Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens

The Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens is a specialised macro photography lens for Canon EOS mount cameras.  It is a fixed focus lens ( by which I mean it only focuses at on point, which is dependent on what magnification setting you are using.  It does not allow you to back of and shoot to infinity like other lens eg Canon 100mm Macro Lens).  The lens enables the photographer to shoot from 1:1 right up to 5:1.  This on a full frame camera being from lifesize to five times life size.

Using this lens, especially at high magnifications, almost necessitates a form of flash lighting, to help stop camera shake and subject movement when used in the field.  The higher the magnification the less light reaches the camera and hence the exposure time is increased.  The Lens is at 1:1 F2.8 to F16.  This gives a fairly fine field of view, which diminishes as you increase the magnification.

The Lens is fairly small (around the size of Canons 100mm USM F2.8 Macro Lens) when the magnification is at 1x.

But as can be seen from the following picture is extends out to quite a size when fully extended to 5x magnification.

The lens does have some nice marking on the lens to show the magnification it is extended to, which can then be used to note what magnification is used.  Unfortunately this is not recorded on the EXIF data – which would be a nice improvement if it did, as remembering to note the size is not always practicable in the field.

Specifications From the Canon UK Website

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Product Specification Angle of view (horzntl, vertl, diagnl) 15°40′, 10°35′, 18°40′

Lens construction (elements/groups) 10/8

No. of diaphragm blades 6

Minimum aperture 16

Closest focusing distance (m) 0.24

Maximum magnification (x) 5.00

AF actuator –

Filter diameter (mm) 58

Max. diameter x length (mm) 81 x 98

Weight (g) 710

Magnification – Extension Tube EF12 II –

Magnification – Extension Tube EF25 II –

Lens hood –

Hard case –

Soft case LP1216

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