Canon 100 2.8 L or 70-200 IS II L with 12 or 25mm extension tube

[florian]

Hi everybody,

I hope someone already compared it and can help me decide.
The 100L is a very good lens, I had it a few years before and it was one of my favorite, because all my other lenses were not very fast at this time, but I had to sell it and I´m not sure if I really need it again.
Now I got the 70-200 IS II and will get the 24-70 II soon, both with 2.8 so fast enough for me on my 5D III.

My question would be if the qualitiy of the pictures with one of the two lenses with Canon extension tubes will be close to the 100L marco lens.
I know I´ll loose infinity focus but with most Macro pictures it´s not shot and go like in a city.

And the second thing I have to decide is what to do about strobes.

I do have the new 600 Speedlight and I´m not yet sure if I can live with it or should get a macro flash.
I would mostly go for flowers and occasionally a insect if I get a good one close enough.

Did someone compare the two Canon macro strobes and maybe another good and not to expensive vendor?
And did someone get a good result with the LED lights ?
I´m not sure about the LED´s, also thinking about getting one for Video, but I´m curios about the Colors.

Thanks a lot to everybody for your help

[SwissBear]

All i can talk about is macro&flash: i own a 600D and a 580ii, my trick is to use the built in flash to trigger the handheld 580 as a slave - works quite nice, even better if i can grab a third hand Sometimes the built-in reflector, the 14mm plate or a sheet of white paper are handy to get a bit better light.

AFAIK the 5diii has this built in wireless trigger, so it should work similar

[TexasBadger]

The 5D3 does not have a built in wireless trigger.

[neuroanatomist]

I haven't compared (though I do have the 100L, the 70-200 II, and a 25mm tube).  But an extension tube has no optics, so you simply lose infinity focus and a little bit of light.  Any flaws in the lens are magnified slightly, but the 70-200 II has so few...  I did compare the 100L with the 70-200 II + 500D close-up lens, and found no meaningful difference in real-world shots.  The close-up lens delivers higher magnification - 0.6x at 200mm, vs. just 0.36x with the 25mm tube at 70mm. 

As for the flash, the Canon MT-24EX is a better option than the MR-14EX - the latter is a bit flat, great for documentary images but allows less creativity. 

Another option is similar to the handholding mentioned above, but no 3rd hand needed - I've used a Manfrotto 233B telescoping flash bracket with a Giottos MH1004 mini ball head on the end, attached a flash (430EX II) via an OC-E3 cord, and that does very nice for macro shots.  The bracket+ballhead allows the end of the flash to be placed right at the end of the lens hood, or extended further to light the subject from the side or behind.  The setup cost me ~US$140, and over half of that was for the Canon OC-E3 cord - a 3rd party option there would bring the cost under $100, and the bracket is useful for portraits as well (it's main purpose, actually).

The following was shot with that setup on a 7D:


EOS 7D, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/60 s, f/8, ISO 400, 430EX II on Manfrotto 233B flash bracket via OC-E3

Heck, depending on what you're shooting, you can skip the flash.  If you have a static scene, try a reflector.  Here's a shot done 'on the cheap' (the goal was to illustrate a minimalist approach), and I liked the way it turned out.


EOS 5D Mark II, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 6 s, f/5, ISO 100

Desipte the 6 s exposure, no tripod was used.  The 'reflector' was a gold-toned plastic charger.

[florian]

Thanks I think I´ll try with the Manfrotto 233B. looks like a lot cheaper solution then the 24EX.
Very nice picture (wine) with this easy setup.