OK,  I said I was going to get a telephoto lens next but the more I looked at the Canon 100mm Macro lens, the more I wanted it ^^;  Well, technically it is a telephoto lens but not the type I originally had in mind ^^

The Canon 100mm Macro next to my 17-55mm (no hoods)

The main purpose of this lens, as the name implies, is for macro photography.  Macro photography refers to up close and personal photography, usually of very small objects.  Insects, spiders, and flowers are the most common subjects but just about anything can be viewed in a new perspective with macro photography.  Getting super close shots of every day objects such as an LCD screen or a piece of fruit can result in very interesting photos.

This little bugger was running really fast, hard to get a clear shot

Having played around with the lens for a couple of weeks now, I can say that macro photography can be quite challenging.  Getting adequite depth of field is the primary obstacle.  So you narrow the aperture to increase depth of field but this requires you to have more light which in turn requires a slow shutter or use of high ISO.

This guy was just sitting there, easy to photograph

Slow shutters are often not possible when trying to photograph insects or flowers blowing in the wind.  So you’re left with either trying to get more light through other means or jacking up the ISO to noise-inducing levels.

Dandelion that was blowing in the wind

I’ve been mostly using high ISO to get the shots I need but I have tried using my 40D’s on-camera flash.  It works decently but results in less pleasant looking images.  I know that there are flashes built specifically for macro photography but as with everything in photography, they’re pretty expensive :-/

Probably could have gotten closer but didn't want to get him angry...

A tripod may help if the subject is still but many macro subjects are not.  I’m still getting familar with the lens. The photos in my recent Kagamiku and Nagi Nendoroid posts were taken with this 100mm Macro lens so it does work quite well for figure photography.  I will be doing more photo shoots with this lens in the future ^^

My Z3 :3

One more nice thing about the 100mm macro is that it has infinite focus.  This allows it act as a normal 100mm lens for non-macro uses.  The above photo shows my car from about 20 feet away, taken with the Canon 100mm.

I’m really liking this lens so far.  It can make everyday objects a lot of fun to photograph.  Got it for pretty decent price since Canon has a rebate program going through July.  I still want a good telephoto zoom but I will be putting that off for a while, been spending too much lately ^^;