Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM for portraits too?

[manse]

For those of you with the 100mm f2.8 lens...

I'm thinking of getting a Canon Digital Rebel XT (body only) and a EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens.

The camera will be typically used for pics of my reef tanks and portraits of the kids.

Initially, I'm just going to buy the camera and the macro lens, with the intention of getting another lens after I get comfortable with the camera.

Can I get buy with just the macro lens in the meantime for taking portraits as well? Or should I really get another "everyday" lens right away?

I was going to get the camera with the kit lens, but I have been reading a lot of bad things about that lens.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

[louist]

The 100 macro is great for taking closeup portraits. However, if you wish to do plenty of general family portraits, a normal "everyday" lens would be a better and more convenient choice.

Photog's who use the 100 macro or longer focal length lenses for portraits tend to have specific goals in wanting to use this focal length. i.e. perspective compression, disguising a big/long nose etc. You will find an everyday lens to be much more convenient for general shooting.

Lastly, kids are fast creatures. The macro lens' AF is quite slow and thus more suitable for orchestrated portrait photography and not candids.

Sure, the kit lens can't compare to L lenses, but nor are their price in the same range. If budget is not an issue, then why not? Afterall, when one start out with nothing but the but gear, shortcomings in picture quality can't be blamed on the gear

 

[ahuxman58]

The 24-105MM L Lens is a very sweet all around lens takes very good shots for me.

 

[manse]

Yeah, but the 24-105MM L Lens costs almost as much as the camera and lens I was talking about...

How do you like the Vivitar 100MM 3.5 Macro?

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9404619#post9404619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by manse
Yeah, but the 24-105MM L Lens costs almost as much as the camera and lens I was talking about...

How do you like the Vivitar 100MM 3.5 Macro?

manse, sigma has a 70mm f2.8 macro which would be a little more servicable as a portrait lens after your 1.6x crop factor. The 100mm from canon is an excellent lens for macro photography, but if you're looking for something a little cheaper at that focal length, try the sigma 105mm f2.8...

 

[clippo]

I'd recommend the cheap Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII - this is also a good lens for starting aquatic photography.

 

[zenya]

I have Canon's 85mm f1.8 that I bought specifically for shooting portraits of my grandkids, not as cheap as 50mm f1.8 but it never disappointed me yet. I had shot some reef images with it as well and it too provided acceptable results. Oh, and I agree with Loius, the macro lens is much slower to focus in AF than a regular f2.8 lens.