Just heard a friend of mine (professional photographer) complaint that the above lens focuses at an amazingly slow speed? True?? i personally disagree...

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), May 15, 2002

Answers

Based on the discussion here:

http://www.photo.net/canon/180-macro

yes, the autofocus on the 180 macro is slow. But I doubt any other macro lens in the same range could do any better. The reason is that macro lenses going from 1:1 to infinity, even with ring USM, will focus slower than other lenses. They have to travel a lot longer. Using the focus limiter switch helps cut down on travel/focus time.

-- Peter Phan (pphan01@hotmail.com), May 16, 2002.

The 180mm macro does autofocus much more slowly than most other Canon USM lenses. The 100mm macro USM, in contrast, autofocuses as fast as most other USM lenses. The 180mm still autofocuses fast enough with the focus limiter enagaged, as mentioned above, to be useful for many non-macro applications. When the lens starts to hunt, however, it takes at least a second to recover.

-- AC Gordon (cgordon@stx.rr.com), May 16, 2002.