Canon EOS portrait lens

modafoto · Jul 2, 2004

Hi there

As a happy portrait photographer I'm looking for a prime lens in the 85-135 mm range which has a aperture around 2.8, can anyone give me their opinion on which lens would be a good investment.
I am interested in both original Canon lenses and lenses from other brands.
I need it to fit on a Canon EOS bayonet.

Greetings Morten

kwmullet · Jul 2, 2004

We use the Canon non-L EF 1.8 85mm and it's the most splendid lens I've ever put on a 35mm camera. Often, if I've got the camera and am going shooting for the day and only want to take one lens, I'll take the 85.

Now, I assume you're putting this on a film body. Back when I did digital capture, I found the 85mm combined with the 1.6 field of view crop factor was a bit too long for many portraits, especially studio ones. In that case, I used our other favorite, a Canon EF 28-135 IS. I would have preferred to have something like a 65mm 1.8, but we didn't have one.

I just checked on eBay and someone's got a new one for 359 that looks like it might be a good deal:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4687&item=3824750245&rd=1

-KwM-

Cheryl Jacobs · Jul 2, 2004

Ditto. I never take the 85mm 1.8 off my Canon.

modafoto · Jul 2, 2004

Cheryl Jacobs said:
Ditto. I never take the 85mm 1.8 off my Canon.

Ok. I've heard so much good about this rather cheap lens that I'm convinced.
The many hours of over-time at work will have to pay for this

Thanks!

Morten

bjorke · Jul 2, 2004

Or just shoot Contax

Buy an adapter from Stephen Gandy at CameraQuest and use the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4.

Kvistgaard · Jul 22, 2005

Morten,

I am on my second EF85 1.8 now - sold the first one and regretted it sorely afterwards. Bought a new one from technikdirekt.de. This is indeed a brilliant portrait lens, and it's small size means that it is not too intimidating to your sitters, as opposed to for instance the EF70-200 2.8 or 4.0.

technikdirekt.de delivers within one week's time in Denmark, and have fairly low prices (359 for the EF85 + 20 shipping).

Best regards
Søren Kvistgaard

modafoto · Jul 22, 2005

Kvistgaard said:
technikdirekt.de delivers within one week's time in Denmark, and have fairly low prices (359 for the EF85 + 20 shipping).

Nice! I will look at buying the lens this autumn (when I have gotten some money again after blowing it all off on vacation).

Og du skal også lige have en velkomst til APUG! Vi er ved at være en lille gruppe danskere her.

Morten

benjiboy · Jul 22, 2005

They will have to prise my Canon 85mm 1.8 from my cold dead hands!, It's the way it renders the human features, the pleasing natural perspective it produces is great. If you are into portraits you won't regret buying one.

gnashings · Jul 22, 2005

I suspected that this would happen - one more vote for that lens here! I don't own one (dont use an EF system) but did stay at a Holiday Inn...
Just kidding - I don't own EF gear, but a good friend of mine has one the non - L 1.8 ultrasonic 85mm and oh my goodness - what a lens!!! Just a joy to use, be it manual or AF (SOOOOOOOOO Quiet!!!), fast, sharp, lovely colour rendition... Usually I find nothing interesting about his EF gear, he has a fascination with ultra wide range third party zooms taht I have yet to understand... but after he showed me this jewel, and the reuslts - WOW!
Oh, and one more thing - none of the usual new lens plasticky fragile feel. Yes, its made out of some type of plastic - but it feel absolutely solid and well made.

benjiboy · Jul 22, 2005

Oh, I neglected to say my 85mm 1.8 lens is an FD, not an EF, I don't like auto focus, but I think my remarks still apply.

Black Imp · Jul 22, 2005

I'm not a professionist and I like to take some portraits outside, so I've preferred ef usm 100 f 2.0 for its capability of isolating the subject due to its focal length and it's aperture. beside it has no distortion at all and its sharpness in the middle and at the borders is not worse than 85mm.
Actually I could simply say that I've preferred a longer length for a metter of taste.

gareth harper · Jul 22, 2005

I recently bought the EF100f2. I considered the EF85f1.8 but I figured the EF100 with that extra little bit of reach would make a handy concert lens as well. I thought about the EF100mmf2.8 macro but decided against it being that bit slower.

So far I've mainly been using it between f2.5 and f4 and the results are very impressive. Certainly a worthwhile step up from my 70-200f4 as a portrait lens. I've got some shots I took at f2 to have a look at soon to see how it is wide open.

Bought it from 7dayshop.com for 270 quid (it's an American import).

Canon EOS portrait lens

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