Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
- Thread starter Fleetie
- Start date
J.R. said:Sporgon said:
Nice shot Sporgon. How do you like the contrast on the 85 f/1.8?
BTW, no respite from the rains for you, it seems
Thanks J.R. Yes the weather here is dreadful now after a good summer. When the Romans first invaded Britain the commander Julius Caesar was recorded as asking; " what do we want this land of mist and rain for anyway " ?
The 85 f1.8 isn't quite as sharp or contrasty as the 135L when both are wide open, but from about f2.2 onwards it is as good as the 135L IMO. However stating that on CR is a bit like saying the Venus statue would be better with two arms. Can produce chronic purple fringing in extreme contrast situations but stopping down a little takes care of it.
A very good lens for the money.
I recently went out with the 85 mounted on the EOS M through the adapter, so it gives a field of view very similar to the 135L on my FF bodies. Still nice and light, and although I shot almost exclusively wide open, I was quite impressed with the image quality I got. Here's one from that outing:
Miyabi by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr
Miyabi by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr
I just recently picked up one of these from B&H on sale. Was looking for something similar to my 50mm 1.4 but with a bit longer reach. I've been doing a fair bit of family functions with less than desirable lighting conditions. I have yet to put it through it's paces but I'm quite impressed so far. Quite sharp and very reasonable price.
drmikeinpdx
Celebrating 20 years of model photography!
The 85 1.8 is one of my favorite lenses for photographing people, but I haven't used it a lot this year. I became interested in lenses that create an obvious separation between the subject (usually a person) and the background. Most 50mm F/1.4 lenses will do this, as will the 24-70 F/2.8 Mark 2.
I've been using my old 85 again and find that under certain conditions, I can get a fair amount of that separation effect. It seems to be best around F/2.0, not wide open. I'm thinking the effect results from a combination of very high sharpness in the focal plane along with good bokeh (whatever that means) and a background that lends itself to a mildly abstract appearance when heavily, but not too heavily, blurred. My impression is that this separation effect really exists because of the way our visual system processes flat images (ie: photos).
Here is an uncropped example shot with the 85 1.8 a couple of days ago. Gentle adjustments in LightRoom. The camera was a 5D3 whose precise focus is part of the equation, I think.
I left the EXIF in if you want to check it.
I've been using my old 85 again and find that under certain conditions, I can get a fair amount of that separation effect. It seems to be best around F/2.0, not wide open. I'm thinking the effect results from a combination of very high sharpness in the focal plane along with good bokeh (whatever that means) and a background that lends itself to a mildly abstract appearance when heavily, but not too heavily, blurred. My impression is that this separation effect really exists because of the way our visual system processes flat images (ie: photos).
Here is an uncropped example shot with the 85 1.8 a couple of days ago. Gentle adjustments in LightRoom. The camera was a 5D3 whose precise focus is part of the equation, I think.
I left the EXIF in if you want to check it.
That is one awesome lens! I owned one about 10 years ago, sadly a horrible droop broke it. I am beginning to miss that lens.
