The Canon EF 85mm lens is a photojournalist’s dream. Super fast and dead-on sharp, its slight telephoto focal length adds charm to the images through a slightly foreshortened perspective. This is a perfect, grab-shot lens for location work, and, even though its huge front element (72 mm) adds extra weight, is the lens of choice for many wedding and documentary photographers on the prowl for the perfect moment.
Canon EF 85mm lens Auctions
With a maximum aperture of f1.2, not only is this lens able to function under very low light levels, depth of field at f1.2 is virtually non-existent.
The canon 85mm 1.2 lens makes it easy to isolate an in-focus subject within an out of focus fi eld, both in the foreground and background.
Current trends in creative food photography lean toward small areas of sharp focus with rapid fall off to blur, a beautiful and evocative trick. The majority of contemporary cookbooks have been photographed this way, and I’ve even seen upscale restaurant menus shot with this style. Many of these images are made on sheet film, with the view camera’s lens tilted in such a way as to limit depth of field, and many are manipulated in Photoshop. Although the look may not be quite the same, this lens makes that effect an easy one to achieve.
At 85 mm, this EF lens is terrific for portraits. The slight perspective compression that I spoke of earlier, coupled with a mid-range f-stop of 5.6 or 8 will hold focus over the planes of the face but begin falling off to a nice blur at the ears and shoulders.
There’s a buzzword floating around, bokeh, which refers to the quality of the out of focus areas in any image where
such is deliberately introduced or used as a compositional element. I understand it came from the Japanese, boke, but I’d
never heard it until recently and it isn’t in my American dictionary. I just wanted to pass it along, so that if a member of the
photographic intelligencia drops the word into polite conversation, as in “Hey! Nice bokeh!” you won’t take it personally.
Canon 85mm lens Photo Samples
- Canon EOS 5D
- Canon EF 85 mm f1.2
- 1/3200s
- f/1.2 at 85mm
- iso 400
- Canon EOS 5D
- Canon EF 85 mm f1.2
- 1/500s
- f/1.2 at 85mm
- iso 100
- Canon EOS 5D
- Canon EF 85 mm f1.2
- 1/2500s
- f/1.8 at 85mm
- iso 400
Specifications
- Filter Size: 72mm
- f/Stop Range: 1.2-16
- Minimum Focus Distance: 3.2' (0.95 m)
- Magnification: 1:9
- Angle of View: 28 Degrees
- Groups/Elements: 7/8
- Length: 3.3" (84mm)
- Maximum Diameter: 3.6" (91mm)"
- Weight: 2.25 lb (1.025 kg)
Canon Lenses