The EF 85mm lenses are a group of medium

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

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 which 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. is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

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

EOS In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at ...

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. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and ...

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, 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 those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

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

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

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 furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...

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 whose surface profiles are not portions of a sphere or cylinder. In photography, a lens assembly that includes an aspheric element is often called an aspherical lens. ...

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 ''Auto Focus'' is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on Robert Graysmith's book ''The Murder of Bob Crane'' (1993). ''Auto Focus ...

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 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 border ...

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