a nice lens, it is very good if you use it on a canon 5d mark ii, instead of a lower model. You can see the results of the pictures as i have taken them on a canon 450d, after a while i bought a 5d mark ii. Which has better results and steadier pictures. If you have a 450d you will love the results, but if you can upgrade to a 5d, this makes the lens much better. Although people take good pictures with other cameras.

I’ve been using the mpe for about seven months and it’s nothing less than an amazing bit of kit. I haven’t experienced it being too heavy though, like some other reviewers and i use it for at least four hours, most days. I usually also combine it with extension tubes and extenders and it’s still not too heavy. So don’t worry about the weight.Bear in mind, x5 is just the start of what can be achieved. I’m regularly down at x17 quite happily. Have a look if you’re interested- [.

I had been reading up on this lens for quite a while till i finally bought it. The price was what i would consider a little high purely for fun photography. However i finally bought it and must say it has been used an awful lot of the time. The quality is stunning but i have to say to get the best out of it you shall have to take up stacking. The depth of field is so narrow that i really don’t think you have a choice. As my main field of photography is floral it turns out wonderful shots of stamens and extreme close ups of tiny flowers. The build quality is all you would expect of a canon product but do remember this is a manual lens so no auto focus. As i use my camera and lenses on tripods then i would not know about trying to photograph handheld but i would expect it to be very difficult and an awful lot of practice would be needed. For my kind of use i can wholeheartedly endorse this lens.

This is a fantastic lense,its not really suited to beginners,but can give an experienced photographer stunning images,a macro flash would be highly recommended because it struggles to gather light on its own,moving to 5x magnification results in extremely low light levels,an mt24-ex flash is the perfect partner for this lense. There is no auto focus or even a focu ring,it would be useless anyway,a macro focusing rail would be very useful to help get the best out of this lense because the field of focus is extremely shallow,in short its a stellar lense that requires some knowledge to get the best out of it,but with a little effort it can return images that are simply stunning. Its truly a unique lense,recommended.

I’ve used this lens now for about 3 years and can say with 100% confidence that this piece of kit is capable of some stunning images (most of the images on this site were taken with the 7d/mpe-65 combo. the initial learning curve is quite steep but after a few weeks/months of practice what seemed like an impossible feat becomes almost automatic. I regularly take macro images at x4 and x5 in the field handheld. What you need to know:1) the lens doesn’t autofocus – you focus manually by moving the camera (lens) forwards and backwards until the image is in sharp focus. You increase magnification by manually extending the barrel. 2) at x1 it’s ‘relatively’ easy to find a good focus but at x4/x5 takes a bit of practice because there is only ~/. It can also become quite dark down the viewfinder3) ideally you need a camera with a bright viewfinder because of (2) above, but any canon dslr will be ok4) you will need a flash – mt-24ex is the one i use – and set the camera to manual: f/11, 1/250s, iso 100, and approx. -2/3 flash exposure value (fev) should work well on the 7dpros:the lens is incredibly sharp and can deliver macro images of unbelievable quality and unique perspective. It’s good value for money considering how much you pay for l-lenses. ]

Features of Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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• Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 compatible with Filter Size – 58mm

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Im really impressed with how solid and well build this lens is. At 5x magnification the lens is extended out and really long but it still fells solid. It hard to use (or to get the point of focus right) because of the high magnification. To get sharp photos you really need to either use a tripod or a dedicated flash or ideally both. Anyway its really fun to play with and you can get some very interesting results – especially if you are interested in small bugs.

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 compatible with Filter Size –

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Unbeatable

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