Canon 100mm Macro lens. IS or not IS ???

Thanks for feedback...decision made I got the 100mm IS USM L series today, mainly for use above water as well. Sorry for hijacking your post DiveGirl.

Mate love your photos they are cool. Amazing dof and pink bokeh on that fish pic.

Thanks Weiry. That picture has been a source of lots of compliments - it's a little blenny on a barrel sponge taken with a 60mm macro and a 12mm extension tube. Every time I scared it away with my exhalations (it was above me), it would come back to exactly the same spot, to within less than a millimetre.

After agonizing between the 100mm non-L and L versions (as well as a used 180mm L for nearly half-off), I finally bought the 100mm L version. I have yet to take it underwater, but use topside (with at least an hour at the camera shop testing both) had me falling in love with the L. If for no other reason, the ergonomics of it are superb--it truly feels natural in the hand with more of the weight on the mount-side rather than non-L which gets fatter at the focus ring and, consequently, feels heavier towards the tip.

Some called in an in-between lens (between the 100 non-L and the 180 L) given the price, and I had to agree. And though I will use it at home in the little lean-to studio I've made, most of the stuff I do involves hand-held out-on-the-street-type shooting.

And the image/color quality...it's enough to make one believe in religion!

Moving into an SLR rig, I've been torn with this IS vs Non-IS for weeks for money reasons ( I may have to rob and bank and stay in Asia permanently :-)

I'm an artist who primarily shoots macro organic abstractions for large printing, so I'm setting up my rig for extreme super-macro. Since I also shoot educational travel videos, I'll also want some seascape video. Jack Connick at Ocean Optical (great guy) has suggested I get a Kenko 1.4 TC to use with a Tokina 10-17 for WAM and that the TC can be used as well for extreme macro on the 100mm.

I've been leaning towards getting the IS version so I can play with handheld macro on the surface. Another reason I considered getting the IS version is because it has better focusing capabilities, especially with a 7D, from what i've read, but I'm using a T3i in a Nauticam 600D housing, so I was wondering if the added focus capability would help with the lesser focusing capabilities of the T3i, especially with the 100mm IS focus limiter settings. On that point, I've read somewhere that a diver had problems with using the limiter UW? Do any of you 100mm IS users use the focus limiter function UW and what do you set it at? Any problems with it or recommendations on it's settings, especially with the less capable T3i focusing system?

However, the statement in this post that the 100mm IS has issues with focus when used with a TC has me concerned, maybe I should get the cheaper non-IS instead now? Can you link me to any info concerning this issue? Has anyone here used the Kenko 1.4 TC with the new IS macro? I'm also planning on carrying some diopters, but being experienced with this set-up, is the TC over-kill for that matter, especially with the diopters. My intention is to capture organic abstractions and not photos of fish. I figured as long as I have the TC and #20 extension (for the Tokina/Kenko) I might as well play with it on the macro.

Finally, if my haul at the bank is big enough, do you recommend I bust the bak and get a 45 degree viewfinder for the rig.

Any advise and opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for making it through this long post :-)

The IS version has known focusing problems when used with teleconverters. If you are thinking of putting the 100 macro on a teleconverter for super macro work you'll need the non-IS version.

First report of the problem I saw was here:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...=32536&st=0

I've seen a lot of other reports on other forums and blogs since, Google is your friend.