Product Highlights

• Includes Canon EF-S 18-200mm Lens
• 18MP APS-C CMOS Sensor
• 1920 x 1080 HD Video Capture
• SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card Slot
• Vari-Angle Clear View 3.0″ Flip-Out LCD
• DIGIC 4 Image Processor
• 5.3 fps Continuous Shooting
• Works with all Canon EF and EF-S Lenses
• ISO 6400 – Expandable to 12800
• HDMI Output to HDTV

Problem is, some people dislike the 18-200mm lens, saying that it’s great for shooting long ranges but not that good for short distances. Saying that in order to get the most superior photo quality for portraits, go for something that’s a PRIME lens. Knowing me, I already want the macro ring lens, macro lens, and the regular portrait lens. “By the way, the 18-200mm lens is a “walk-about” lens. It will NOT be sharp. It will NOT produce professional quality images. And it will NOT be bright when the lights get dim. It basically gives you wide and tele zoom as a compromise for lack of sharpness and dimness. Its better to buy primes for business and short zooms for practical work. However, I have 28-300mm and its great for traveling, events, etc. Just know, its not that sharp. ”

A friend of mine, Vince Field, wrote this as a message to me. He’s an expert ~

I. THE BASICS:

Macro isn’t included in a camera — so its a feature independent of the camera body. The reason why some Point-and-Shoot cameras have it is because they have built-in lenses. Therefore, it is the Lens which is critical to Macro, not the camera. Generally, with Macro, we are talking about capturing DETAILS. Details require good focus and MEGAPIXELS. Since you are going to use studio lighting, then you don’t need the best low-light camera, you just need a good studio camera. The T3i is out of the question, because of its poor focus and other issues. Normally people say don’t chase megapixels, chase overall quality. And that’s true — except for macro. For macro, you need as many megapixels as you can get, with the best focusing camera with most “studio” options you can get. The T3i is EXCLUDED. FORGET IT forever. You WILL get one of the following:

18 Megapixels Category
- 60D (18MP with a Great price and all-around features)
- 7D (18MP but Has lens micro-adust [for lenses that have calibration problems, a GREAT option if you are close-focusing, but not really “required”, because you can manually adjust focus for Macro)

21 Megapixels Category
- 5D MII ($2,500 – My STRONGEST recommendation, due to 21 Megapixels and fully professional body options — this can last you 5 years or more and pay for itself if you sell your work.)

Now, 18, 21 — your choice of the 3 — but lenses are critical.

II. THE LENSES:

There are 3 types of macro Lenses:

(1.) The first is a regular Macro lens, which does 1:1 (the image on the sensor is recorded at the same size as the actual item AT THE MIN. focus distance.. we call it a 1x Macro, true macro) — that is, if you have something right in front of the lens, its image is the same size as the object. The more number of pixels the camera has, the more detail is captured and the larger the image can be. Reaching 1:1 is critical for being a true macro lens.

(TRUE macro lenses: $1,000 – Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro ; $1,500 – Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro)

(2.) The second type of macro lenses are FAKE macro lenses — they are “close-up” lenses, but not true macro. They can take a picture very close to the camera lens — but its not really life-size on the sensor. Its the poor-man’s macro. Basically anything that focuses on an object closer than 12 inches from the lens can claim to be “macro” — but its really not, so don’t be fooled, unless it says “true macro 1:1 ratio”. (These are sort of like 0.__x macro — not true 1x macro, lower than 1x)

(FAKE macro lens: $289 Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro — but it does better than almost any other “non-macro” lens, so it basically cheats with its title.)

(3.) Specialty Macro lenses. These fall into two categories:

(3a.) Super-Macro: 1x – 5x macro — EXTREMELY SUPER UPCLOSE and short-working distance and generally great for nearly invisible details (think micro-scope level nearly).

(Super-Macro: $1,000 Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro)

(3b.) Tilt-Shift Lenses: THESE ARE THE MACRO LENSES OF CHOICE BY JEWELRY PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHERS! Most people are idiots and just buy any macro lens or anything labeled macro. Big mistake. Industry standards want the “entire” product in focus. They want the entire piece of jewelry in focus, the entire building in focus. Well……. if you are photographing at an angle and close to the object, then this is almost impossible. So for small studio work and very large objects, you need a tilt-shift lens. It “tilts” and “shifts” the cameras focus angle, so that you can make it “completely sharp” throughout a certain angle — whatever angle you are photographing at. Thus, your product image is thoroughly sharp. Unlike fake and true macro, which only gives a “sliver” of sharpness, tilt shift macro lenses give amazing results and tend to be the sharpest lenses made. They are very expensive. ( http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2826)

(Examples: $1,300~$2,400: Canon TS E Tilt-shift lens – 17 mm, 24mm, 45mm, 90mm, etc….

III. THE FOCAL RANGE:

Focal range is very important. As you probably know, anything 35mm or lower is “wide-angle” (distorted/stretched edges), 35-70mm is “normal” (about what the human eye sees), and 70+mm is “tele-photo” (flattened/compressed length dimension).

- Do not get a Macro lens that is less than 24mm. You will probably regret it. Especially if you work on very small objects. The reason is that its too wide. This is great for large buildings and landscapes, but poor for jewelry.

- Don’t get a Macro lens that is too long (over 90mm). While long macro lenses are EXCELLENT for photographing insects or animals (because you can stand back), the probably in buildings is that you push yourself too far away from your product and gear.

- I recommend any Macro lens between 35-90mm. 90-end if you have space. 35-end if you dont. 50mm is not a very artistic lens, it sees how the human eyes sees, so its not considered to be artistic at all. Around 70-105mm, in my mind, is perfect. So I would pick a number between there.

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