85mm f/1.8 USM ?

I recently got this lens and am loving it. I have shoot in a few hours and have not done this test, hoping someone on here has.

at what apeture are you getting the sharpest images. I understand for normal portraits, dont always desire a sharp photo but what I am shooting today I will. Hoping you guys have read a report or heard what settings are best. Thanks

I'm guessing here, as I don't have that lens ...

but a rule of thumb is that the optimum sharpness of any lens normally is 2 f-stops below the maximum ... minimum ... whatever - the highest number that's printed on your lens

So if the highest numbers written on your lens are f/32, f/22 and f/16, then f/16 might be a good starting point.

Anyone who knows that better, please point out if I'm totally wrong!

Best regards,
Andy

Denny,
I have that lens also and use it extensively. It is so sharp at almost every aperture that it's really hard to notice much difference, but the sweet spot on this one seems to be f8 and f11. But...like I said, it really doesn't matter much...this lens is like a razor across the board.

Thanks, makes me feel even better about the lens. I used to feel like that about my 100 f/2 but when I got my 10D opted for the 50 f/1.4 and 85, feel like I have it covered now. And thanks for letting me know the sweet spots. Denny

The 85 f1.8 will start to get sharp at around 2.8-5.6. It is a very sharp lens.

Ro1

It is a very sharp lens.

this is a 100% crop of a picture I shot yesterday:

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File Name
     CRW_1219.CRW
Camera Model Name
     Canon EOS 10D
Shooting Date/Time
     16/05/2004 10:28:09
Shooting Mode
     Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )
     1/2000
Av( Aperture Value )
     3.5
Metering Mode
     Partial
Exposure Compensation
     0
ISO Speed
     100
Lens
     85.0 mm
Focal Length
     85.0 mm
Image Size
     3072x2048
Image Quality
     RAW

Had great luck with the lens today and as evening set in was a life saver too as my 70-200 f/4L was getting to slow, 85 was back in action for the rest of the shoot. Thanks guys

Andythaler wrote:
I'm guessing here, as I don't have that lens ...

but a rule of thumb is that the optimum sharpness of any lens normally is 2 f-stops below the maximum ... minimum ... whatever - the highest number that's printed on your lens

So if the highest numbers written on your lens are f/32, f/22 and f/16, then f/16 might be a good starting point.

Anyone who knows that better, please point out if I'm totally wrong!

Best regards,
Andy

Andy, you got it the wrong way around, the rule of thumb is: the lens performs best when you stop it down 2 stops from the largest aperture. The largest aperture means the smallest number.

Two stops down from f/1.8 is f/4.0. So probably that lens would be best at around f/4.0 or f/5.6.

you, probably, have to stop it down to f/4-5.6 to get sharper images. and, probably, to f/8 for the max. sharpness. But, IMHO, don't worry about that. There are plenty of other factors to consider first: the light, the distance to the subject and the background (for outdoor portraits, for example, people usually want to blur the background but leave all parts of the face sharp in focus) etc... Give the priority to those things when you choose aperture. It's not a big deal if you loose a little bit in terms of sharpness in order to get an overall better photo.

Examples:

For portraits, I tend to not use anything above f4....In fact, I mostly hover around f1.8-f2.8 for better background blur. Even wide open, this lens performs superbly. The only thing to watch out for is CA/PF on anything below 2.8.........It should not occur on anything above that.

Wide open:

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Thanks for the help.. this was my project yesterday.

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Aha..... that reminds me why photography is more interesting than programming computers (my job)......

dennykyser wrote:
Thanks for the help.. this was my project yesterday.

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Well......nice and sharp.

Is that wide open??

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or stopped down??

Ro1

Was inside a showroom and used available light so was at 2.0

Denny,
Here's one of my wedding shots that was made with the 85mm f1.8. It was shot at ISO100 and a f5.6 using ETTL flash (550EX) on a stroboframe.

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