CANON EF-S 60mm f/2.8 MACRO USM

£350/$420 Purpose built for APS-C format cameras, Canon’s only EF-S macro lens is a lightweight contender

Like the Tamron 60mm lens also on test, this Canon EF-S lens is designed exclusively for D-SLRS that have an APS-C format image sensor. Taking the 1.6x crop factor into account, the lens has an effective focal length of 96mm, while still delivering a full 1.0x magnification factor at its closest focus setting. The minimum focus distance itself is rather shorter than Canon’s 100mm macro lenses, at just 20cm instead of about 30cm.

Bearing in mind that the focus distance is measured from the focal plane near the rear of the camera, this brings the risk of the front of the lens being quite close to the subject. In its favour, the Canon has a fully internal focusing mechanism, so the front element doesn’t extend at shorter focus distances. At full magnification, there’s a distance of 9cm between the front of the lens and the subject. The upshot is that the lens doesn’t obscure light even from the pop-up flash of a fairly small camera such as the 750D.

Performance

The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is quick and quiet, with the usual full-time manual override. Manual focusing is reasonably precise with the full travel of the focus ring taking just less than half a turn. Sharpness is good rather than great across most of the aperture range, but a little disappointing at both the wide and narrow ends. Colour fringing and distortion are minimal and overall performance is respectable.