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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 2607475, member: 27832"]It sounds like you're thinking that the 50 lets you get twice as close, letting you get a bigger image, but that's not the way it works out. They both give you a 1:1 image ratio at those respective distances -- that is, the final photo you take has the coin looking "equally big" with either one. And, as [USER=73983]@jtlee321[/USER] already said, more working distance is easier to work with. The 100mm lens is twice as expensive partly because it's got 4-8 times as much glass, most likely, and in general more glass means better results. (That's a GROSS oversimplification, but still useful at times.) It's possible (but not guaranteed) that the 90 will give you less geometrical distortion in your image than the 50, simply by being nearly twice as far away from the coin. If you aren't at an infinite distance, you can get some perspective effects in close-up shots that you don't want. (Not necessarily, though, depending on aspects of lens design that I don't pretend to fully understand.) If I were in your shoes, and could afford the 90mm, I'd go for that one, all else being equal. Then again, if I were in your shoes, I'd do a lot of research on each lens first.[/QUOTE]