I'm curious, why with the advent of IS technology hasn't Canon considered adding that to their macro lenses? It would seem this technology would benefit macro photography, while I doubt IS could ever replace a good macro rail, is it possible they could improve on it to get some good hand held shots that can't be obtained except through luck with a tripod and rail setup. Such as the interaction of flying insects with flowers: you can't predict if a bumble bee is going to land on your flower of choice, however, you can go to the bumble bee.

But maybe I'm overlooking something here, I welcome any thoughts on this subject.

-- Bill Meyer (william_meyer@stortek.com), May 17, 2000

Answers

Most of the deep pocketed camera buyers (press photographers, etc) don't do macro. So an IS macro lens won't significantly boost the sales or image of Canon.

-- Chuck (chaohui@msn.com), May 17, 2000.

Macro is indeed any area that can benefit quite a bit from IS. The problem is that IS requires a few elements that can move around to compensate camera/lens movement. Most macro lenses are small and quite compact already. Finding room for those lens elements is a bit of an engineering challenge although I would imagine that it is merely a matter of time those difficulties will be overcome.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), May 17, 2000.

An upgrade of the EOS 180/3.5L macro to include IS would be useful, IMO. FWIW, the 300/4 IS plus 1.4TC is a great "telephoto macro", even without an extension tube (but a tube is on my short list for this lens combination).)

-- kurt heintzelman (heintzelman.1@osu.edu), May 17, 2000.

I can not see very clearly the advantages of IS for macro work. Let's check usual situations. 1. You are out photographing butterflies or whatever flying from flower to flower. You either use flash to catch the bugger, or don't, and in the latter case you end up with slow shutter speeds to get the DOF you want. IS might help here, but remember that the subject might still move, so flash would probably be more efficient. Or if you wake up very early and use a tripod to catch the said buggers still inactive, you won't need any of the above. 2. Photographing inactive subjects, such as flowers, coins, stamps, you name it. I can not imagine doing this without a tripod, and again IS will not stop the wind. I always try to photograph flowers in the shade, to lower the contrast and boost the colours. Or else profit from bright and hazy cloud cover. What I know is that I end up with f/32 and exposure times around 1/2 to 1 second, with the 180 macro.

I might be wrong, and probably am, but for my style of macro photography, IS would not be very helpful. The 300 f/4 IS is a good close-up photography lens (not true macro) because it focuses close, not because of IS.

-- Paulo Bizarro (pbizarro@cggp.pt), May 22, 2000.

My macro photography is mainly flower close ups. Typically I shoot at f11, 16 or 22 to get the depth of field. With ISO 50 or 100 film, I frequently shoot at 1/15 sec or 1/8 sec with mostly stationary subjects (although flowers do vibrate in the wind). Hence IS/VR would be very helpful.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), May 22, 2000.

Paulo, a lot of my macro photography is done with the sun out, even at small apertures I've still obtained decent shutter speeds. I have some pictures of bumble bee's flying around some lupine, they look decent but some blur from camera shake is noticeable, this has happened around other little buggers I've tried to get pictures of, hence why I felt IS/VR would be beneficial to macro lenses. Let me also state that I am not shooting at 1:1, I don't think any IS could help at that magnification...

-- Bill Meyer (william_meyer@stortek.com), May 22, 2000.

If you are using a tripod and shooting a static object, IS will NOT help you. The lens won't correct for movement in the subject no matter how much it flops around in the wind. IS will benefit you with hand-held shots and while panning on a tripod but will not eliminate camera shake due to mirror slap or a breeze.

-- Chris Ober (caober@ev1.net), May 24, 2000.

Actually, IS will correct for mirror slap and wind-induced tripod movement in the newer IS lenses that allow tripod use. Read George Lepp's article in the March, 2000 issue of Outdoor Photographer.

I've recently shot a number of handheld flower macros with the 28-135 IS and a 500D, with quite good results at 1/30 & 1/60. I'd love to see a 180 macro with IS.

-- Danny Weber (danny_weber@compuserve.com), May 24, 2000.

Isn't Lepp under contract with Canon? His articles always read like Canon ads...

-- Scott (bliorg@yahoo.com), May 25, 2000.