Advice requested - Which Macro Lens for Canon?

[Cantab]

Terri, have you bit the bullet on which macro to get? I was in my local store looking at the Canon 100mm L and the Tamron 90mm today. The initial question for me was whether to get the 100mm or 180mm but after reading the varied replies in this thread, I'll probably go for the 100.

As an aside, I have the 50mm compact macro and managed to use it with the 1.4 tele-extender by putting an extension tube between them.

[travis4567]

Tokina AT-X PRO D 100mm Macro
The best lens I have ever owned..

[DanK]

I read reviews. Both lenses seem to be good. The IS lens seems to win from the standpoint of the new (at the time) IS system but that only applies to subjects further away, not so much on macro work which is my main purpose. There's also the better weather/dust protection build which is always a good point but I am pretty careful with my equipment. I just don't know that much about how the difference between an L vs a non L series lens will show up in my photography.

This thread has been resurrected from the dead, but in case the OP is still monitoring it:

-- You mention bugs. For bugs, 100mm is superior to 60mm. I know this from experience--I have used both the EF-S 60mm macro and the 100mm L for years. Both are fabulous lenses, but the extra working distance with the longer lens helps with skittish critters. For flowers, the 60 is wonderful too.

--You are right about the hybrid IS. It gains you only perhaps 1.5 stops near minimum working distance. That is not trivial, but it does not matter if you are using flash or a tripod, and it probably does not matter too much if you are using a monopod. For truly hand-held work, every little bit helps, particularly at such short distances.

--I have never owned the non-L, but from all I have read, you won't notice a difference in image quality. I don't notice any difference between my L and my EF-S 60mm

--One thing I would insist on in a macro lens is full-time manual focusing. I leave AF on the back button and AF turned on on the lens barrel. That way, I can use AF and MF at the same time. E.g, I will sometimes use AF to get an approximate focus, then move the camera or lens barrel to fine-tune or to adjust for motion. I would not want to have to stop and switch AF on and off. All of the Canons have it. I don't know about other brands. I would also want internal focusing--that is, the lens does not extend when focusing. this is important to minimize motion that might scare a bug.

[compasiune]

I have owned the non-L USM version for quite a while...it's a pretty good macro lens, and is available relatively affordably on the used market. It is not a speed demon in terms of focusing, but it's a solid performer. My feeling about the non-L model is that its weakest characteristic is the sharp-sided bokeh rendering on out of focus points of light, on raindrops, and in foliage backgrounds; it produced very sharp-sided, and I think very ugly, geometric renderings on points of out of focus highlight matter...which can actually be pretty large expanses in many macro and close-up situations in the natural world (meaning outdoors).

I think the Tamron 90mm AF macro models have prettier out-of-focus rendering characteristics than the non-L Canon USM (I am referring to the second model of this lens...there was an older, NON-internal focusing 100/2.8 EF macro) EF Macro. Of course, not every scene will have OOF background highlights...but many times in the spring and summer, there WILL be backgrounds that have OOF points of light from a wide variety of subjects--water, foliage, the ocean, rain or dew drops, whatever...just something to keep in mind. I'm not familiar with the rendering characteristics of the new L-macro from Canon.
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[chauncey]

For a Canon shooter, I would submit that there is no better macro than is the 180 macro.
Their MTF charts show straight lines from middle to edge, comparable to their prime zoom glass.
I use that lens for macro/portrait/landscape/whatever...it has never failed me.

I know that evaluating a lens based on an internet image is an exercise in futility but...
show me another that can take the fuzzball handheld and the metric ruler using a tripod.