Canon 85mm lenses for portraits

What are pros and cons of Canon's 85mm lenses?

The f1.8 gets great reviews. It is very reasonably priced. It is not IS.

The f1.4 is IS. The f1.2 is not IS. They are more expensive than the f1.8, but priced around the same as each other. Between the two...

- Does the IS make the f1.4 the better choice?

- Does the faster f0.2 make the f1.2 the better choice?

Or, is it all moot and the f1.8 is really the better bang for the buck?

Thanks for indulging me.

ETA: Oh, camera is a full-frame Canon 6D, if that makes a difference.

I would say to "me" for portraits, I don't do anything that is worth the extra money of the 1.2. I've had the 1.8 for a really long time, and now use it with my Sony gear using metabones... and it has never disappointed ever. Sharp as need be. Super fast focus. Small. CHEAP.. probably one of the best deals out there. I wish I could identify any cons, but honestly I can't. Its been by my side for nearly 20 years and when I need a portrait or street lens, its one of the first I reach for. And I am not even a Canon shooter right now.

I own both and my 1.2 is far more sharp than the 1.8 at nearly everything below F8.........perhaps I have a poor representative of the 1.8......I rarely use the 1.8 and find myself going to the 1.2 exclusively. It is heavy and slow to focus but the results are awesome. Don't forget, the 1.2 allows greater subject isolation, however at 1.2 you need to be very careful as the DOF is extremely narrow. You can easily have one eye in focus and the other out of focus.

ETA: Also, purple fringing becomes an issue as you open up the 1.8, not so much on the 1.2. I've never used the 1.4 so perhaps that is middle ground. If you look at the gear reviews you'll get some idea of the differences.

HKGuns wrote in post #19168909
I own both and my 1.2 is far more sharp than the 1.8 at nearly everything below F8.........perhaps I have a poor representative of the 1.8......I rarely use the 1.8 and find myself going to the 1.2 exclusively. It is heavy and slow to focus but the results are awesome. Don't forget, the 1.2 allows greater subject isolation, however at 1.2 you need to be very careful as the DOF is extremely narrow. You can easily have one eye in focus and the other out of focus.

ETA: Also, purple fringing becomes an issue as you open up the 1.8, not so much on the 1.2. I've never used the 1.4 so perhaps that is middle ground. If you look at the gear reviews you'll get some idea of the differences.

Haha, I seem to be good at that regardless what lens I'm using.

I've used the 85 1.8 for several years now but mostly in the studio at F8. From what I've read that lens has a sweet-spot if you enjoy shooting wide open at F2.2. The 85 price increases by $1000 once you consider the F1.4 IS. if you have the money, the 85 1.2L has been said to be magical creating a distinctive OOF that none of the either 2 renditions can.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #19168799
What are pros and cons of Canon's 85mm lenses?

The f1.8 gets great reviews. It is very reasonably priced. It is not IS.

The f1.4 is IS. The f1.2 is not IS. They are more expensive than the f1.8, but priced around the same as each other. Between the two...

- Does the IS make the f1.4 the better choice?

- Does the faster f0.2 make the f1.2 the better choice?

Or, is it all moot and the f1.8 is really the better bang for the buck?

Thanks for indulging me.

ETA: Oh, camera is a full-frame Canon 6D, if that makes a difference.

The way this is presented, I can only assume your goal is super narrow DOF in outdoor environmental shots with lots of room to work with so you can do full body or couples and still have very thin DOF, in which case, I would argue that only get a very fast 85mm if this is your particular style of portrait with dreamy backgrounds or to hide unsightly backgrounds. But know that you don't need F1.2~F1.8, F4 will blur a background with an 85mm on full frame.

I say this because "portrait" isn't one thing, other than portraying your subject in some way. Studio portrait for example may operate at F8~F11 for lighting purposes and to ensure all the subject is in focus (and not wow'd by eyes in focus but nose and ears out of focus which is all too common with close up face shots with the F1.2 version, which just looks silly as a portrait).

Anyhow, you probably need to provide more info about the context for portrait that you want to do with whatever lens.

Otherwise, I would argue, just get a 70~200 F2.8L II (or III) instead unless you just absolutely must use 85mm and has ultra fast focal-ratio.

If you're more about the 85mm lenses, instead of trying to split hairs (literally) between F1.2, F1.4 and F1.8 (there's just not enough difference in DOF here to matter enough to justify this as the only difference to look at), I would argue you should place far more importance on the presentation of bokeh from each lens regardless of its focal-ratio and the presence of chromatic aberration wide-open and overall rendering quality and micro-contrast. Worry less about the speed of the focal-ratio and potential DOF (which is again minutia between F1.2, F1.4 and F1.8).

Very best,

A used 1.8 is great value for money.

The 1.2 is a better in terms of sharpness. It's a lot heavier (a burden if you are carrying it around all day) and focuses noticeably slower (not great if the subject is moving around a lot). Both can have some strong colour fringing/chromatic aberration wide open.

I haven't tried the 1.4 IS.

In the end it really depends on how you are going to be using it, eg. studio, walk around, low light, moving or static subjects, etc.

I'll elaborate a bit on my above post since I own and have used extensively both the 1.8 and the 1.2 II, I've used the 1.2 a LOT more than the 1.8 because the IQ is so much better.

1.8 Pro's

- Light
- Good IQ
- Sharp when stopped down
- Great color and contrast
- Fast focus
- Inexpensive

1.8 Con's
- Can be soft when shot wide open
- Horrible purple fringing when shot wide open
- Feels cheaply made as compared to the 1.2

1.2 II Pro's
- Sharp at all apertures
- Great IQ
- Fabulous Bokeh
- Fabulous color and contrast

1.2 Con's
- Heavy for a relatively small lens
- Price
- Relatively slower focus
- Shallow DOF at lowest apertures can produce unintended consequences if not careful