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Understanding Focal Lengths on Macro Lenses

Started Dec 10, 2020 | Questions thread
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Johnbarnesiii Regular Member • Posts: 133
Understanding Focal Lengths on Macro Lenses

Hi guys, I have a kind of beginner question... am trying to understand focal lengths when it comes to macro lenses.

I know that macro lenses come in many different focal lengths. For example, I own the canon 100mm 2.8 EF macro lens, which I love by the way.

So my question is, why do they make lenses with shorter focal lengths than around 100mm and call them macro lens? In other words, why would they make lenses with focal lengths associated with street photography or portrait (such as 50mm or 35mm), where you typically have some distance between yourself and subject, and call it a macro lens?

Isn’t the point of a macro lens to shoot closeup and get than crisp sharp quality on small things, therefore longer focal length like 100mm being ideal? What advantages of a 50mm macro vs 100mm for example? If my goal is to shoot product shots closeups as well as insects and small things, wouldn’t I want the 100 over the 50, or not necessarily? Wouldn’t I want as much detail as possible for closeup, and would the 100mm provide more closeup detail than the 50? Wouldn’t longer focal lengths lens be able to capture more detail on closeups way more so than lenses which are designed to capture details of far away things like landscapes?

And by the same reasoning, why would my 100mm macro lens also work well for portraits, which I’ve heard said?

I know there are some fundamentals about this concept that I;m missing so I’m hoping someone here can help explain. Thanks in advance!

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