New toy

New toy

My long-awaited new lens arrived today (well, only long-awaited coz my stupid credit card company changed my address without asking me and then Canon wouldn’t ship it coz the billing and shipping addresses didn’t match- took a few days to clear up)– it’s a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM that I got a really nice deal on from the Canon refurbished store.

I have no problem buying refurbished from reputable sources like this, I figure it’s either been returned because someone didn’t want it, or it had a minor fault, but either way it’s probably been on a technicians bench and has been more thoroughly checked out now than a new one- and it’s way cheaper!

This lens is what they call a “prime” lens, that means it is a single focal length, no zoom; but it is also a “macro” lens, which means it focuses really close and takes awesome close-ups. It’s not an “L” series (Canon’s professional, wonderful, but very expensive lenses), but it uses the same USM (ultrasonic) focusing system, just like the 28-105 I got in trade last week, and it gets amazing reviews that say it’s as good (if not better) than an “L” lens.

Macro lenses tend to be very sharp as any faults would show up when photographing close-up, but this is also a very useful general purpose and portrait lens as it is the equivalent of a 96mm lens on a full-frame camera because of the 60D’s 1.6 crop factor.

Anyhow, I took it out to play with for the first time this afternoon, and so far it seems to live up to it’s reputation 🙂 There is definitely  going to be a learning curve to macro photography- especially lighting- but I’m looking forward to it. Here are a few of the first shots I took…

Little yellow flower- I used the on-camera flash which has created some blown reflections

The dog is getting a bit bored with having her picture taken 🙂

Jackie’s basil plant on the kitchen windowsill with just natural light

 Bud on the star magnolia in the columbarium- on camera flash

Star magnolia bloom, again using the flash

Tiny ants on a branch

Happy dog in the woods

Dog and tennis ball

I love this one, it’s moss growing on a rock in extreme close-up, so it looks like a weird, alien forest 🙂

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