Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

AMAZING! I bought this lens predominantly for close-up work but its sharpness, clarity and colour rendition is so good that I can't help using it as a general purpose lens, it's THAT good! Of course the fixed focal length is not ideal as a walk around, but I use it whenever I can. In fact my EF 24-85mm (f/3.5-4.5) is now all but redundant for most of the time.

It's also excellent as a portrait lens, given that it's focal length of 60mm translates to an ideal 96mm equivalent (35mm terms) on a 1.6x Canon cropped sensor. The fast f/2.8 aperture also comes into it's own here, especially if you are more familiar with slower speed zooms. The Bokeh is also excellent.

Build quality is much higher than the run-of-the mill, lower budget models in the Canon range. It's no L series of course, but think of it as a "budget L" without the red line or the weather and dust sealing, and you won't be far off the mark! It also has Canons ring-type USM motor, so you can manual focus while in AF mode. The MF ring is smooth with good resistance and no slack. AF isn't the fastest, but it's far more convenient to MF in macro situations anyway and to be fair most macro lenses suffer with this problem due to their focus range, but it's not an issue for me.

For my purposes this lens combined with a short-range wide angle zoom and a quality 70-200mm tele-zoom would be perfect.

The EF-S 60mm Macro comes very highly regarded and recommended from me. Having said that, virtually all macro lenses give excellent results, whether they're mainstream Nikon or Canon models, or independents from Tokina, Tamron or Sigma. Basically, you won't be disappointed if you go for any of the above.

In summary then, this is a high quality, very sharp, fast and beautifully made lens, so go get one!

Thanks for reading.