Bang great AF accuracy with manual overide.
No moving parts, no focus barrel movements.
Weird but wonderfull lens hood!
(Try attaching the hood in reverse and let them go crazy trying to figure out what kind of lens you got, because it looks...weird! Try it it, its fun.)
The lens hood doesn't click lock like a bayonet mount... it just clips on like a lens cap! Great!

Easily spotted by photographer friends and asked to be borrowed... annoying.

A great lens to own.
You will still be using this wonderful glass into your 4th or 5th Camera upgrade... in the next decade or so.
It's that good.

It's like having a 50mm lens on a cropped 1.6x sensor. Same FOV. (slightly)
If you are used to a 50mm on your APS sized cropped sensor, use this 85mm lens on your full frame camera if you upgrade, it's the same feel!

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

16-35mm 2.8
24-70mm 2.8
70-200mm 2.8
50mm 1.4

lightweight, compact, great color/contrast and smooth bokeh

not sharp wide open

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.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 85mm f/1.4, Canon 135mm f2

*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.

*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.

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.

Cost, sharpness, weight, quality of bokeh and colors, fast AF.

CA at 1.8! Nothing else.

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

Sharpness & size

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 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.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 17-40 f/4.0L

Light weight
Sharp and good contrast
Rich colour transfer
Fast reliable focus
Easy to manual focus
Beautiful background blur

Pity it wasn't a zoom

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

Customer Service

so far not required

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4
canon 50mm f/1.4

USM Silent fast focus Light weight "Slap your Mama!" Sharpness

Not a zoom

An excellent lens. Excellent performance with the fast silent USM autofocus. And the image quality is top notch. My best lens.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28 f/2.8, takumar and mamiya/sekor prime lenses on Canon 20d

Sturdy build, lots of glass, sharp, sharp, sharp, smooth bokeh, great for low light situations, USM quiet and fast AF, smooth manual focus ring, compact size, excellent resale value.

longish minimum focus distance. no hood included. That's all I can think of.

Awesome lens. One of the sharpest i've used. It's close to being the perfect portrait lens.

Customer Service

Canon customer service = OK

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro canon 135mm SF f2.8 canon 135mm f2

Large aperture f/1.8 Extremely fast focus speed Light weight

Apart from the hood is sold separately, I can say no.

At first I just want to find a portrait lens for a friend's graduation. I once was struggled to buy whether this 85/1.8, 85/1.2L, 135/2.8. Fortunately I found a 2nd hand 85/1.8 at a low price then I took it home. This was my first prime lens. It's a really fast lens, some said this is the fastest USM prime one, excluding L. I agreed with that. Since I use D60, when this combination is used in dim light enviroment, say inside your home, the focusing speed is greatly reduced. The most amazing feature is the big big aperture. Be careful of the narrow depth of view followed, especially when you take a group photo.

Customer Service

Haven't try

Similar Products Used:

NIL

Sharpness, even wide open Fast, accurate autofocus even in low light on eos 300 Beautiful bokeh Good build quality

Nil

While it seems all has been said about this lens, now I have finally bought one, it's incredibility compels me to add another review to the long line before me!

Customer Service

Not required as yet

Similar Products Used:

EF 50mm f1.8