aldevo
Member
I don't know if your individual lens issue falls under this, but Canon has apparently been having some major issues both in design and quality control in both lenses and camera bodies. The bulk of the problems are falling on the AF with no tangible answers in sight.
While I am a Nikon shooter, I take no joy in this. I haven't seen the Canon 85mm 1.8 mentioned specifically, so hopefully your problem is isolated and not endemic.
Pentax, too, though they are really a "digital-only" manufacturer at this stage. In fact, some of their recent primes for their K-series digial cameras have been derided as useless due to extreme AF problems.
People may not realize it but, increasingly, Canon and Nikon do not manufacture their own glass - save for their pro ranges. Pentax no longer manufactures any of its lenses at all (the old "AOCO" factory in Tokyo is rubble).
There's a lot of sharing of components among lens makes now and lens OEMs supply several makes. Thus, it isn't surprising that problems are far-reaching when they occur.