Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras - Fixed

I've been drooling so long for this lens's big brother, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L. After considering countless written reviews, comparisons and videos in YouTube, I decided to buy the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 Ultrasonic for a fraction of the price of the bigger and better lens. Just arrived a couple of days ago. Well packaged and immobilized inside a sturdy cardboard box used by Amazon for shipping and delivery. Its a question of money and timing. I know I'm going to upgrade my Canon EOS 6D body during later this year for either a new 6D Mark II (coming soon) or a 5D Mark IV. So by purchasing the f/1.8 I keep within my planned budget and can start to enjoy this lens. Another consideration is that I'm not a pro. I'm not making a living with my cameras. I've been a serious enthusiast photographer for over 4 decades which means I don't make but spend good money in photography gear within realistic limitations and great personal gratification. The consensus among photographers is that the smaller Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 is a good to excellent prime lens and a very good value for the price. Having the lens in my hand I can say this is a very decent prime glass, well built (not an "L" level), responsive, small and light. My preliminary evaluation is that the copy of the lens I received is focusing right and quick with my 6D. Its giving me crisp images with nice bokeh at f/2. So far so good. There are a number of other brands making good primes and maybe better lenses in this focal length. I'm giving this lens 5 stars not because it is the "best" 85mm. But for the high level of quality and the low price, Canon is giving us the option to buy a good solid lens with nice autofocus, crisp images and very good bokeh. I agree with the opinion that the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 Ultrasonic lens is one of the best values around so I gave it the 5th star. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to keep drooling for the bigger, heavier, brighter and special bokeh of the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II prime lens. Also the rumor is that later this year Canon is going to release a new EF85mm f/1.4 L IS lens. :-)

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 II USM lens is a moderate weight (15 oz), very well built lens. It does not come with the appropriate hood, the Canon ET-65 III. You get both a lens cap and a mount cap, all packed inside tight conformal foam to protect the lens during shipping. There's also a very brief manual and the usual warranty paperwork. The lens offers AF and manual focus, and allows manual focus even when AF is set to on, a very useful feature for low-light and other challenging focus situations. This is a USM lens, and as a direct consequence focus is fast and precise, just as you'd expect. The AF/Manual switch is in a reasonable location, close to the camera body. There is a range indication on the barrel of the lens behind a transparent window which serves to keep dust and debris out of the workings of the lens. Manual focus is controlled with a broad, easy to manage textured ring about mid-body on the lens. During focus, nothing external on the lens body moves or rotates, so there are no complications for using polarizing filters, and no concerns about the lens "pumping" air and so causing dust contamination in either the lens or camera with use. The lens lacks any form of image stabilization. IS is showing up in more and more lenses, though for the price... perhaps this is one of the justifications for building IS into the camera body. I'm sure that this design wouldn't be anywhere near its current price point with IS added to the build. One last point is that since the lens is a fairly fast design, perhaps there is less overall need for IS (though that argument falls completely apart the first time you *do* need it!) It takes a 58mm filter, though I highly recommend the use of the ET-65 III hood rather than a filter; filter use should be limited to polarizers, neutral density filters and so on, rather than keeping a filter on the lens with the idea of protecting it. Here's why: filters create a flat surface over the end of the lens that can (and often does) create low-level reflections. These are most apparent in low-light shots, but they are almost always there. In the case of a UV filter, no other benefit is gained (UV can't get through the lens system anyway) other than physical protection. The hood, however, keeps the lens out of harms way quite effectively, and it increases contrast and reduces flare at the same time by preventing light from entering the lens at high angles of attack. I have shot with both hoods and filters, and after decades of experience, I have to come down firmly on the side of hood technique. It only takes one shot ruined by a filter reflection to wake up to this reality; and hoods never, ever compromise an image. They're simply the best way to go. Finally, the hood for this lens is inexpensive, well worth the extra few dollars it costs. Aperture is controlled by an 8-blade system. The available f-stops range from f/1.8 wide open to f/22.0 fully stopped down. MTF (sharpness) peaks at f/5.6, and vignetting is almost gone by that setting. On my camera, an EOS 50D, resolution loss from diffraction effects begin at f/7.6, so in many ways, the "sweet spot" for this lens for me lands naturally at f/5.6. On a camera with a lesser sensel density such as the 40D, diffraction doesn't set in until higher f-stops, but you're beginning to lose sharpness from other effects, so I'd still call the sweet spot as f/5.6 (which also provides a fairly extensive depth of field) for shots where detail is the primary consideration. For portraits, you'll want to go right for f/1.8 if lighting conditions allow in order to take advantage of the shallow and pleasing DOF isolation this lens is famous for; background blur is very soft yet very strong, while the in focus region remains deep enough to keep the important features of the face in focus from ear to nose. The loss of MTF at f/1.8 is noticeable, especially once you get a feel for how the lens performs at f/5.6, but in my opinion, the compromise is perfectly acceptable in a portrait context. There's another benefit as well; at 85mm, and especially on a crop body like the 40D or 50D, this lens allows you to get some distance from your subject which tends to make them more comfortable, while giving you the modest compression that is the hallmark of any telephoto lens. Portraits "pop" and backgrounds blur away with commendable speed. Head-and-shoulders work will put you at about eight feet, and as the lens can focus down to just under three feet, this gives you considerable control over framing without ever running into a limit imposed by the lens design. This is also a truly excellent lens for not-very-wide field astrophotography, although at critical focus and maximum aperture, chromatic aberration will make itself felt on the brightest stars, which you will then have to compensate for. I have successfully used this lens to capture the the Orion nebula, Andromeda galaxy, Triangulum galaxy, and a number of other astro objects that range from the easy to the difficult, all using no more than a standard (non-tracking) tripod, this lens, and the EOS 50D. On a crop body, 85mm (136mm effective FOV) is definitely the place to be to compromise between star trailing and magnification, and the f/1.8 aperture allows fast enough exposures to eliminate trailing at ISO 1600 and above. I carry this lens nested in a large camera bag (a Tamrac 5612 Pro 12, *highly* recommended); I rarely put the lens on the camera until I am ready to use it, and when I am done, I take it right back off, cap it, and bag it without wasting any time or motion. I do both the assembly and disassembly "blind" in the bag, using the bag top to shield the camera and lens from the wind and environment as best I can manage. The lens has a raised alignment dot that makes blind assembly practical. It's the size of the overall investment that drives this behavior, of course; both the camera and a lens like this deserves -- demands -- good care and that is just what I try to provide. Physically speaking, this lens isn't as large as you might think. Canon did a great job of packing a lot of glass (nine elements in seven groups) into a decent form factor of 3" diameter by 2.8" long; even with the hood mounted, this lens provides a fraction of the intimidation factor of, for instance, the 70-200mm f/2.8L. But at 85mm, it can still "get in there" and catch a lot of action without forcing you to crop to extremes. It's light enough that you can shoot for quite a while before fatigue sets in, an issue that will rear its head in any situation that goes on a while, like a wedding or a play (and that low-light capability is great for stage work, where a flash annoys literally everyone.) Plus it is black, and so looks more like it is designed as part of the same camera system, unlike the L's with the white bodies. That's also less distracting in a dark theater. I can honestly say that this is definitely one of my favorite lenses. I have a fair collection of primes to compare it to, some of which are L glass, and I've got some great L zooms as well; yet for portraits, I inevitably turn to this specific lens as it outperforms everything else I own in the successful shooting methodologies I find myself returning to over and over. Frankly, at the price, I think it is perfectly fair to characterize this lens as a "must-have"; if you're ever going to shoot a portrait, trust me, this is the lens you want (even over the 85mm f/1.2L, which has far too narrow a depth of field for most reasonable portraiture, though you can't beat it for light-gathering.) Like Canon's 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, the 85mm f/1.8 is one of those where you're left scratching your head as to why it doesn't have an "L" designation. It is an outstanding performer. If Canon were to re-do this lens, I'd like to see them add image stabilization, and perhaps some modern anti-CA elements, as this is the one area where this lens occasionally bites the photographer in high-contrast situations. Until that day, though, this lens is unmatched by anything else in Canon's line for price/performance, and I can't imagine anyone ever regretting its purchase.

I have to say, I read the reviews and I fired on this thing. Oh man, I have been so incredibly happy with its performance. Through my test shots (I have not done a proper shoot yet) I have to say this lens is phenomenal with only one caveat and that might be the camera body I am using so I will go over that later. The pros: Its quiet. It is fast in both aperture rating and the fact that it is prime and focuses quickly. It is a solid metal piece. Color saturation is exquisite. Hi-lites are great. Your images almost appear 3 dimensional and you get tack sharp images. The con: I cannot call this a con simply because I am 95% sure it is because I am using this on a Canon T2i and I simply do no believe this lens is built for the cheap body (hey you gotta start somewhere) so I will describe the problem. Oftentimes while shooting with this lens especially if you have shifted from a low to high aperture or high to low etc you oftentimes can not get an accurate depiction of bokeh and any focusing area outside of your focus point. For example, if you set the aperture to say 2.2 and you focus in you will see in the viewfinder that your focus point is the only thing that is in focus, then you switch the aperture to say f 11, you will notice very little sharpness change on the object that is outside of your focus point, meaning it will look the same in the viewfinder as it does at f 2.2, you snap the photo and viola the image actually was focused as the f 11 aperture changed the focus range and got more of the background / foreground in focus. I played with this lens at a store on a Canon Mark II years ago and I did not notice this effect so it leads me to believe it is the Rebel T2i that is causing this "False focus" It is corrected for me by turning the camera off and restarting it in the aperture I am shooting or by switching the shooting mode then switching back which leads me to believe that this is strictly a limitation in the Rebel T2i innards. So do not freak out if that happens!

I hang out with friends a lot and up to this point, most of our photos together have been under flash conditions. Mostly because we hang out in the evenings, in someone's home. I bought this for my Rebel XT mainly for the great reviews and the impressive entry price! Although the reviews were already mostly positive, I took some time playing with the lens to get used to its characteristics. Since this forum is replete with technical reviews, I would like to share my impressions instead. I primarily rely on reviews, myself, to help me make purchasing decisions, so here are my thoughts on the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens. PROS: 1)I'm a fan of Steven Soderbergh and love how he made it look like he shot Ocean's Eleven with natural light. I wanted the same effects for my get-together photographs and boy did I get them! I shoot mainly in RAW now and apply the Tungsten filter when I import them into CS2 and they look phenomenal! 2)After correction, skin tones look very natural and the lighting makes the captured moment look like a captured moment. Not a forced moment like when a blazingly bright flash is involved. (Sorry I don't know how else to illustrate it...) 3)The bokeh on this lens is dramatic, not distracting. My friends love the photos I take with this lens but the just can't put their finger on why... 4)The 85mm is solid. Compared to my XT kit lens, the 85mm feels like a 'real' lens with solid movement and loads of glass inside (which you can see when you peer into its very large front lens). 5)The shooting distance is very comfortable for your subjects, as they do not feel like you're crowding them with your camera. (More on this below in Con). CON(just one!): 1)Sorry, this is not really a con, but more of a warning mostly to other amateurs out there who may be looking at this for the price. It may be pretty obvious to most, but this lens does not feature a zoom range. Meaning if you want your subject's head to look bigger in your viewfinder, you must walk towards them or have them come closer to you. Conversely, if you want them smaller in the VF, you must walk away from them etc...since this was my first fixed lens, I had to get used to it a bit. This is not the lens for you if you want to take group photos in low light situations in small room. ALL-IN-ALL: I love this lens. I love how dramatic my pictures come out in their natural settings. The bokeh adds so much more emotion to each photo. And since you can shoot with such a wide open aperture, you'll catch the moments when they happen without it blurring away from a too-slow shutter speed or a bright flash of blinding light! (Please buy an inexpensive UV filter for this since the front lens is so big, it will easily get scratched and damaged.)

I am primarily a wedding photographer, but I do shoot portraiture now and then (especially engagement shoots), and so I have divided my review accordingly into those two categories. If possible, I would have given this a 4.5 star review as for my specific needs this lens is not ideal. In it's own right however, it is a great lens as I will explain below. GENERAL In general, this is a great lens. The optical quality is fantastic, it is built like a tank, and any photographer will tell you that the 85mm focal length is definitely the sweet spot for portraits. The bokeh is creamy wide open, and definitely higher quality that the 50mm 1.8 or even the 50mm 1.4. When stopped down a little, the images it produces are quite sharp, have very decent color (if a TINY bit dull in some situations) and I like that it produces such powerful results in a relatively small package. FOR PORTRAITURE This is probably the best non-L glass around for portraits, and I would venture to say that in the right hands it can produce L-quality results. As I mentioned, the bokeh alone makes this an incredible choice for your portraits, whether with just one subject or a couple. What I like especially about the 85mm range, is that you have to be pretty far back from your subject for a traditional head-and-shoulders portrait, which I have found makes people feel quite relaxed especially those uncomfortable around a camera. I always use a manual focus point for portraits, focusing in on my subject's eye before snapping the shot. In a relaxed environment such as this, the lens works perfectly and turns out great results... FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY You might not think it, but Wedding Photography is one of the fastest paced photography categories, barring sports. The need to capture THAT moment in fact defines this profession, and therefore we wedding photographers need our gear to act right, and at the right time. Whether memory cards, DSLR cache or in this case lens focusing systems, it really irks me when I don't get the shot that I wanted. I have found when shooting weddings that this lens is less than ideal. I like to shoot without flash 95% of the time (venue allowing) and so all of my lenses are wide aperture such as this. The problem is, the focusing system on the 85mm is a little slow, so that I frequently noticed images coming out soft to the point of being blurry, as I don't have the time to wait for it to catch up. Initially thinking this might be a calibration problem, both my 1Ds MkII and my 85mm 1.8 went in for testing/calibration at Canon, both coming back with the okay. I tried a friend's copy of the lens, and came back with similar results. There are several forums that discuss this topic, and I found that many photographers found this same caveat with their lenses. When it does focus, it is spot on every time, but when the couple is having their first kiss, often you don't have more than a second or two to get it right. OVERALL If you are looking for a good portrait lens, are a beginner or novice user, you are absolutely going to love this lens. Even some pros will enjoy it in many situations. If you are specifically a wedding photographer, or someone who shoots faster-paced scenes, you might want to look at a different lens. On paper, this lens should work for these uses, but in real life, I have found it to be less than ideal. This lens has earned a permanent spot in my gear bag, and I use it often and with pleasure, it does not however make appearances at weddings unless the bride and groom set aside a couple of hours for bridals, which doesn't happen all that often! 4.5/5

Hello everyone. I bought this lens earlier in 2009 and had it for a couple of months. I bought this lens solely because I tend to shoot a lot of portrait for my friends on my cropped-sensor Canon 30D . I was using

I bought this lens right before an overseas vacation to supplement the kit zoom lens Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras that came with my Canon D50. I thought the zoom lens would be my primary lens, but I ended up leaving the zoom lens in the bag more often than I had thought and used this one the most. I bought this primarily as a portrait lens but it performed so well at a variety of tasks and turned out to be much more versatile than I had expected. Our trip was for a month. I did have to shoot a wedding, but the rest of the time was purely personal. Don't get me wrong - the 28-135 did good, but after a few hundred shots I noticed a pattern of overall better color under natural light conditions AND better auto-focus on the subjects with the EF 85. Of course, fixed focal length lenses such as the EF 85 typically have fewer elements in fewer groups than zoom lenses, which as a rule of thumb should produce better images. While reviewing the wedding photos, I noticed that the EF 85 was more likely to focus on the subject's face than the 28-135, which tended to focus on who knows what - the clothing maybe? I was using auto-focus with both lenses, but was sometimes getting slightly blurry shots when using the zoom lens. I discarded more photos taken with the 28-135 zoom, and had I know this prior to the wedding I would have used the EF 85 more often. Once the wedding was over and I was just shooting for fun, there were a couple of times that I noticed a "busy" message on my camera that temporarily prevented me from shooting. I was both perplexed and upset. It said my battery still had plenty of power, I wasn't using the flash, and my memory card is fast and was far from full, so I couldn't determine what the problem was. The second time this happened I realized I had been using the zoom lens both times, so I switched over to the EF 85, and the problem went away. After a lot of research I learned that the IS system on certain IS lenses can cause temporary delays while compensating for low light or motion, but since the EF 85 does not have IS, there are no IS-compensaton delays. That being said, this lens performs just fine even without a tripod (unlike longer teles). Towards the end of our trip I was visiting the United Nations' Joint Security Area in the middle of the DMZ between North and South Korea, and they have a strict lens length limit of 90mm, no exceptions. A couple of people only had longer zoom lenses or teles, and they ended up having to leave their cameras behind - what a disappointment! By this time I was quite comfortable with the EF 85, and once again it exceeded my expectations. I always shoot in the highest quality mode (full "L" + RAW), and I was getting crystal-clear photos even when shooting from a slow-moving vehicle, and I was able to shoot at a rate of several photos per second. Again, great clarity, color, and the auto-focus was always spot-on. Keep in mind that in the days of film cameras, the best portrait lens length was somewhere above 80mm. For Canon APS-C cameras (non full-frame) like the EOS 50D, 7D, and Rebel models, this 85mm lens length would be the equivalent of a 136mm lens if it were on a film camera. For full-frame models such as the EOS 1D and 5D, this lens is the equivalent of 111mm. This translates into perfect portrait depth-of-field and produces awesome boke in the f/1.8 - f/2.0 range, and even a decent amount of boke up to f/4.5. But this lens can do so much more than just portraits - the fast f/1.8 aperture is much wider than most zoom lenses, yet the cost, weight, and length are relatively small. In short, an indispensable, very convenient lens. I couldn't be happier with this lens. The Ultra-Sonic motor works silently and flawlessly. As with all lenses, I would recommend using a lens hood and/or a QUALITY filter (think B+W UV MRC series B+W 58mm UVA (Ultra Violet) Haze MRC Filter #010 ) to protect the lens and limit unwanted light. L-series lenses come with their own hood, but for this lens you must purchase it separately Canon ET65III Lens Hood for Canon SLR Lens . *** UPDATE *** I recently added the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras AND the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras to my lineup. I mothballed the 28-135 kit lens (planning on selling it) and am using the 24-70mm f/2.8 L in its place. Still using the EF 85mm as my primary portrait lens with no regrets. I can't say it's exactly the same level as L-series glass, but it's pretty damn close.

The 85 f/1.8 may be the best portrait lens Canon offers in this price range. I think it is the best value lens in the Canon system. It is not limited to portraits however, this is a great lens for stopping action. The 85 f/1.2 has better bokeh, but that costs $1900. I would pay twice the price for the 85 f/1.8, you get a lot of glass! Peer into the bottom of this baby and you will know what I'm talking about. Great low-light lens, super-fast auto focus. The 135 f/2 is a great portrait lens, one of the best, but the 85 f/1.8 is just as good optically (or very close) and costs considerably less. You could almost buy 3 of these for the price of the 135! The only difference I can see is the weather sealing, focal distance, red ring, and cost. The 135 is built like a tank, but the 85 is well built and solid! I love the 135, but It is very hard to tell the difference when I compare the images (maybe a very slight advantage to the 135 in color and contrast). The 85 is very sharp when stopped down to f/2.8, crazy sharp at f/4, and extremely sharp at f/8, its the one of the sharpest lens I own, a virtual tie with the 135. Maybe too sharp at f/4, it will show every skin blemish in 100% crops. Images are a little soft at f/1.8 (most fast primes are a little soft wide open), but very flattering for portraits. At f/2.8 they are perfect. Colors are bright and vibrant, contrast is great, skin tones are excellent! Bokeh is awesome, comparable to the 135, very smooth. Very shallow depth of field at f/1.8, so make sure you focus very carefully. If you think you may need a lens like this one, just buy it, you will not be disappointed. This lens has L quality optics and I highly recommend it.