I love this lens - the Canon 85L

I bought my Canon 85L nearly two years ago now, when prices were more realistic. But I've never really used it much or not had the opportunity to shoot with it.

Then a friend called me the other day and asked if I would shoot some of his artwork and pottery, so I thought I would use the 85L, this would insure very little distortion would creep in.

Anyway while there I took a couple of shots to show him the narrow depth of field was at f1.2 (below), but I love this lens and wish I could use it more.

Here I've just taken a shot of a stone wall at an angle to give a feel for how shallow depth of field is at f1.2:



A flower @ f1.2:



And if you want to pixel peep, the full res flower shot is here

It's easy to see how some lenses can have such a profound effect on the photography community .

Great picture of the flower. Its not only the lens but using a 21 meg pix camera also helps

Bazza

It looks a fantastic lens for portraits and isolating subject matter. I notice you have an professional range of gear, is it just a hobby or are you working as a pro?

I hear amazing things about that lens for portraits. The 1.8 is on my wish list.

With an APS-c sized camera LM you could replicate it to a certain degree with a 50mm which would approximately equate to the 85mm. Something like the 50mm f1.4, I have for my Nikon, and a lot cheaper too. I don't follow Canon stuff, but I suspect that 85L is £1000-1200?

However, the f1.2 aperture wouldn't be so effective on the smaller sensor combined with the shorter focal length creates more depth of field, so it wouldn't be entirely to the same degree but close enough i suspect. however it's why I keep looking at full frame. I keep putting myself off but now the VAT increase coming seems a good reason to buy! Just when I though 12 MP was enough, now they have 24!

BC

Agree Nikon only give a choice of 12 or 24 meg pix cameras. However I suspect the rumoured new models will be around the 18 meg pix mark to compete with the Canon 7D.
at around £1200. Again my guess is they will be full frame cameras at around the £2300 mark.
AS the new VAT is due to start around mid Jan 2011, hopefully it may spur Nikon on to release any new models earlier than they intended.

Bazza

What a lovely lens Ken - love the creamy feel it gives, not surprised you love it

The 50mm 1.4 is futher up my wish list than the 85mm 1.8. The 50mm will be more practical on a cropped sensor, but everyone raves about the creamy bokeh you can get from the 85mm.

Thanks Bazza

Although it helps, I still used to love the files from my old 12 megapixel 5D as well. Another great full frame camera, even by todays cameras.

Hi BlackCloud, No It's a hobby, but it one I have pursued for a great number of years on & off since the early manual film SLR days. I've built my present range of digital gear up over ~7 years.

The f1.8 is a very good lens and in some respects better. The 85L mkII suffers fron CA when wide open and the focus is still to slow for sports use.

Thanks Azz, that's what I love about it too.

The 50mm f1.4 would be a great portrait lens on a 1.6 crop.

Try £1800

I bought mine when they were released, and got it for £1400, since then it has just gone up and up in price. I could probably sell it second hand now for what I paid new

And no, I am not tempted