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Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM - Review / Lab Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (APS-C)
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Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2006
Special thanks to Thomas Schaefer (Homepage) for providing this lens!
Introduction
The Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM is one two classic portrait tele lenses that remain
easily within the financial reach of most amateurs. There're quite frequent
discussions in the various Canon web-forums whether to prefer this lens or its
more popular sister - the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM.
Released back in 1991 the EF 100mm f/2 USM is obviously a full frame lens but as
usual we'll have a look how it performs on a mainstream APS-C DSLR where its field-of-view
is equivalent to 160mm.
The optical construction is made of 8 elements in 6 groups without any special elements (which
aren't really common in this lens class anyway). The lens features 8 aperture blades.
The filter size is 58mm. At 460g it is still a very light-weight lens and with a dimension
of 75x71.5mm it's also quite compact. A lens hood is available as an optional item.
The build quality is very good indeed despite an outer shell made of (solid) plastics.
The focus ring feel pretty smooth without any significant wobbling.
The lens features a ring-type USM AF drive (rear focusing) with full-time manual focusing
in one-shot AF mode. AF speed feels extremely fast with this lens. The minimal focus distance
is 0.9m resulting in a max. magnification of 0.14x (~1:8).
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