Comparing Canon 100mm Macro Lenses For Studio Beauty & Portrait Photography

Friday is my favorite day of the week: the sweet relief of the work week ending mixed with the tickling anticipation of the exciting weekend activities. I often shoot on weekends, so I do my final project preparations on Fridays too, which makes them even more fun.

That said, instead of posting anything serious, today I want to share something light and visual with you.

I have been shooting Beauty and Portraits with the original Canon 100mm Macro f/2.8 lens for about 4 years now, and over the years I have heard the question of “which 100mm Macro lens is better?” so many times I began to wonder too.

In 2009 Canon released their new Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, which was the first lens to incorporate their new Optical Hybrid Image Stabilization system which compensates for both rotational and linear camera shake. This was a newer and a better lens, but it was, unfortunately, double the price of the original Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM at the time.

I knew I needed this lens, but I simply did not have the extra half a grand laying around to buy the superior lens, so I went with the original, hoping to upgrade at some point further down the road.

The lens that I purchased, however, was so great that I was happily shooting with it, not ever feeling the need to move on to its fancier sibling, especially after I had a few opportunities here and there to shoot with the L-series lens and didn’t really notice any significant differences.

Last month, my friends from SLR Lounge offered to take the L-series lens for a spin, shoot with both and write an article about it with illustrations from my test shoot.

Naturally, I went into this test slightly biased towards my older, original 100mm Macro lens, but instead of telling you what my verdict was, I’d like for you to take a look at the images I photographed with both and see for yourself.

And before you move on to read my SLR Lounge article, just for fun, take a look at a few shots below and try to guess. You can click on the images to enlarge them. And then you will find the answers there: The Canon 100mm Macro vs 100mm Macro ‘L’ For Fashion & Beauty Photography at SLR Lounge.

Enjoy!

Click to Enlarge. Lauren of NOUS Models, Skin work by Lupe Moreno, Makeup & Nails by Vlada Haggerty, Photo & Post by Julia Kuzmenko

Click to Enlarge. Model Morgan of NOUS Models, makeup & nails by Vlada Haggerty, photo & post by Julia Kuzmenko

Click to Enlarge. Model Morgan of NOUS Models, makeup & nails by Vlada Haggerty, photo & post by Julia Kuzmenko