Advice between Canon Prime 50mm or 85mm?

[Carl911]

Hi,
I have been enjoying taking portrait photos and have decided to buy a new Prime lense.
I am completely torn as to which lense would be best to buy.
I have chosen to buy either the:-
Canon 50mm f1.4 or the 85mm f1.8.
Both are similarly priced but obviously the 85mm will allow me to take the same picture at 1.5ft further away than the 50mm.
Can anyone advise if one lense is better than the other etc.
I have seen pictures on this forum taken with both and both look excellent.
So how do I make my decision?

Help appreciated.

[inkista]

Well, you pretty much answered it yourself, what kind of working distance do you prefer? In nearly everything else, those two lenses are very close; build quality, feature set, etc. You could look at the EXIF of pictures taken with your 17-85, but I think that will probably show you use 85 a lot, simply because it's the end of your zoom range on the walkaround.

You could also rent or (if you have a friend with one or the other, borrow) both lenses to see which one you prefer before purchasing. If you like living dangerously, you could purchase both and decide before the return period is up.

[cphoniball]

I have no experience with the 50 1.4, but I can say that the 85mm is an excellent, excellent portrait lens - in situations where you have room to move around. Framing gets tricky once you're in a tight space and can't move too much or have to remain in relatively close. I think image quality is close between the two lenses.

[LoveDSLR]

You should ask which focal length is more appropriate for yourself? For example, I use the 85 f/1.2 L II on a FF body.

The 50mm f/1.4 is faster and you can crop your photos.

[KathrynWilson]

It also depends what other lenses you have available. The 85 is nearly unusable due to focal length for indoor work aside from the occasional large church or very big living room, so it's important to think about other uses. I see you have the 17-85, but that doesn't give you the flexibility with aperture. So think about what you shoot, and where, first. Both lenses are great.

[private]

You may not want to read this BUT if money is not an issue, sell the 17-85 and get the 24-70 2.8L lens. You will not regret it. And if you photograpgh indoors in tight spaces I would get the 50mm, it gives you the option of using your own zoom - your legs (LOL)

[jodyangel]

Ok I'm in danger of looking Really dumb here..but I don't know and I Need to know..or understand.

So how close or how far away should I be with a 50mm 1.8 lens. I know that the 50mm makes it a wider lens. But literally how close or far away should I be for the best sharpness??

[inkista]

Distance doesn't affect your sharpness. It affects your framing and your depth of field.

Aperture will affect your sharpness. From the dpreview data, I'd say that the 50 1.8 is sharpest when it's stopped down in the f/4-f/5.6 range. It's a rare lens that's at its best wide open. Doesn't mean you shouldn't shoot with it wide open ever, just that you should be aware of the tradeoffs.

Working distance is about how far away you need to stand from your subject to get the framing that you want. To get the same framing with a longer lens, you have to be farther away from your subject. Some folks prefer to get closer with a wider lens, some folks prefer being farther off with a longer lens.

[jodyangel]

hmm ok. I understand the framing thing. Just wondered if my distance had anything to do with my struggle to get a nice crisp portrait.

So it doesn't matter how close or far you are with any kind of lens? It just affects your DOF?

[inkista]

Yes, and no.

With a prime lens (one that doesn't zoom), how far away you are is likely only to affect your DoF.

With a zoom lens, however, there are going to be spots in the zoom range where the lens is going to be less sharp--typically at the extremes of the range, although that's not always the case. A prime is optimized for its single focal length. A zoom, however, often has to make compromises to cover the entire focal length range. And the larger the range, the worse those compromises can get.

Again, I'd recommend seeing if dpreview's tested your lens, and playing with their tool to see how your lens performs at different apertures and focal lengths.