Lens Review

[tjdhulst]

I'm looking at purchasing a fairly good yet inexpensive lens to practice portrait photography. A friend of mine has the Canon 85 mm f/1.2 lens that I really like playing with but am not about to spend $2000+ yet. I've looked at two different lenses in price ranges I would feel comfortable paying but would like reviews from others who might own these lenses or general thoughts overall. The two lenses are:

1) Canon EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM - $420

2) Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II - $100

I've searched some internet reviews but would like reviews and suggestions from the DPS community as well. Thanks for your thoughts.

Tyler

[inkista]

The 85/1.8, would probably be my choice over the two lenses you're looking at, as it's a better lens overall. The more "even" comparison between a 50mm and an 85mm would be the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM vs. the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. The 50/1.8 II, however, is THE bargain in the Canon line-up, given the low-low price and the image quality.

Two other lenses to consider that fall in roughly the same price range as the 85/1.8:

EF 100mm f/2 USM
EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus (currently has a rebate on it).

The 100/2 is a near-identical twin of the 85/1.8, but it's longer, which gives you some small advantages, including getting more out-of-focus blur. The difference between f/1.8 and f/2 is only a third of a stop. The 135 is a funky lens, but it does have the soft focus feature to play with, and it's very sharp. It's not the 135L, but it's damn close at about half the price, and it's hard for someone to build a bad 135mm lens.

If for you portraits comes down to "head shots", then the longer lenses might be worth looking at.

Wider lenses for portraiture can be used in smaller working spaces and for larger groups of people and wider framing. The two lenses you'll probably want to look at here would be the 35/2 and the 28/1.8. A 35/2 can be a surprisingly useful focal length, particularly on a crop body. But lenses with focal lengths lower than 50mm often can exhibit lateral chromatic aberration, softness, and vignetting wide open, and may introduce distortion which can be unflattering to a subject, and often give you more DoF, rather than less.

This is typically why you want a >50mm lens for formal portraiture. But on a crop body, your working distance is increased, and that can get tough, too. If you're planning on doing most of your shooting in a small studio and doing full-length shots, then even a 50mm may be too long.

[tjdhulst]

Thanks for the reply. A lot of good information in there that I hope others who read this could use. I decided to go with the 50 mm f/1.8 because of the price. The two other lenses I have only go down to f/3.5 and so I haven't had much practice with wider apertures. Most of my portrait stuff will be outdoors as I don't have a studio to shoot at and I don't do a lot of it. It's mainly just for friends who let me practice with them. Thanks again though for the advice.