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After taking delivery of a new Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens I rushed out into the garden to see what it could do. This was the first time I had tried a macro lens and it proved to be very different from usual. No more USM instant focusing. Can you believe a lens that costs so much has to be moved closer or nearer to the object to focus? It's very different.

The daisy I photographed measured about 12mm across from the tips of the white petals. The lowest magnification of this lens is 1x. That means (I subsequently learnt) that the image will be life size across the cameras CCD. In my case with a smaller CCD that means the lowest magnification is 1.6x and the highest magnification is 8x (allowing for my cameras 1.6x multiplier). At the higher magnifications the depth of field is less than one millimetre. Like I said, it's a whole new world.