Some Information About the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS [CR3]

[Canon Rumors Guy]

We’ve received a bit more information about the upcoming Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS.</p>
<p><strong>Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS Known Specifications:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>4 stop image stabilization (previously mentioned)</li>
<li>Flourine coating</li>
<li>1 moulded aspherical element</li>
<li>9 aperture blades</li>
</ul>
<p>We currently do not know the weight, dimensions, announcement date or how much this hotly anticipated lens is going to be.</p>

<p>We’re also going to <a href="http://www.canonrumors.com/clarification-corrections-on-the-upcoming-new-lenses-from-canon-cr2/">put a [CR3] onto the tilt-shift lenses we’ve been reporting about</a>.</p>
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[neuroanatomist]

1 moulded aspherical element

Interesting, and may indicate the lens will come in at a lower price than expected (although knowing Canon, maybe not ). Canon uses four types of aspherical elements, ranging from low to high cost/quality as follows:

[list type=decimal]
[*]moulded plastic
[*]replica elements (resin layered on glass)
[*]moulded glass
[*]ground and polished glass
[/list]
For comparison, the EF-S 18-55 kit lens has a moulded plastic aspherical element, the EF-S 17-55 has one moulded glass aspherical and two replica aspherical elements, and the 85/1.2L II has a ground/polished glass aspherical element.

 

[jolyonralph]

I think the price will be around $1,000. I certainly don't think it's going to be north of $1,500

 

[bereninga]

1 moulded aspherical element

Interesting, and may indicate the lens will come in at a lower price than expected (although knowing Canon, maybe not ). Canon uses four types of aspherical elements, ranging from low to high cost/quality as follows:

[list type=decimal]
[*]moulded plastic
[*]replica elements (resin layered on glass)
[*]moulded glass
[*]ground and polished glass
[/list]
For comparison, the EF-S 18-55 kit lens has a moulded plastic aspherical element, the EF-S 17-55 has one moulded glass aspherical and two replica aspherical elements, and the 85/1.2L II has a ground/polished glass aspherical element.

The 35 1.4 II and 24-70 2.8 II also have glass-molded aspherical lenses. Those aren't cheap lenses.

 

[MaxFoto]

Will it be AF? ;D

 

[jebrady03]

no mention of blue spectrum refractive optics, huh?

 

[mclaren777]

An fast prime like this would benefit greatly from BR optics technology.

I'm going to be really disappointed if Canon doesn't incorporate it into this lens.

 

[Jopa]

An fast prime like this would benefit greatly from BR optics technology.

I'm going to be really disappointed if Canon doesn't incorporate it into this lens.

The Otus 85 doesn't have BR and it's a decent lens nevertheless

 

[mb66energy]

An fast prime like this would benefit greatly from BR optics technology.

I'm going to be really disappointed if Canon doesn't incorporate it into this lens.

Really? Are you optics designer?

I am only physicist and no specialist in optics: In my opinion BR is helpful for HIGH APERTURE WIDE ANGLE lenses but not effective and/or efficient for tele lenses.

About weight & size: I am interested in compact lenses with moderate weight. So I would welcome a size in thre region of the existing 1.8 85 plus 2cm in length + 1cm in diameter. For ME some small penalty in IQ would be o.k.
If the development goes into the direction larger and heavier I might add a SpotMini robot + some spare batteries for it to help me lugging some lenses for extended walks (SpotMini: https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-mini )

About the price: 2x the 1.8 85 + 500 ($, EUR) for the IS group of a large aperture lens + 100EUR for "it's a new/unique spec combination" ... resulting in 1200 ... 1300 $/EUR ... just a guess.

 

[SecureGSM]

...and is an affordable lens

The Otus 85 doesn't have BR and it's a decent lens nevertheless

 

[-1]

The 85/1.8 is £330 and the /1.2 is £1777...

https://www.parkcameras.com/c/4620/canon-lenses-ef-mount?p=1&q=4620&sz=96&by=9&v=0&me=sz&f=br:4&x=br

Don't expect the 85/1.4 to cost less than the latter since it's defacto replacement. Here is why:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=397&Camera=979&Sample=0&FLI=0&API=0&LensComp=1085&CameraComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0

 

[Jopa]

...and is an affordable lens

The Otus 85 doesn't have BR and it's a decent lens nevertheless

Ok, how bout the Milvus 85 then?

 

[addola]

In my opinion BR is helpful for HIGH APERTURE WIDE ANGLE lenses but not effective and/or efficient for tele lenses.

What do you mean by "high" aperture. Did you mean "large", as in f/1.4, or did you mean high aperture as in high f-number, like f/16? I don't know much about BR (other than it is what they used in the 35L II).

About the price: 2x the 1.8 85 + 500 ($, EUR) for the IS group of a large aperture lens + 100EUR for "it's a new/unique spec combination" ... resulting in 1200 ... 1300 $/EUR ... just a guess.

I think it will be higher. My guess is 3x the 85/1.8 + 500, resulting in about $1600-$1700, but even then it would be priced similar to the competition pricing for 85 f/1.4 with no IS.

Nikon 85/1.4 : $1600
Sony 85/1.4 GM : $1800
Sigma 85/1.4A : $1200

I don't think it will be priced like the Sigma. Canon "can" sell it for much higher if the quality is superb. The 35L II is about twice the price of Sigma 35 Art (1700 vs 900)

I am interested to know why do you guys think it won't be priced over $1500?

 

[SecureGSM]

yeah, another affordable and fast focusing lens

...and is an affordable lens

The Otus 85 doesn't have BR and it's a decent lens nevertheless

Ok, how bout the Milvus 85 then?

 

[mb66energy]

In my opinion BR is helpful for HIGH APERTURE WIDE ANGLE lenses but not effective and/or efficient for tele lenses.

What do you mean by "high" aperture. Did you mean "large", as in f/1.4, or did you mean high aperture as in high f-number, like f/16? I don't know much about BR (other than it is what they used in the 35L II).

This was bad "translative thinking" - in germany Hoch / high means "wide open" for optics. Sorry for that - I mean large.

One property of glass and other optical media is that they have different refractive capability for different light colors (wavelengths). A single lens optics always provides different focal planes for different colors resulting in colored edges of details in the image (chromatic aberration). A simple countermeasure is to combine two lenses with different "color behaviour": one lens counteracts the chromatic aberration of the other.
As always in (material) physics: You are limited by the available types of optical glass - the BR material is an organic material which introduces additional possibilities because it has a totally different "color behavior" compared to existing materials. This CAN be helpful in a lens design but it is not THE solution for ALL problems.

About the price: 2x the 1.8 85 + 500 ($, EUR) for the IS group of a large aperture lens + 100EUR for "it's a new/unique spec combination" ... resulting in 1200 ... 1300 $/EUR ... just a guess.

I think it will be higher. My guess is 3x the 85/1.8 + 500, resulting in about $1600-$1700, but even then it would be priced similar to the competition pricing for 85 f/1.4 with no IS.

Nikon 85/1.4 : $1600
Sony 85/1.4 GM : $1800
Sigma 85/1.4A : $1200

I don't think it will be priced like the Sigma. Canon "can" sell it for much higher if the quality is superb. The 35L II is about twice the price of Sigma 35 Art (1700 vs 900)

I am interested to know why do you guys think it won't be priced over $1500?

I think it is much easier to design a very good light tele lens compared to a wide angle lens. A highlarge aperture wide angle @35mm must be a strong retrofocus construction involving a lot of elements and strong "bending of light". An 85mm large aperture lens profits from the fact that the focal length is much higher than the depth of the mirror box where no lens elements have to be.

Another reason is that Canon has to be competitive against Sigma / Zeiss / Nikon (1.4 100) / Tamron (1.8 85 stabilized) because Canon lenses are a primary reason to stay with Canon for a lot of people (besides ergonomics + support).

 

[Yasko]

no mention of blue spectrum refractive optics, huh?

May be due to the focal length. Chromatic aberrations increase when the field of view increases, so wider prime lenses typically (not necessarily) suffer more from chromatic aberrations than longer ones. Thus, this might be a feature which will predominantly be implemented into wider focal length prime & zoom lenses. Actually the 24-70 mk II does not have this specific feature, does it?
I thought the 35L USM II was the first one to bring us blue refractive optics (in other terms just a more dispersive element).

 

[Viggo]

I, for one, certainly hope this will not sit between the f1.8 and the 1.2 qualitywise. I hope this will be like the 35 L II, absolutely stellar in every way. I think this will be a 2000 dollar lens for sure.

 

[jebrady03]

In my opinion BR is helpful for HIGH APERTURE WIDE ANGLE lenses but not effective and/or efficient for tele lenses.

What do you mean by "high" aperture. Did you mean "large", as in f/1.4, or did you mean high aperture as in high f-number, like f/16? I don't know much about BR (other than it is what they used in the 35L II).

High and large are interchangeable, although in American-English "high" is an unusual choice of words, because aperture is a fraction where "f" is the focal length. So aperture should be written f/#. So with large aperture lenses, the number is higher.

 

[neuroanatomist]

no mention of blue spectrum refractive optics, huh?

May be due to the focal length. Chromatic aberrations increase when the field of view increases, so wider prime lenses typically (not necessarily) suffer more from chromatic aberrations than longer ones.

Both Canon 85mm primes suffer from pretty bad longitudinal CA.

 

[SecureGSM]

Sigma 85 Art is not any better in that regard. Plenty of CA wide open but easy to correct. It is interesting how some posts on this page suggest that 85mm primes are easier to design than 35mm ones. 85mm primes are much larger that 35mm primes. That's for reason.

no mention of blue spectrum refractive optics, huh?

May be due to the focal length. Chromatic aberrations increase when the field of view increases, so wider prime lenses typically (not necessarily) suffer more from chromatic aberrations than longer ones.

Both Canon 85mm primes suffer from pretty bad longitudinal CA.