Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM Interchangeable Lens Review

Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM Performance

As far as sharpness is concerned, this lens performs well. At f/2 sharpness in the centre of the frame is already very good and the clarity towards the edges is fairly good. Stopping the lens down improves sharpness across the frame, exceeding excellent levels at f/8.

MTF at 100mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are virtually non-existent. Especially as the lens is stopped down. At their worst, fringing just exceeds half a pixel width at f/2 towards the edges of the frame. This level of fringing is very low and should not be visible, even in large prints or harsh crops from the edges of the frame.

Chromatic Aberrations at 100mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners is quite pronounced at maximum aperture as the corners are 2.36 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved by f/5.6.
Distortion is well controlled, and the level of 0.528% pincushion should pose few issues unless your application is super-critical. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so it should be easy to correct this distortion if needs be.

No lens hood comes supplied with this lens, which is a shame, as this lens would really benefit from one. With strong light sources just outside the frame, flare and loss of contrast can become an issue. Shooting directly into the light can also result in a marked loss of contrast across the frame.

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