With the Canon 30D what gives superb results for Macro + Portrait photography

[Jimmy]

I will buy today a Canon 30D. Could someone recommend what lens to buy for macro + portrait photography. Should I stay with Canon or is a Sigma a possibility. I really need perfect results and can not be to heavy.

Thanks
Jimmy

[Anbesol]

sigmas will be more well priced but canon will give you better results.

[Jimmy]

Thanks for your help.

Jimmy

[Anbesol]

50mm is a good focal length for portraits, and sigma makes a prime 50 f2.8, it does a great job for macros - and would do very well for portraits too - quite a bit slower then other prime 50's in its class, most of them ranging from 1.2-1.8. Really, for you, i would say its a choice of speed or great macro, one or the other.

furthermore - are you talking about a single lens for both jobs? or are you talking about two different lens? because honestly, for what youre trying to accomplish you'd be better off getting two seperate lens.

[Jimmy]

I would like to buy 1 lens for both jobs, because that should be cheaper and easer to carry when traveling. What about the Canon lens? Is it better to spend some more money and buy a Canon lens instead of Sigma and which lens should I go for?
Thanks for you advice.

[Jimmy]

Could you tell me the difference between the Canon EF 50mm Macro or 50mm USM, please?
I don't know which lens is better and what does the USM do.
Thanks

[Photo-John]

Could you tell me the difference between the Canon EF 50mm Macro or 50mm USM, please?
I don't know which lens is better and what does the USM do.
Thanks

Jimmy-
I'm not so sure that Canon will be better than Sigma for what you want to do. They will likely both deliver the same results as far as image quality goes. The Sigma 105mm macro won a Choice Award here a couple years in a row. It is an excellent lens.

But because of the 1.6x digital crop factor on the 30D, I wouldn't recommend a 105mm lens for portraits. You'll have to be too far away to get your subject's face completely in the frame. A 50mm lens will work very well on the 30D. I actually have both the Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM and the Canon 50mm macro. Both are excellent lenses. But you can't do closeup photography with the 50mm f/1.8 USM or the 50mm f/1.4 USM. They will be excellent for portraits but no good for cloesup photography. The 50mm macro, on the other hand, will be excellent for both. I use the 50mm macro for portraits and for the closeup detail photos in the pro reviews on this site. Here's a portrait I shot with the 50mm macro:

[Jimmy]

Could you tell me what means USM, please?
Thanks

[mjs1973]

When talking about Canon lenses, USM means "Ultra Sonic Motor". It's a very fast, quiet motor inside the lens that is used to focus the lens. Much better than the standard type of focusing motor Canon uses in some of their lenss. Other companies have different names for their higher end motors, but Canon uses USM.

When talking about photo editing, USM means "Unsharp Mask". It's the name of one of the filters used in Photoshop, and other image editing software.

[Photo-John]

When talking about Canon lenses, USM means "Ultra Sonic Motor". It's a very fast, quiet motor inside the lens that is used to focus the lens. Much better than the standard type of focusing motor Canon uses in some of their lenss. Other companies have different names for their higher end motors, but Canon uses USM.

When talking about photo editing, USM means "Unsharp Mask". It's the name of one of the filters used in Photoshop, and other image editing software.

mjs1973-
Nice job differentiating between the two uses of USM! I wouldn't have thought of that. And I'm sure it's a source of confusion for a few people.

Jimmy-
About the Canon USM motor - it is better, but I don't think it will make much difference for either portraits of macro photography. Portraits don't generally require fast or quiet focus. Portrait work is slow work. And serious macro photography is even slower. In fact, it's usually better to just use manual focus or move the camera with a macro-focusing rail for tight closeup work. So I don't think you should worry about whether a lens has a USM motor for the type of work you're looking to do.