"Macro" is a feature of a lens that allows you to focus extremely close. It's like saying a "telephoto lens" or a "wide angle" lens. A macro lens is not one specific lens.

@@AnthonyGugliottathere are also legit macro lenses which aren’t great for much else, such as the Loawa 24/f14 macro probe lens

Macro lenses are super fun though.

​@@jimdabomb this lens is made for macro videos. Its very specific, expencive and yes only for macro. But normal macro lenses can double as portrait lenses or just normal primes

Yes! I believe that's how they decide if it's a macro lens or not!

@kore996 yes, generally for a lens to be considered macro, it must be able to reproduce an image on the sensor at least 1x the size it is in real life, 1:1 magnification. The macro lenses Anthony has here have a 1:2 or 0.5x maximum magnification, still much closer than almost any standard prime or zoom lens. Other macro lenses like the RF 100mm have a 1.4x maximum magnification and others still have maximum magnifications of 5x. Some of those lenses are manual focus and cannot focus on subjects farther away, but the RF24, 35, 85 and 100mm are nice fast aperture lenses with full ability to focus to infinity like most other lenses you've used

@@JohnStremble thanks for the info. I like to say I know a dangerous amount of knowledge on a lot of things. I know enough to sound like I know what I’m talking about, but on a lot of things it’s not enough to be considered true knowledge…therefore it’s a dangerous amount of knowledge 😂.

Almost, I think you are mixing up focal lengt/zoom with magnification ratio. Yes to make a lens a true macro lens it has to have a magnification ratio of 1:1 or higher (2:1; 3:1...). How ever it can only achieve this (maximum) magnification ratio at it's Minimum focal distance! If you focus further away the magnification ratio gets smaller. Unless it's a telecentric lens but that's a story for another day. Therefore a for example 90mm lens focused at say 0.75 meter will always have the same magnification ratio of about 1:5 regardless if it's a macro or non macro lens. The only difference is that the macro lens can focus much closer (for the 90mm lens example down to about 0.28m and thereby acheiving a magnification ratio of 1:1). If you need a larger magnification ratio at a further distance you will still need a longer focal lengt but at this point it's no apples to apples comparison anymore anyway. Basically saying with a 1:1 macro lens you can fill the entire Frame of a fullframe camera (35mm Sensor) with a 35mm large Objekt but only at the minimum focus distace to get a sense of what all this means.

@@petereter9559 I really appreciate the explanation. I still struggle to understand what "magnification" actually mean. When people say that with a macro lens my object appears *larger* on my sensor/picture, what I get is that it is more *zoomed-in* compared to a non-macro lens of the same focal length. But I can't imagine that actually being true, because then they wouldn't be the same focal length, would they? I am really struggling to understand this, and have been for quite a while. What exactly of a different do I see in my picture when pointing a 90mm macro vs a 90m non-macro lens at something from the same distance?

@@itsJulian23 the only difference between 90mm macro and a 90mm non macro lens is the minimal focal distance. The macro lens will be able to focus much closer. You can take the same pictures with that macro lens like you can take with the non macro lens. How ever if you bring your subject closer to the lens to fill the frame the non macro lens just can't focus anymore after a certain point, let's say 50cm. The macro lens on the other hand will still be able to focus on the subject much more closer to the lens, let's say 28cm which will make the subject appear much larger in the frame as it's closer to the camera. Minimal focal distance is the keyword here, it's a very important but often overlooked parameter of a lens. How ever a lens with a shorter minimal focus distance is much more versatile to me as I can get detail shots with it. Now you need to be precise what zoom means. In photogrphy zoom implies to (changing) the focal lenght (mm) which in terms determins the filed of view. A 90mm (Prime) lens is/has no zoom and will always have the same filed of view no matter how close or far you focus.

@@itsJulian23 So to put it in a nutshell there is no difference between a non macro and a macro lens except that the macro lens can focus (much) closer than the non macro lens. Now how close does a lens have to be able to focus to be called a macro lens?! That's determined by the magnification ratio. On it's minimum focus distance a macro lens must project the subject in focus onto the sensor at least the same size as it is in real life (1:1 magnification ratio).

This is the right answer.

Nope

@@emelyzetinazapata664 Good to know, thanks Emely 👌

when describing how "macro" like the photos are, we use a term called "magnification" a x1 magnification means that on a 35mm wide sensor, a object 35mm wide would take the entire width. and a object 17.5mm wide would take half the width and the minimum focus distance, the technical classification of a macro lens is at least a x1 magnification. (i've seen lenses that can do up to x50 though) with a telephoto lens, its change in minimum focus distance, is often not proportional to its increased focal length, and its actual magnification tends to be lower. most macro lenses are around 80-100mm, though there are exceptions (the laowa 24mm probe lens is a macro lens, its 24mm.)

i was legit about to comment this, thanks for pointing it out!