At first glance, the Canon 35-80mm f/4-5.6 seems like a very average lens, even when compared with other cheap kit lenses. However, if you can look past the plastic mount, slow aperture, and cheap build quality, this lens is by far the best macro lens out there for its price.
A simple modification turns this otherwise ordinary lens into a super-macro lens that works in a similar fashion to the Canon MP-E 65mm. I removed the front sticker, unscrewed 3 retaining screws, and removed the front 3 elements (the AF elements). With these elements removed, the lens is focused by either zooming it in/out or by moving the camera back/forth, just like one would do with the MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens. The loss of autofocus is hardly a concern for extreme macro work, since most macro shots (especially at high magnification) are manually focused. The slow aperture range of this lens isn't much of a concern either, since most macro work is done at f/8 and beyond for DoF reasons.
After the mods, I would say that this lens goes from around 1:1.5 magnification to ~2:1 life size magnification. Truly amazing results for something that you can easily get for less than $40 on eBay. Indeed, even dedicated macro lenses can't exceed 1:1 magnification without using extension tubes. And, to make the deal even sweeter, you still get full electronic metering and aperture controls just like you would with any other EF lens, so no stop-down metering is required.
Here is a shot I just took with mine (I saved it at JPEG quality 7 in Photoshop, so there may be some compression artifacts). Click on the bar to see the full-size image.
This shot was taken with the lens at 35mm focal length, which is its LOWEST magnification setting. Zooming the lens out to 80mm will allow the tip of a single ballpoint pen to fill the frame.
This shot was taken with the lens at the 80mm focal length, which is its HIGHEST magnification setting without using extension tubes. As you can see, the magnification here is clearly greater than life size and details remain quite good. The biggest challenge is getting everything in to the DoF, which is quite small even when the lens is stopped down to f/16 or f/22. An off-camera flash is highly recommended for most of these shots...for this shot, I fired my 430EX at 1/2 power through a small flash reflector.
*This image was not cropped. However, Photobucket has a 1MB file limit and downsized the image slightly as a result.
The macro modification works on all 3 iterations of the EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6, as well as the USM version. The modification is the same in all 4 cases. You can either opt to remove the front 3 elements and shoot the lens as-is, or remove the front 3 elements and replace the plastic front of the lens so that you can still use a lens cap or protective filter.
2/26/2010 Update: Minimum/maximum magnification ratios (based on the EOS 40D's sensor, which is 22.2mm wide):
Minimum (zoom set to 35mm): approximately 0.82x life size
Maximum (zoom set to 80mm): approximately 1.71x life size
A simple modification turns this otherwise ordinary lens into a super-macro lens that works in a similar fashion to the Canon MP-E 65mm. I removed the front sticker, unscrewed 3 retaining screws, and removed the front 3 elements (the AF elements). With these elements removed, the lens is focused by either zooming it in/out or by moving the camera back/forth, just like one would do with the MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens. The loss of autofocus is hardly a concern for extreme macro work, since most macro shots (especially at high magnification) are manually focused. The slow aperture range of this lens isn't much of a concern either, since most macro work is done at f/8 and beyond for DoF reasons.
After the mods, I would say that this lens goes from around 1:1.5 magnification to ~2:1 life size magnification. Truly amazing results for something that you can easily get for less than $40 on eBay. Indeed, even dedicated macro lenses can't exceed 1:1 magnification without using extension tubes. And, to make the deal even sweeter, you still get full electronic metering and aperture controls just like you would with any other EF lens, so no stop-down metering is required.
Here is a shot I just took with mine (I saved it at JPEG quality 7 in Photoshop, so there may be some compression artifacts). Click on the bar to see the full-size image.
This shot was taken with the lens at 35mm focal length, which is its LOWEST magnification setting. Zooming the lens out to 80mm will allow the tip of a single ballpoint pen to fill the frame.
This shot was taken with the lens at the 80mm focal length, which is its HIGHEST magnification setting without using extension tubes. As you can see, the magnification here is clearly greater than life size and details remain quite good. The biggest challenge is getting everything in to the DoF, which is quite small even when the lens is stopped down to f/16 or f/22. An off-camera flash is highly recommended for most of these shots...for this shot, I fired my 430EX at 1/2 power through a small flash reflector.
*This image was not cropped. However, Photobucket has a 1MB file limit and downsized the image slightly as a result.
The macro modification works on all 3 iterations of the EF 35-80mm f/4-5.6, as well as the USM version. The modification is the same in all 4 cases. You can either opt to remove the front 3 elements and shoot the lens as-is, or remove the front 3 elements and replace the plastic front of the lens so that you can still use a lens cap or protective filter.
2/26/2010 Update: Minimum/maximum magnification ratios (based on the EOS 40D's sensor, which is 22.2mm wide):
Minimum (zoom set to 35mm): approximately 0.82x life size
Maximum (zoom set to 80mm): approximately 1.71x life size
Last edited:
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