Best Lens Recommendation

[bogino]

I am traveling to Costa Rica.  I have my Canon EF 70-300mm IS zoom lens for wildlife shots.  Which Canon lens would you recommend for shooting close-ups of plants, flowers, orchids..insects etc.  I use a Canon XTI by the way.  Thank You.

[yayas]

Tamron 90mm macro,
EF 100mm macro,
Tokina 100mm macro,
Sigma 105macro (some reviews say it's inferior lens compared to its competitors)

Shorter lens like EFS 60mm macro will likely scare the insects.
Longer than that, like Sigma 180mm Macro, will considerably cost more and heavier.

[Bob Atkins]

If cost is an issue, I'd get a 58mm Canon 500D closeup lens and use it with the 70-300is. It just screws on like a filter, and with the lens at 300mm you'll have a 0.7x macro lens with good working distance and Image Stabilization. Image quality will be good, but not quite as good as a true macro lens, especially at wider apertures.

For other choices see http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/macro_lenses.html. If you want a lens that goes to 1x. the EF-S 60/2.8 and the EF 100/2.8 are excellent choices. The 100mm will give you slightly more working distance and covers the full 35mm frame, while the EF-S 60mm is smaller, lighter and cheaper, but is designed for crop sensor cameras (like the XTi). Both are very sharp. The working distance (distance from subject to front of lens) is a about 4" with the Ef-S 60/2.8 at 1x. The EF 100/2.8 will give you about 6"