Which lens would be better for close up shots of butterflies?

[Drae]

Canon 17-85 macro with IS or Canon 55-200 4.5-5.6?

 

[WesternGuy]

A lot depends on what you mean by close-up shots and how close you want to get. The 17-85 is not a true macro, it may say "Macro" on it, but a true macro should yield you 1:1 imaging, which the 17-85 will not do - it may give you close-up images, but not true macro. I don't know why Canon does that with their lenses, for example, even my 24-105 says "Macro" on it, but I would not use it for that purpose. If you want a true macro lens for close-ups, you need to look at Canon lenses, or other brands, that are labelled specifically as Macro lenses, for example, the 50mm, 60mm, 100mm and 180mm lenses that Canon sells are all true macro lenses. If you do not want to get that close to your butterflies, then maybe either lens would do, although the 55-200 should allow you to be farther away and still come in relatively close. I know I have shot "close-ups" of butterflies with my 24-105mm and they do not look too bad, but they are not really close "close-ups" - so back to the first two questions - how close is "close"? Hope this helps a bit.
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WesternGuy