The EF 85mm lenses are a group of medium

telephoto A telephoto lens, also known as telelens, is a specific type of a long-focus lens used in photography and cinematography, in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens ...

prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

lenses A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

made by

Canon Inc. Canon Inc. (; Hepburn: ) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manu ...

that share the same focal length. These lenses have an EF type mount that fits the Canon

EOS In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Eos (; Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic Greek, Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic Greek, Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric Greek, Doric ''Āṓs'') is the go ...

line of cameras. This 85mm focal length is "perfect for portraiture" as labeled by Canon and practicing professionals, due to the focal length creating just the right perspective for both the subject and the background. The 85mm is most commonly used for head and shoulder type portraiture, upper torso portraiture and selective floral photography. It will commonly be found in the kits of photographers that shoot wedding, birthdays, and other events involving people. These photographers would also carry a 70-200mm for complementing the longer focal lengths and when extremely shallow depth of field is not needed.

EF 85mm 1.2L USM

The EF 85mm 1.2L USM is a professional L series lens. Canon markets it as their "definitive portraiture lens". The lead optical engineer at Canon who led the design team for this lens was a fashion photographer, and his intention was to design a lens that would be the definitive lens for fashion photography. This required a completely new design that would take a new direction from Canon's previous 85mm lens designs. A new element was placed in the lens to give

bokeh In photography, bokeh ( or ; ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image, whether foreground or background or both. It is created by using a wide aperture lens. Some photographers incorrectly restr ...

that was unlike any of the other lenses that fashion photographers had used before. This new large element required a new clutched electronic manual focusing mechanism that was only used on Canon's 50mm f/1.0 to handle the large specialized element. When it finally hit the market, it was the only lens in the industry that was explicitly designed for fashion photography. It is the longer of the only two 1.2 lenses Canon makes, the other being the 50mm 1.2L USM. This lens is constructed with a metal body and mount, and with rubber gripping and plastic extremities. It features a wide rubber focusing ring and a distance window with

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

index. Featuring a circular 8-blade diaphragm, and a maximum

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

of 1.2, this lens is capable of maintaining sharpness and image quality at low apertures. The lens'

depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus (optics), focus in an image captured with a camera. See also the closely related depth of focus. Factors affecting depth ...

allows distinct focus on the subject, while providing a beautiful

. The optical construction of this lens contains 8 lens elements, including one ground and polished

aspherical lens An aspheric lens or asphere (often labeled ''ASPH'' on eye pieces) is a lens (optics), lens whose surface profiles are not portions of a sphere or Cylinder (geometry), cylinder. In photography, a camera lens, lens assembly that includes an aspheri ...

element, which makes this lens extremely sharp when stopped down to about 2. This lens uses a floating front extension focusing system, powered by a ring type USM motor.

Auto focus An autofocus (AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has ...

speed of this lens is on the slow side when compared to most ring USM lenses, and photographing fast moving targets can be quite challenging with this lens. Manual focusing is done by wire: this lens does not have a direct mechanical connection to the focusing ring, but instead detects the rotation of the focusing ring and uses the autofocus motor to drive the lens elements. While full-time manual focus is available, the lens cannot be focused when the camera is off. The front of the lens does not rotate, but does extend when focusing.

EF 85 mm 1.2L II USM

The newer EF 85mm 1.2L II USM version, which is aesthetically the same as the EF 85 mm 1.2L USM, is updated with a newer CPU, 1.8 times faster autofocus, and upgraded anti-reflective lens coatings to reduce chromatic aberration, ghosting, and lens flare. This lens was used prominently in the independent feature film

Marianne Marianne () has been the national personification of the French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty. Marianne is displayed i ...

which was shot using a Canon EOS 7D.

EF 85mm 1.8 USM

The EF 85mm 1.8 USM is a consumer level lens. It is the shorter sister to the EF 100mm 2.0 USM, and is designed very similarly. It is constructed with a plastic body and a metal mount. This lens features a distance window with infrared index. An 8 blade, maximum aperture of 1.8, gives this lens the ability to create depth of field effects. The optical construction of this lens contains nine lens elements, without any special lens elements. It uses an

internal focusing An internal focusing lens (abbreviated as IF) is a photographic lens design in which focus is adjusted by moving internal lens element(s). In contrast, traditional ''unit focusing'' lenses are focused by adjusting the distance between the entire s ...

system (meaning that the front of the lens neither rotates nor extends when focusing), powered by a ring type USM motor. Auto focus speed of this lens is very fast. The plastic casing of the lens has changed over the lens's production. Starting with a smooth plastic (akin to early EOS cameras like the EOS 1000). Later the casing was changed to a textured matte plastic (much like the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 STM). In addition to portraiture, the lens is also suited for indoor

sports photography Sports photography refers to the genre of photography that covers all types of sports. In the majority of cases, professional sports photography is a branch of ''photojournalism,'' while amateur sports photography, such as photos of childre ...

, particularly on a cropped sensor, due to its focal length, fast autofocus, and fast aperture, and for photos in social situations, due to its fast aperture (useful in dark interiors) and quiet operation (which minimizes disruption). In terms of aberrations, the lens exhibits noticeable

vignetting In photography and optics, vignetting ( ) is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word '' vignette'', from the same root as ''vine'', originally referred to a decorative b ...

when used wide-open on full frame cameras, this is significantly reduced when used on a cropped sensor or when the lens is stopped down. The lens also generates

purple fringing In photography (particularly digital photography), purple fringing (sometimes called PF) is the term for an unfocused purple or magenta "ghost" image on a photograph. This optical aberration is generally most visible as a coloring and lightenin ...

in high-contrast lighting, with subjects such as chrome, water, and black-and-white scenes. These aberrations are corrected by some cameras.

EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM

The EF 85mm 1.4L IS USM is the latest addition to this series. It was announced on August 29, 2017. The lens has 1/3 of a stop less than the f/1.2 siblings, but the image stabilization gives sharp pictures with up to four stops' longer exposure. The f/1.2 versions thus have a slight edge in reduced depth-of-field and reducing subject motion blur, while the f/1.4 IS has a huge advantage in low light.

Specifications

References

EF/EF-S lens chart

Canon Camera Museum

External links

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
DPhoto Journal – list of reviews
Canon EF 85/1.2L II USM Lens Review
by Bryan Carnathan
Canon EF 85/1.2L II USM Technical Review
by Photozone
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM - Review / Test Report
photozone – detailed performance data {{DEFAULTSORT:85mm lens Canon EF lenses