New 50mm Compact Macro on the Way? [CR1]

[arcer]

CM = "compact macro"

I never understood that nomenclature.

Sorry for the confusion, I'm just being lazy and abbreviating Compact Macro to "CM". It's part of the product name also.

By the way, I never noticed they dropped the lens from the official website and online store until now. (Discontinued in Hong Kong and Japan, unavailable in USA)

 

[vlad]

In days of old, before high quality scanners and digital projectors were available, 50mm macro lenses and copy stands (see http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/99444-REG/Beseler_4205_CS_14_Copystand_Kit.html) were commonly used to make high quality photo reproductions of documents and presentation slides for projection. Made some myself in my grad school days. Bit of a niche use now, though.

Ah, thanks for that. After clicking on that link, I now see targeted ads everywhere I go showing me that contraption I can't wait for my wife to see it over my shoulder and be like, "is that what you're into these days??"

 

[LDS]

In days of old, before high quality scanners and digital projectors were available, 50mm macro lenses and copy stands (see http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/99444-REG/Beseler_4205_CS_14_Copystand_Kit.html) were commonly used to make high quality photo reproductions of documents and presentation slides for projection. Made some myself in my grad school days. Bit of a niche use now, though.

A big niche, since there are a lot of things you can't still put into a scanner, for several reasons Fragile items like ancient documents and books, for example, paintings, often you can't press the surface against the glass and it could be uneven (requiring more DOF than a flatbed scanner), and originals which are not simply printed material may need specific lighting (and polarizing filters) to avoid ugly reflections from the surface, and so on. Or try to reproduce a daguerreotype in a scanner

True, mostly a museum or the like practice, today.

 

[mrzero]

In days of old, before high quality scanners and digital projectors were available, 50mm macro lenses and copy stands (see http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/99444-REG/Beseler_4205_CS_14_Copystand_Kit.html) were commonly used to make high quality photo reproductions of documents and presentation slides for projection. Made some myself in my grad school days. Bit of a niche use now, though.

A big niche, since there are a lot of things you can't still put into a scanner, for several reasons Fragile items like ancient documents and books, for example, paintings, often you can't press the surface against the glass and it could be uneven (requiring more DOF than a flatbed scanner), and originals which are not simply printed material may need specific lighting (and polarizing filters) to avoid ugly reflections from the surface, and so on. Or try to reproduce a daguerreotype in a scanner

True, mostly a museum or the like practice, today.

I'm getting ready to set up my old Rebel to do this on a weekly basis for my kid's art projects from daycare. We have about 3 years' worth sitting in boxes ready to go. It will make us feel less guilty about tossing them in the trash and only saving a precious few. Many are three-dimensional (mostly involving dry macaroni noodles) or otherwise unsuitable for scanning (think glitter).

 

[Chaitanya]

CM = "compact macro"

I never understood that nomenclature.

Sorry for the confusion, I'm just being lazy and abbreviating Compact Macro to "CM". It's part of the product name also.

By the way, I never noticed they dropped the lens from the official website and online store until now. (Discontinued in Hong Kong and Japan, unavailable in USA)

I am not sure but in India that lens vanished from Canon's website and stores about 3-4 years back. Now that you mentioned that, it seems like B&H and few other US sellers dont have it listed on their website anymore. I really hope that its an indicator of replacement coming soon.

 

[LDS]

I'm getting ready to set up my old Rebel to do this on a weekly basis for my kid's art projects from daycare.

Last weekend I was reproducing some family photos 80-100 years old. I run some through an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner (sure, not an high-end one, but not a bad one either), but I didn't like the result. Some of them had a surface reflective enough to reflect too much from the flat scanner lighting. I tried then to reproduce them using my 5DIII +100/2.8L macro using the classic "repro setup" and results were far better. I was working tethered to a PC, so focus could be carefully controlled on the larger monitor, I was also using a macro rail for precise adjustments.

The originals were small enough to allow the use of the 100 macro, had they been larger, a 50 macro lens would have been handy, because these lenses are designed for flat-field focus.

A few days before I was watching a documentary about the Corbis preservation vault in the Iron Mountains, and they too still had the classic repro stand setup, and I guess there's a reason if even such highly professional organizations don't rely on scanners only.

 

[JonAustin]

By the way, I never noticed they dropped the lens from the official website and online store until now. (Discontinued in Hong Kong and Japan, unavailable in USA)

I am not sure but in India that lens vanished from Canon's website and stores about 3-4 years back. Now that you mentioned that, it seems like B&H and few other US sellers dont have it listed on their website anymore. I really hope that its an indicator of replacement coming soon.

Cool, now that the lens is no longer available for sale, perhaps the resale value of my mint copy will go up! 8)

 

[nc0b]

I have two of the 50mm f/2.5 macro lenses since I split my time between two locations. For the macro work I do, the noisy focus is a non-issue. Don't need 1:1, so never have had need for the expensive adapter. There was a comment about distortion I did not understand. I have never noticed distortion with this lens. I thought Ken Rockwell reported it has miniscule distortion. While IS would be useful, I seriously doubt I could justify replacing what I am currently using.

 

[Antono Refa]

50

Canon just announced an EF-M 28mm macro lens. This might indicate Canon sees a need in a macro lens with equivalent angle of view, pretty close to 50mm on FF.

 

[jolyonralph]

This may mean one of two things:

a) the rumor was mixed up and they were really talking about the 28mm EF-M macro

b) they're going to redo the 50mm f/2.5 and add ring LED lighting as well!