85mm f/1.8 refurb tryouts?

[stevelee]

I took advantage of the sale on refurbs, and my 85mm f/1.8 arrived today. I had time to take a few shots this afternoon indoors and in bright sun at different f-stops and using autofocus at different distances and focusing manually, including overriding autofocus with the focus wheel.

Everything seems to be functioning normally, and the test pictures look as expected. Nothing rattles, and the focus wheel seems solid without play. I'll do some pixel peeping on the trial shots tonight to see whether I learn anything from those.

Is there anything in particular I should try so I can make sure that this is a sufficiently decent incarnation of the lens for me to keep it? I realize that the lens falls off toward the corners in sharpness, which I see as more a feature than a bug for shooting portraits. If I want some thing really evenly sharp, I'll use my 100mm macro.

I don't shoot a lot of portraits, but I recall that back in my film days I really liked the 85mm lens and used it for lots of things. With the 100mm macro and with the 24–105mm zoom, I had the focal length territory covered OK. I just though for the small amount of money, I'd get some use out this lens, and if I'm wrong, I'm not out a lot. It is of course faster than the other two lenses and has a different look, I'd imagine.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Boudreaux&Thibodeaux]

One quick and dirty centering test.... brick wall bright sun, perfectly perpendicular, wide open. Expect a bit of softness at the edges, just a little bit at f/1.8, but it should be uniform at all edges, left right, up down. Stop to f/2.8 and that lens ought to be sharp corner to corner, left right, up down. If you're focusing on the center, and the lens is favoring one edge or the other, there could be centering issues.

That's not a real "centering" test, but... its more like a field test for go/no-go. If you shoot that wall, and things are crisp all over at f/2.8 or so, any centering issues are not going to a "real world" issue. Not a scientific study, not scientific results, but "good enough for govt work"

 

[stevelee]

Thanks. I'll try that.

 

[stevelee]

One quick and dirty centering test.... brick wall bright sun, perfectly perpendicular, wide open. Expect a bit of softness at the edges, just a little bit at f/1.8, but it should be uniform at all edges, left right, up down. Stop to f/2.8 and that lens ought to be sharp corner to corner, left right, up down. If you're focusing on the center, and the lens is favoring one edge or the other, there could be centering issues.

I went out this afternoon and photographed brick walls around town as you suggested. Pixel peeping at 2x on screen, I could see slightly more softness in the top left corner even at f/2.8. But it was so slight, and really noticeable only in the last brick, that I can't imagine it would affect any real pictures. Otherwise the brick walls looked surprisingly sharp. I think the lens is a keeper.

Vignetting was a lot more obvious at f/1.8 than at f/2.8. It seemed about the same on both sides, and letting ACR use the lens profile made it seem to go away. For portraits, a bit of softening in corners and some vignetting could many times be desirable.

 

[Boudreaux&Thibodeaux]

Yah, falloff can be an issue, but like you said, portraiture ... falloff adds charm. I've done a lot of brick wall or roof shingle testing, and sometimes, its really not sharpness but the contrast and direction of the light that gives the effect of unsharp at one one edge. But, I agree, from what you said, a keeper!

Most of the "refurbs" are just returns from big box stores, so I'd not sweat it too much, and those 85's were at the right price. I nearly got one m'self...

 

[stevelee]

Yah, falloff can be an issue, but like you said, portraiture ... falloff adds charm. I've done a lot of brick wall or roof shingle testing, and sometimes, its really not sharpness but the contrast and direction of the light that gives the effect of unsharp at one one edge. But, I agree, from what you said, a keeper!

Most of the "refurbs" are just returns from big box stores, so I'd not sweat it too much, and those 85's were at the right price. I nearly got one m'self...

I wasn't really that concerned, but I thought I would do some due diligence rather than deciding too late that I should have sent it back. I have the 100mm f/2.8 macro (non-L variety) that I have used for portraits. It is sharper, maybe too sharp. Portraits look almost clinical. I took a picture of a neighbor holding her cat. Every hair on the cat looks sharp. His mouth is open, and the fangs look really sharp. I think the 85mm will take better people pictures. I also have the 24–105mm kit lens and have taken nice pictures of people with it. I think in the 85mm territory it is around f/4.5, so not so good at isolating subject from background, if that is what I want.

I did the test shots handheld, so the alignment was less than perfect, so perhaps all of the variance was related to that. My tests were not even as rigorous as what you suggested, but they really told me all I need to know. While I was out shooting brick walls, I also got some shots of public art near the town hall and pansies in their flower beds. No great art, but the pictures looked really good in terms of color and sharpness, especially with a little ACR highlight recovery in the white flowers.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

[Maximilian]

Hi Steve.

Just one thing to add to dispel all possible concerns about decentering and corner sharpness.
This kind of brick wall test is only really meaningful if you can achieve a rectangular alignment of your optical axis to the wall. And if you also use a stable tripod
Depending on f number and distance to the brick wall even an inaccuracy of less than 1 degree can lead to effects like you described.

So enjoy your new lens if center sharpness and the for this lens typical CA are within acceptable margins.

 

[stevelee]

Hi Steve.

Just one thing to add to dispel all possible concerns about decentering and corner sharpness.
This kind of brick wall test is only really meaningful if you can achieve a rectangular alignment of your optical axis to the wall. And if you also use a stable tripod
Depending on f number and distance to the brick wall even an inaccuracy of less than 1 degree can lead to effects like you described.

So enjoy your new lens if center sharpness and the for this lens typical CA are within acceptable margins.

I realize that I was less rigorous than I should have been for a good degree of accuracy. I figure that if the lens passes even this less than optimal test, it much be in good shape. And in real life, the lens with rarely be used on a tripod and never aligned with great care. I guess I could at least have used the electronic level in the camera.

If the results had been more dubious, then I would have been motivated to redo the tests under more controlled conditions. As it was, the lens performed better than I was expecting based on reviews I've read.

Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[Boudreaux&Thibodeaux]

Just quick and dirty test... glaring issues would be obvious.

OTOH.... back in the day, the two lenses that were "to die for" for portraits in my neck of the woods, were the old 105/2.5 Nikkor and of course on medium format the 150mm/4 Sonnar. Those two lenses were tack sharp, and it was standard practice to soften things up a bit with a filter, or other do-hickey (aka piece lady's of nylon hose, etc). On longer length lenses of the more or less symmetrical type, the Softar filter's worked great, especially at wider apertures. These days with internal focusing (like on the 100/2.8 Macro USM), I can't really say if the effect is the same. The EF 85/1.8 is really a sharp lens, no softening there, as also is the EF 100/2.0 (which is probably a tad sharper).... so you can begin your search for pleasing portraits with lens appurtenances.

 

[stevelee]

I used ladies hosiery material not on the camera lens, but over the enlarger lens.

In the test shots I found that very sharp detail in the texture of the bricks was obvious in all be the most extreme corners, more than I was expecting. But I still suspect it will give a less "clinical" look than the 100mm macro.

 

[stevelee]

100% crop of left edge of f/1.8 picture

 

[Boudreaux&Thibodeaux]

Hard to say unless you A/B/C/D all the corners, but at f/1.8 some softness is to be expected. By f/2.8 it ought to be crisp, edge to edge, yet have little enough DOF to not cover issues.

You're lens is a keeper. The vast majority of refurbs are just returns to stores that get inspected, cleaned, and repackaged. You can get the same thing at (for instance) the DeWalt store, where they have big box store "returns" at crazy prices sometimes.