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.Portrait Lover Glass

The EF 85 1.8 USM is Canon's shortest telephoto lens. Fast aperture and natural perspective make it a popular lens for indoor sports, portraits, candids and landscapes.

Grace Frary | Canon EOS A2, EF 85 1.8 USM and Fujichrome 100

This review consists of my opinions and observations as a hobbyist. No scientific measurements, MFT charts or pixel peeking comparisons will be found here.

Compatibility

This lens works on all Canon EOS DSLR cameras such as the 6D, 5D MK IV, Rebel SL3 and 90D. It will also work on EOS R and M series mirrorless cameras with a mount adapter. It does not fit non-Canon cameras such as Pentax, Nikon, Fuji, etc.

Why Use This Lens?

The EF 85 1.8 USM is the shortest focal length for flattering head and shoulder portraits on full frame cameras, making it popular with portrait, wedding and fashion photographers. Wider lenses distort and enlarge objects slightly nearer to the lens such as noses and hands.

However, the main reason to use a lens like this—instead of the 85mm setting on a zoom—is for the shallow depth of field (DOF) at F1.8 to 2.8. For portraits, this shallow DOF creates beautiful background blur (bokeh) and makes the subject pop. However, with narrow DOF you must pick your point of focus carefully. For portraits, this means locking focus on an eye. DOF at F1.8 at head and shoulders distance is razor thin: if you focus on an eyebrow, the eyeball, nose and ears will be soft!

For stage shows and indoor sports, the EF 85 1.8 USM is popular because of both its fast focus and large F1.8 aperture. A typical consumer zoom is F5.6 when wide open at 85. F1.8 gathers over 3 stops of additional light, allowing faster shutter speeds and lower ISO settings.

EF 85 1.8 USM | Shortest lens for flattering head and shoulder portraits on full frame cameras.

Construction

Build quality is excellent with good fit and finish, sturdy plastics and metal mount. It falls short of L series construction: no weather seals and the finish isn't as attractive as the EF 24-105 4L IS USM or EF 17-40 4L USM.

The manual focusing ring is reasonably wide and turns almost as smoothly as a manual lens.

The EF 85 1.8 USM is small (71.5 mm L) and light (425 g) , only slightly larger than the EF 50 1.4 USM. Even when mounted on the EF to RF adapter, the total length is about the same as the RF 85 2.0 Macro IS STM.

A distance window in feet and meters allows users to prefocus based on distance estimates. The 58 mm filter size makes filters inexpensive and easy to share with other Canon lenses.

99 | Canon EOS A2, EF 85 1.8 USM and Fuji Sensia 100

Focus

A ring-type Ultrasonic Motor drives an internal lens group and AF is fast, silent and sure-footed on my EOS 90D, R and R7. The front element doesn't rotate or extend during focusing. As a point of reference, my RF 85 2.0 Macro IS STM focuses considerably slower in one-shot mode and struggles with AI servo.

Although not a macro lens, the EF 85 1.8 USM focuses close enough for head shots (.85 m/2.8') and is well corrected for distortion.

FTM

The full-time manual (FTM) feature of this lens allows manual focus without flipping the AF/MF switch. To use this technique, leave the shutter button half-depressed during MF operation. Once satisfied with focus, press the shutter button all the way to take the picture. FTM only works in one-shot mode and can't be used during AI servo.

Angel Rips a Lick | Canon EOS A2, EF 85 1.8 USM and Kodak TMY

Image Quality

This lens is very sharp and flare resistant. It's sharp center frame at F 1.8 but I often stop down to F2.5 or 2.8 to squeeze in a wee bit more DOF. It's a little sharper stopped down, especially corners, but I rarely stop down beyond F4 since I prefer a blurred background.

The only place this lens falls down a little is chromatic aberration: a small amount of purple fringing is present in high contrast situations—e.g., tree branches against a bright sky. For most image situations, I rarely notice the chromatic aberration, but it is something to be aware of if you frequently shoot landscapes in high contrast light. With that said, the purple fringing is easily removed in Lightroom or DPP with a couple clicks.

Lens Hood

Canon does not include a hood with this lens. Instead, the ET-65 III (or older ET-65 II) lens hood, a clip-on design, is available as an accessory. It shades well but pops off easily. Knockoff ET-65 III hoods are available from JJC and others on Amazon and Ebay.

Grace | Canon EOS A2, EF 85 1.8 USM and Kodak TMY

Last Blurb

The EF 85 1.8 USM has been in production since 1992 and such longevity is a testament to the effectiveness of this design. High optical quality never goes out of fashion. If you shoot a lot of portraits, especially in small studios, this is a must-have lens. For the price of a consumer zoom ($499), you can have image quality that rivals L series lenses.

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6/21/2001 | Revised 10/25/2023