Specialty Lens for Experienced Macro Shooters. The Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro can magnify an object up to 5x, which would fill a 35mm frame with a grain of rice. This is a unique specialty lens best used by experienced macro shooters. It’s a good idea to use a focusing rail and macro flash with this lens. If you don’t have a macro flash we strongly recommend the Canon MT-26EX-RT Macro Twin Lite.

How Macro Is It? Now, a little bit of math to keep things in perspective. The MP-E’s resolving power is limited by the size of the pixels on your sensor at most aperture and focus distance combinations. Since typical pixels are 5-10 µm square and the MP-E can give up to 5x magnification, this means it’s capable of picking out features only a few micrometers across. For comparison, human hair varies in thickness from 17-180 µm. Crazy.