Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

When it comes to portrait photography, 85mm prime lenses are a great choice. 85mm falls under the medium telephoto category, which is a good choice for photographers that want a natural perspective or angle of view. However, choosing the best 85mm lens requires some research as many popular camera manufacturers have their own offerings. Canon has a good reputation of making quality lens and fortunately there are only two choices which are the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM and Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lenses. The latter is far more expensive being priced at $2,199 making the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM a likely choice for photographers that want a balance in quality and budget.

Design & Construction

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM may seem to be on the cheap side, but the build quality is surprisingly good. It includes a metal lens mount which is quite durable but the size remains small. Smaller lenses are ideal for heavy traveling because the weight isn’t as dragging. Weighing at less than a half a kilogram, carrying this lens should not feel any different than carrying a kit lens. The lens construction is composed of 9 elements in 7 groups.

Features & Specifications

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM impresses with good contrast and saturation. The sharpness levels are fairly good when the lens is wide open but it gets even better when using f/2.8 and onward. The center sharpness levels are far better than the corner sharpness areas. There are also some instances of vignetting when wide open or when used with a full frame body at f/2. Chromatic aberration characteristics rest at average with the experience depending on the camera the lens is mounted to. For instance, chromatic aberration is less apparent on the Canon 5D but the CA is more on the average side when used with the Canon 20D.

The biggest advantage of keeping the aperture wide is the way the background blurs away. The 8-blade aperture assists nicely providing good bokeh which is essential for taking very good portrait shots. This is why these features combine well with the 85mm focal length. It may be tricky when taking very close portrait photos at f/1.8 while keeping both eyes focused but its portrait functions simply work great especially when paired with good Canon EOS cameras.

In addition to portrait photography, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is also good for low light and indoor photography because of its wide aperture. It can even be used for taking sports events that take place indoors because the focusing speed is quite fast. Regarding autofocus performance, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM works quietly and can auto focus in less than a second. It is not ideal for macro photography as the image spans 18cm horizontally at the closest focus. There is also a fully functional Manual Focus ring that is wide and comfortable to use and it works in AF mode. The rear focusing system with USM or Ultrasonic Motor is responsible for the excellent autofocus capability overall.

Bottom Line

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is simply a lens that excels in a lot of things and does not have any serious weaknesses for its primary purpose. Taking portraits is great when taking the image quality, bokeh, and sharpness into consideration. Travelling with the lens is just as convenient as using the lens when mounted because it is lightweight without looking or feeling too cheap as the price somewhat suggests. The mileage may vary depending on the type of body used but overall the results are decent across the board. A similar model that is priced a bit higher is the Canon EF 100mm f/2.0 USM, which has similar, specs but loses its focus on portrait photography. The Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM which is the only other 85mm lens exceeds in just about every category but costs more than 5 times more than the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. Therefore, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM provides excellent value for its features and can even serve as a nice second lens to get for people that still need to do some macro photography with a zoom lens.

Average User Rating:

Actual User Reviews:

• “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!” – R.Taira (CA,USA)

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• “This lens has been my main lens since April 1996 (receipt still in my bag!) and is always on my camera. I’ll never forget the first roll with this lens after being used to the normal small zooms—the colors, crispness, and limited depth-of-field amazed me. They still do. At that time I was using an Elan and a 28-80 4.5-5.6 usm. I since had moved to an Elan IIE, then an A2E, then a 1N-RS (still have) and finally a Canon 30D digital, purchased last month. The 85mm f1.8 usm has remained through all of these, being my main lens for all this time. Its quality has not diminished one bit. The focusing ring is a huge plus—you can fine tune at any time once the camera has selected a focus. This is very handy during portraits when you really want to have the eyes in focus at the moment the shutter is pressed. The huge points to this lens are color saturation, crispness, fine-focus ability, and the extremely small depth-of-field obtainable through the 1.8 aperture. Incredible lens in every aspect. Oh, and from the front the glass and open aperture is massive looking, making those 4-5.6 zooms look the size of pupils in the eyes of the person whose portrait your taking. I kid you not, you won’t believe the look of this thing from the front. The rear glass is huge too, allowing for the 1.8.” – A.Messer (NY,USA)

• “I just bought two high quality lenses for my Digital Rebel and what a difference this makes over the kit lens which I wish I hadn’t bought. I bought this one mostly for indoor and outdoor portraits of my kids and dogs. It is just amazing! I was surprised by how much difference a good lens can make. I’ve been playing around and I took tons of shots of my kids today and the portraits are amazingly clear with GREAT background blur — I feel like a pro. If you use the aperture priority setting and play around, you’ll see that you too can make professional level background blur even if you barely know what you are doing (this would be me). In short, invest in a good lens. Don’t forget to multiply the focal length by 1.6 if you have a digital canon camera — 85 mm is really 135mm or so, really a telephoto type lens. Great for portraits!” – M.H.Bayliss (USA)

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