Introducing the incredible prime 85mm lens as our equipment recommendation this week! Jason describes the 85mm as an amazing portrait lens. You can truly see the fun shoots he has had with his 85mm by the way he talks about the great shallow depth of field. While the fastest and coolest 85mm is obviously the f/1.4, Jason recommends the f/1.8 85mm lens. The f/1.8 is substantially cheaper than f/1.4 and is equally qualified to get all the amazing pictures. So, the 85mm we recommend are the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens and the Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF Nikkor Lens.
The best part of the 85mm f/1.8 is how amazing it is for portrait and head shots. These lenses are reasonably sharp wide open and yield great quality images on the lower f stops. The 85mm lens is amazing for these types of photos, but is not meant for macro photography and has minimum close-focusing distance and low magnification. By opening the aperture wide, you create an incredible bokeh effect. Bokeh is the effect of blurring the background and bringing all the focus to the subject of the photo. This is beneficial for you because by throwing the background out of focus, you can remove a distracting background that can take away focus from the main subject. The 85mm makes getting the bokeh effect easy and really makes your photos pop.
The 85mm f/1.8 maximum aperture enables you to catch every moment, without flash, in low light. This lens can capture a shot in light only half as strong as would be required for a professional f/2.8 zoom and light only one quarter to one eighth as strong as would be required for a kit lens. The 85mm ƒ/1.8 is slightly soft when used wide open at ƒ/1.8. This improves as you stop down and at ƒ/2.8 the lens approaches its optimal sharpness. Sharpness continues to be excellent all the way through to ƒ/16.
Another convenient feature of the 85mm is how much lighter it is than your other large bulky zoom lens. The 85mm is also an amazing value! The f/1.8 only loses two-thirds of a stop, but costs only one-third the price of the f/1.4 lens.
Now for the specifics, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens is an amazing portrait lens for a film or full frame Canon digital SLR and a great portrait lens for a Canon small-sensor digital SLR (Canon Digital Rebel). The Canon 85mm focuses fast and quietly, which is good when taking portraits because it does not distract the subject and with the speed allows you to catch every smile or look posed and in between.
The Canon 85mm lens weighs in at 425g (15 oz.). Like all of Canon’s equipment, it is made simply and with great precision and quality. The 85mm lens is plastic, but rugged with a wide manual focus ring. Unfortunately, the lens hood is sold separately, but the price of the lens is so amazing it makes up for any extra equipment needed to be bought.
The Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor Lens is also built in high quality, covered with a plastic shell for extra protection. Compared to Canon, it weight less than their 85mm at 374 grams (13 oz.). The Nikon 85mm was constructed to stand up well in day to day use with a metal body mount. This lens comes with a round screw-in hood made of metal with a ribbed interior. This hood improves every shot by preventing flare and other harmful effects from the environment.
Overall, both Canon and Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lenses are equally made in great quality and with an amazing value. So, when weighing your options for a new lens consider the 85mm lens to capture amazing portraits and head shots and catch the moments fast and beautifully!
