Highly practical medium telephoto lens with superb delineation and portability. Images are sharp and clear at all apertures. The lens has been designe
Highly practical medium telephoto lens with superb delineation and portability. Images are sharp and clear at all apertures. The lens has been designed to give beautiful background blur. Since the front lens group does not rotate during focusing special filter effects are not affected.
s probably the best value Canon lens. The quality of the image is very good, big aperture allow low light hand held shot and create a shallow depth of field. The auto focus is quiet and very fast.
Build quality of this lens is very good, feels very solid and definitely a step up from kit lens. It is relatively short and light weight compared to general purpose lens (3.0" x 2.8", 15.0 oz. / 75.0 x 71.5mm, 425g).
Application of this lens will be portrait, indoor sport (basketball, volleyball), art performance and candid photography. Check out my website http://www.radiantlite.com for photo samples and video tour.
Strengths:
lightweight, compact, great color/contrast and smooth bokeh
Bang for buck one of the best Canon lenses, it’s sharp and fast. It was my second prime after a “nifty fifty” and I never looked back. I used it on FF cameras as well as "smaller" Canons, it's great on FF but even better on smaller sensor ones where it is effectively 135mm telephoto lens.
Strengths:
*Great value for money - one of the best, if not the best, non-L lenses.
*Sharp, fast.
*Pretty compact - good for candid shooting, excellent portrait lens, great for low light situations.
Weaknesses:
*No hood included - it just cries out for a nice, snap-on petal hood.
*Pretty outragous minimum focusing distance.
*Very poor macro capability - I know there is a great 100mm macro lens made by Canon but this one could be a bit better.
t is no wonder this lens is highly respected by the Canon community. Although it does not have any special glass, it is amazingly sharp and produces a very beautiful bokeh. What is simply amazing, is its price. This prime is also lightweight and therefore can be easily added to your bag without having your back (and wallet!) suffer the consequences.
The DOF at 1.8 is quite narrow, but in general the focusing is excellent. The CA at 1.8 is troubling, but easily fixed by software. By f4 the lens already peaks and the quality of the colors produced is surprising. This lens is cheaper than the comparable 100 f2 and can be used with either Full Frame or 1.6x sensors. There is just no downside here.
You can check many images taken with this lens here:
http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/ef_85_18u
Strengths:
Cost, sharpness, weight, quality of bokeh and colors, fast AF.
I purchased this lens thinking it was going to clutter up my style - I believe in being as portable as possible with no distraction from "trying to decide which lens to use" - so I can concentrate on the image at hand rather than on the equipment. But I needed something a little longer for the Rock and Roll images I create. And now, eight months later, I am so glad I have it - I have used it to create album covers and some exceptional live images. It is amazingly sharp. I am not a super techno dude, so I couldn't tell you about all the technical characteristics - this lens just works.
Strengths:
Sharpness & size
Weaknesses:
Lens-shade - I use a Mamiya Pro rubber/collapsible lens shade with a 58-77 step-up ring rather than the plastic bayonet style - they snap easily and they look cheesy!
I bought this lens together with Canon 50mm f/1.4 as I was so impressed in the low light shooting capabilities of the Sigma 30mm f1.4 that I had purchased some months earlier. The 85mm f/1.8 is of a much higher quality both mechanically and optically than the 50mm f/1.4. The 85mm produces less flare, has better contrast and has a more reliable auto focus. It seems as the focal length decreases so does the auto focus accuracy on the 350D when using fast lenses. The purple fringing that is apparent under strong light seems to be less on the 85mm too. The focus ring operates smoothly and without any play, unlike the 50mm lens. My main objective was to use this lens as a telephotos when filming at folk music events. Most of these events are poorly lit. All lenses mentioned have proved to work very well here. The other thing the 85mm excels in, is the manual focus. The 30mm and the 50mm lenses are just about impossible to manual focus in low light. If you are considering between the 50mm or 85mm lens the 85mm lens is of much better value, when considering there is only about $50 between then
Strengths:
Light weight
Sharp and good contrast
Rich colour transfer
Fast reliable focus
Easy to manual focus
Beautiful background blur
Sample Images
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