Canon 180mm f3.5 L Macro Lens Review

Home > Blog Posts > Lens Review > Canon 180mm f3.5 L Macro Lens Review


Contents: Build Quality | Focusing | Bokeh | Sharpness | Color Rendering | Conclusion


lily pad ii

I had originally purchased the Fringer EF-FX Pro II autofocus adapter for my Fujifilm cameras with the intention to use it with the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary telephoto lens for birding and wildlife photography. It has served fantastically in that function, but having the capability to adapt Canon EF and EF-S lenses, I of course got curious about the EF lineup.

I then found out about the Canon EF 180mm f3.5 L macro lens and had to have it as it combines two of my favorite lens types: telephoto and macro. For me, for my style of photography, this unique (and probably very niche lens for most people) is an absolute dream team of reach and macro magnification. Being an L-series lens, the color reproduction, bokeh characteristics, sharpness, detail, and overall image rendering is superb.

This is reportedly one of Canon’s sharpest lenses in the EF lineup, and after using it for several months, through this spring and summer, it lives up to that reputation. And, as all macro lenses should do, it’s sharp at every part of its range, from infinity to its minimum focus distance at 1:1 macro reproduction.

busy little ant
tiny purple flowers
dandelion seeds

Build Quality

This lens is built like an absolute tank. All metal and glass. Equally robust feeling as it is hefty. It weighs in at an impressive 1090g, or nearly 2.5lbs. When I’m out and about with this lens I attach the strap to the tripod collar instead of the camera body, as I generally do with all of my large, heavy telephoto lenses. Gear weight doesn’t bother me personally, and I’ll take durability over light weight in most instances. The weight, however, might be a point of consideration for other photographers.

weave, macro
lichen i
grasshopper on a leaf

Focusing

This is an autofocus macro lens, and as such comes with some caveats. The autofocus performance is slow. I use it with a smart adapter and non-Canon bodies, so that might contribute to the autofocus performance, but this lens has a reputation for slow autofocus around the internet. It is likely the amount of mass moving the distances that it has to move from infinity to its minimum focus distance of 0.48m is more the culprit.

The ability of this lens to latch onto focus is good. It’s not always accurate, sometimes it requires some help manually getting it close, but it does a good enough job. Again, this could be a byproduct of my adapting the lens, but it is an autofocus macro lens released in the mid 1990s, so it might just be the nature of the lens to have less than stellar focus performance. Even saying that, the lens performs well enough that I’m not missing critical shots, and the focus is usually close enough to produce good results.

Bokeh

The character of the bokeh is very nice. It tends to be very smooth, and doesn’t have much in the way of vintage “character” like soap bubbles, mechanical vignette, etc. The falloff from in-focus to out-of-focus is also very smooth and pleasant.

Sharpness

This lens, when it nails focus, is damn fine. It captures fantastic levels of detail and keeps up just fine with a modern 24mp APS-C sensor. It absolutely lives up to its lineage as an L-series lens as well as its reputation as one of Canon’s sharpest EF lenses ever produced. This sharpness seems to be across the board as well, from infinity to its minimum focus distance in the macro reproduction territory. Just damn fine performance in sharpness and detail.

lily
red grasshopper
butterfly

Color Rendering

Combined with the Fringer EF-FX Pro II autofocus adapter and mounted up to a Fujifilm X-S10 body, this lens produces some of my favorite color rendering for nature photography that I’ve seen so far. The greens and reds in particular are vibrant and bold, and when working with the raw files there’s very minimal color manipulation that needs to be done. This lens is damn fine regarding color rendering. Probably my favorite so far regarding nature shots

Conclusion

Overall, I'm very happy with this lens. It fits a niche that I've worked myself into with my recent photographic output, and absolutely excels at that niche. The colors, sharpness, quality of bokeh, the robust build all add up to a superb lens that is an absolute joy to use. I highly recommend the lens for anyone that does macro photography with a camera/adapter that will take EF lenses, needs (or wants) a little extra working distance, and doesn't mind the heft and size. A great example of why the L-series lenses are so legendary.

Written on Wednesday, 17 July 2024, by Aaron Brown. Last edited on


Recent Posts: