Eric Hopp

Hi William: Interesting perspective on the 12mm extension tube for the 85mm lens. I'm always shooting roses, and geraniums in my garden. I can always try out the very small flowers with tiny bugs in them, and see what I can get. I'm open to all kinds of flowers. I have never used extension tubes before. I'll certainly research the extension tubes for macro photography. Thank you.

H Dustin: I do have some old Canon FD cameras and lenses. Maybe I'll look into an FD macro lens. :)

Hi and thank you JDMvW: That is sort of the argument that I'm seeing with both lenses. Both will excel with their individual characteristics--the 85mm with low-light shooting, and the 100mm for macro capabilities. I will have to look into the Tamron 90mm lens for specifics and reviews.

Hello: I would like to upgrade to a Canon prime telephoto lens. I'm shooting with a couple Canon 40D cameras, with my lens collection being a Canon 10-18mm, 28-105mm f3.5-4.5, a 70-210mm F3.5-4.5, a 24mm STM pancake lens, and a 50mm 1.8 STM lens. My style of shooting is a run-and-gun, photojournalism style, but I also like to take pictures of flowers. I shoot mainly hand-held, and rarely use a tripod. I would like to get a Canon prime telephoto, to complement my 24mm pancake and 50mm lenses. I am looking at both the Canon 85mm f1.8, and the Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lenses. Both are the non-L lenses. As much as I like the quality of the Canon L lenses, they are just priced beyond my budget. The problem I have is that I can see advantages and disadvantages between both the 85mm and 100mm macro. I love the compactness of the 85mm lens, and its fast speed of f1.8, over that of the 100mm macro's f2.8. I can see the 85mm lens would be great for lower-level light shooting, especially as I'm hand holding the camera. However, the 85mm lens has no macro capabilities. That is the big advantage of the 100mm macro, as I also enjoy shooting flowers. Finally, I would say that I'm sort of 50 percent shooting general purpose photography, and 50 percent shooting flowers. It will depend on where I will be going to shoot. Weather-wise, we are approaching spring time, which the flowers will be starting to bloom--perfect for a 100mm macro lens. Or I can get some good, hand-held sunset pics with the 85mm lens. Which should I purchase first? Or should I just break the bank, and purchase both?

Hi Ron: If you are happy with how the Canon DSLR camera and lenses feels in your hands, how you shoot, and are comfortable with the Canon menu system, then stay with Canon. You have a nice starter selection of lenses with the 50mm, the 24mm pancake, and 55-250mm telephoto. I have both the 50mm F1.8 and 24mm pancake lenses, and I love them. They are so small to toss into a daypack, or messenger bag to go shooting. If you are looking at a lens upgrade, I'd pick up something in a wide-to-telephoto, such as a Canon 24-105mm L lens, or an EF-S 18-135mm lens. I have a Canon EF 28-105mm lens that I always seem to go to first when I'm taking pictures. It is like my go-to, walk-around lens. Another potential lens upgrade for a crop camera body is the Canon EF-S 10-18mm ultrawide lens. It is an almost L quality lens, at a very good price. It is a great lens to take landscape photography, or even to move in closer for a different, slightly distorted perspective. In terms of a second Canon camera body, there are a wide range of flavors, from new and used crop and full-frame bodies. Try to determine what you need for features and improvements in a second body--higher ISO, or faster frames-per-second, weather sealing, video capability, and then determine what you are willing to budget for a second camera body. Camera bodies often become obsolete after two or three years, when Canon and Nikon bring out their latest and greatest---better than all those older camera bodies. Of course, there may be nothing wrong with the older camera bodies, as they may still have plenty of life in them, and you can pick them up for a song--they just do not have all the latest and greatest features. As with used camera equipment, there are a lot of good quality used lenses and camera bodies that you can pick up for less than a new equivalent. You just have to be careful at what you are looking at, what your photographic needs are, shop carefully and ask questions to the seller about the merchandise they are selling. Look at the customer reviews on eBay and Amazon on both the camera products and the seller. And it is not just cameras and lenses, but also tripods, camera bags, flashes, studio lighting--just about everything. Shop smart.

I would say that it really depends on your shooting style. My first DSLR camera was a Canon 40D, and I purchased a used EF-S 18-55mm lens just to see what I can do with a digital SLR camera. It is a fun little lens to shoot, with decent image quality. You also have a zoom range from a little bit wide angle to short telephoto, crop range of 28-88mm. That is not a bad range to determine whether you are shooting more wide, or more telephoto. You could then upgrade to better quality Canon lenses. The big advantage of an EF-S 18-55mm is the price. You can pick up good quality, used EF-S 18-55mm lenses on Amazon.com for around $40-50. I think I paid $100 for my used lens about two years ago. I do not have a Canon 35mm F2 prime lens. However, I do have a couple Canon primes, in an EF-S 24mm pancake lens, and a 50mm f1.8 STM lens. On a crop camera body, your 35mm prime will be the equivalent of a 56mm lens. The image quality will be much higher on a 35mm lens, than the 18-55mm. A second big advantage of the 35mm prime is the speed at F2, allowing you to shoot hand-held images in lower light than the 18-55mm lens, which has a slower variable aperture of 3.5-5.6. But that also comes with a price tag. A new Canon 35mm F2 lens is priced on Amazon.com at around $550, with used lenses going for $460. You will get a quality lens at a price. I like both zooms and primes for two different reasons. I like zoom lenses as they provide a variety of focal lengths for when I want to shoot a subject from wide angle to telephoto. With prime lenses, I have to use my feet as a zoom. However, I like prime lenses for their faster, fixed aperture over that of the variable apertures that you will find in most zooms. That is the big trade-off between zooms and primes. I still have my 18-55mm lens, though I do not use it as much. It is still a fun lens to play around with now and then.