REVIEW: Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM

Today, my lens collection was expanded by one.  A new Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM  

This is a great telephoto prime lens for the price.  Having used EF 24mm f/1.8 USM of the same product line (ones with gold dotted line on the barrel) for almost a year, I am very familiar with its build quality, focus ring and etc., and I am very satisfied with them.  

I am not qualified to make a definite comparison with the more expensive L lenses since I do not own one. (I regularly rent them if I need to)  But as a videographer rather than a photographer, the lighter weight of these non-L lenses can become a plus factor when it comes to using Glidecam and Glidetrack.  And for videos, the picture doesn't necessarily have to be perfectly sharp, although sharp means better for most of the time.  

Its 1.8 aperture is obviously a minus factor compared to 1.2 of its respective L lens, but for a person who's highly cost-aware like me will always choose 1.8 for under $400 and not the 1.2 for over $2,000, and consider getting more other lenses.  And honestly, the f/1.8 coupled with the focal length of 85mm yields very shallow depth of field, as you can see in these photos. (Be noted that I didn't even open up all the way to f/1.8 and I honestly think I should have.) 

Ok, enough with me talking, I will let the photos speak for itself.  The first two photos are taken with my other new lens, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and only these two were modified in Adobe Lightroom.  The rest were taken with the 85mm f/1.8 and no adjustment was made except resizing.  For some of them, I'm also posting close-up version of them, but even for the close-up ones I had to reduce the sizes to approximately 40%.

SAMPLE PHOTOS TAKEN WITH CANON EF 85MM F/1.8 USM LENS ON CANON EOS 7D CAMERA