Fast 85mm

So I am starting to shoot more indoor sports stuff lately and F2.8 is just too slow in a lot of things. I have been using my 35mm F1.4 and 85mm F1.8 for a while now and am going to be picking up a 135mm F2L here in the next few weeks. I love my 85mm F1.8 because of how fast and well it focuses but lately with editing I have kind of started to really dislike all the CA wide open and to about F2.8. I normally shoot around F1-4-F2 and when wide open it is rather bad. I see that there is a lot of fast 85mm lenses from Canon, Tamron and Sigma lately and am curious if any of them focus as fast or even just slightly slower than the 85mm F1.8. I know most of them are geared towards portrait work where AF speed is a second thought but figured I would ask a few users about their experiences. I find it to be great focal length on the 7D/7D mk II so It would be nice to have an alternative if one exists.

Dustin Abbott's review of the Canon 85mm 1.4L says that he found it to have the fastest autofocus. The next fastest was the Tamron 1.8 VC.

It's hard to beat the Canon 85LIS. Great lens.

Here are some basketball examples done with the 85 1.4 IS. Extremely fast focusing lens.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/22aY​Rbc

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/22aZ​kye

I love my 85L IS. Imo its much more useful than the other canon 85s. Never used sigma A or tamron so i cant speak for those.

I tried out the newest Canon 85 when it first came out. The CA turned me off right away, although it focused very fast. I ended up buying the Sigma 85 ART. Optically it produces what I think are excellent images. The only downside is the weight at nearly 40 ounces (2.5 pounds). When paired with my 1Dx it made a very heavy combo to shoot with over a long period of time.

What ISO are you shooting at now that you feel is your limit? Perhaps there is a way to gain another stop out of that instead of restricting yourself to a fast prime that might not keep up with action, or spend a ton of money to do this.

You're not alone in ditching the 85 1.8 for all that CA. It's horrible. I think I kept mine for a month or so at most before getting rid of it.

I mean it's not even usable at the apertures you buy it for, IMHO.

Right now a lot of the time I am shooting at F1.8-F2.2, 6400-8000 ISO since I am in very poor lighting(either indoors in warehouse style lighting or under very poor stadium lights). I did some research and the Tamron 85mm F1.8 VC is basically a modern version of the Canon with IS. I am going to rent on here in a few weeks and see how it goes. Worst comes to worse I might end up just using the 135L once I get it later this week and never use the 85mm anymore.

We went through a series of suggestions on how to improve on the 7D2 noise management, perhaps there is something useful in this thread.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1458521

Granted this is in a large stadium with lighting better than a school (I shoot in middle schools too though), but is at ISO 16000 using some of the techniques described. ISO 16000 isn't for the faint of heart though on the 7D2, I usually try to keep it at 12800 or lower.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/216A4407-X3.jpg&lb=1&s=A

Next time I shoot I am going to try and get some much higher ISO stuff for a few shots as a test. I have noticed one thing about the 7D2 vs the 7D. The 7D I think has less noise overall, but it is much softer. It blurs the noise and doesnt have as much sharpness as the 7D2 so far. The 7D2 has more film grain like look to me, it is sharp with more detail but the noise is much harsher. It is a bit hard to explain unless you have shot 800-3200 ISO film, you see the big silver grains but it is still sharp. I used to shoot 6400 ISO without too much issues on the original 7D and might just need to get more comfortable with what the camera can and cant do. I still enjoy a fast 85mm since it does give a lot better isolation which is helpful.

I had the 85mm 1.8 and got rid of it because of the CA. I replaced it with the Canon 100mm f2. For me this was a much better lens. Less CA wide open and nicer bokeh.