Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

Hi uhh friends, again advise please, I am looking at buying a prime Lens for my 7d and have been looking at the CanonEF 50mm f1.4usm an the EF 85 m F1.8 usm my wanting is mostly for taking portrait shots your comments would be most welcome should any of you work with either of these Lens, my concern is I have been told (right or wrong) that a 50 is not a portrait lens. Your thoughts please

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

The 50 sure can be used for portraits, especially on a cropped sensor camera (works a lot better for head portraits) and the shallow DOF makes it a perfectly suited one for this! It too has good IQ to go along with it!

CResQ Loc: Cobble Hill, BC

I have both, they are both good lenses. As mentioned the 50mm works well for head shots, out of the two I prefer the 85mm which on a crop sensor will give you a field of view equivalent of 136mm.

Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

many many thanks that's good to know

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

I use the 85mm almost exclusively for portrait (amateur) shots. Using on a 60D. Very good lens for the job.

Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

many thanks, sounds like I am on the right track, if money was no object is there great gain in the L series would you know

miketx Loc: Texas

I know you said Canon but on my cropped sensor Nikon D90 I have a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 that has a very shallow depth of field at 1.8 and due to the sensor size makes it close to the ideal portrait lens. I'm sure a Canon would be the same. I got mine at Amazon for close to 100.00 dollars! Here is a page from amazon showing some of what they have.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canon%2050mm1.8%20lens&sprefix=caa%2Caps%2C1237

Also here is my prime lens and one portrait I took with it. Good luck.

Note that the background was removed for the portrait, but I left the original to show the depth of field at f1.8

(Download)

Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

thanks to all of you for replying its good to know from those with the experience of using them. cheers

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

I have both lenses also, and usually will opt for the 85mm on the 7D.

My reasoning is that the 50mm will still have more distortion/less compression than the 85mm, regardless of the crop sensor. Crop sensor only shows less of the viewing frame that a FF will have. The optics of the lens in the middle stays the same and will have nothing to do with compressing the subject in a more flattering way.

i.e. A prominent nose will still look larger on a 50mm whether it is on a crop sensor or FF. It will lessen in apparent size more with an 85mm. If you compared a 16mm to a 50mm, then the same principle applies and the apparent effect would be more dramatic.

Froggy Loc: Guernsey Channel Islands UK

many thanks for your input, I had read very similar to that, I am very very much the learner and there is so much to take on board, so very much appreciated

amehta Loc: Boston

The 85mm will require a little more space, but I think the results will be excellent!

Benttree Loc: GA.

Froggy,

For the portrait Canon 50 and 85 are both a super fantastic lens'es.
In my studio I use 85mm and 70-200L II and more-people 24-70mm .
I think 85mm is a better choice than 50mm since you can back up bit more from you model,(for less camera intimidating) and softer blur for background. Canon 85mm is a "fast" lens and with large aperture it do give you beautiful soft background-blur and extra sharp subject.

AntonioReyna Loc: Los Angeles, California

I would go with the 85 for portraits. You don't have to get so close and I believe that the final images will have a more "snap" look them them than off the 50. The 85/1.8 Canon lens is a superb lens. Love it.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Go 85mm. Better image quality, better bokeh and better build quality. If you want to play with a 50mm maybe spend a $100 on a f1.8 50mm. Or get the 40mm pancake for $150 to $200. It is a great lens on crop camera too.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I have both and they are the "yin" and "yang" of traditional portrait lenses on a crop camera such as the 7D. The 50mm is a bit more of an "indoor" portrait lens, since it requires a little less working distance. And the 85mm might be a little more of a candid lens, allowing you to stand off a bit farther away.

Ultimately, if you do a lot of portraiture you'll probably want both. I wouldn't rank one over the other. They both serve their purposes well. The perspective of each is ideal for portraiture, there is not too much compression with the 85mm, nor too much exaggeration with the 50mm.

Lately I've been trying something different... When I want to minimize my lenses and lighten my load, such as when hiking with gear and don't know if I'll have a need for a portrait lens... I got a Tamron SP 60mm Macro lens that replaces both the 50mm and 85mm, as well as a macro lens in my bag. One lens to replace three. It's about the same size/weight as the 85mm (a little larger than the 50mm, but smaller than a 100mm macro lens). The only downside is that it's not a fast focusing lens... it uses a micro motor and is simply slower... as are most macro lenses that need to focus all the way from infinity to 1:1, plus tend to emphasize accuracy over speed with a long-throw focus mechanism. This isn't a problem for macro shots or most portraits with the 60mm, but the USM focus drive of either the 50/1.4 or the 85/1.8 is a lot more usable for any sort of sports/action shooting. Just an alternative to consider.

Either lens you choose, get the lens hood that's sold separately, as well. It's sort of an odd clip-on style for the 85/1.8, with weak looking plastic tabs keeping it in place... but actually holds up a lot better than I thought it would (never had to replace mine, which has seen a lot of use over 8 or 10 years time).

The EF 50/1.4 is pretty widely thought to have a somewhat weak AF mechanism, that makes it rather easily damaged. It's called a USM lens, but is actually a hybrid form of USM. Because it might be a little prone to damage, the bayonet hood for this lens is even more important with this lens... When shooting it protects the front barrel of the lens from bumps (a filter won't protect it in the same way). And when stored with the hood reversed, it covers and protects the focus ring from bumps while in the camera bag. Also be sure to set the lens to infinity, fully retracting the front barrel, when putting it away for storage. I also try to avoid doing much manual override of the AF... some think that causes more rapid wear to the hybrid AF drive of the 50/1.4. None of this is a big deal, since it's mostly what we do with our lenses anyway... It's just more important with the EF 50/1.4 than some other lenses.

My copy of the 50/1.4 was bought used more than 10 years ago and it's always been used that way, still works fine. OTOH, Lensrentals.com - who keep a running tab on repairs for the large number of lenses they buy and stock - reported a lot of failures in the 50/1.4's AF mechanism that required warranty repair. Around 20% in the first year if I recall correctly. Of course, rental lenses spend an awful lot of time bouncing around in the back of a UPS truck, may or may not be used regularly with the lens hood, and probably don't get the same kind of care and coddling from users that they give their own lenses.

I don't want to overstate the 50/1.4's weak AF mechanism issues.... There are probably hundreds of thousands of those lenses out there working perfectly, it's been in production almost since the beginning. And it's a considerable step up from the EF 50/1.8 (which has a slow, noisy, inconsistent micro motor focus drive). I also prefer the 50/1.4 to the much more expensive 50/1.2L... The f1.4 lens is much smaller, lighter and more unobtrusive.

The problem with the 40mm is that it's f2.8, which isn't great for portraiture. I considered the original Sigma 50/1.4, which is a wee bit sharper wide open, but less sharp at apertures beyond f5.6. However it's a much larger and heavier lens (ridiculously big for a 50/1.4)... and was more expensive than the Canon lens at the time, too. The new Sigma 50/1.4 "Art" promises premium image quality, but at a premium price (though still not as much as a 50/1.2L) and it's somehow managed to grow even larger and heavier.

Both the 50/1.4 and 85/1.8 are quite fast and accurate focusing, and the 85mm uses a "true" USM focus drive that's a lot less worrisome and allows for full time manual override without any issues.

The 50/1.4 is slightly soft wide open... though I find it usable if needed, especially for portraiture which doesn't always have to be ultra sharp anyway. Stop down just a little to f2 and it sharpens up very nicely. The 85/1.8 is sharp even wide open, but does tend to have some chromatic aberration, especially at the largest apertures. If need be, that's pretty easily fixed in post processing and/or with lens profiles.

The background blur you get with each lens will depend upon a lot of things such as the distances you are working with, but the results can be very similar. Both lenses use 8-bladed apertures and have large enough apertures to throw strong background blurs, without being so large that depth of field gets super thin (though DOF is something you need to watch with them).

The image quality is actually pretty similar. In fact the 50/1.4 used to be considered Canon's "reference" lens... that gave the image and color rendering that they set as standard for all the lenses they offered. These days no one talks much about reference lenses any more, but it was a big deal at one time. Build and functionality of the two lenses look and feel nearly identical (except differ as noted above).

Again, if you do a lot of portraiture, eventually I expect you will get both lenses. But if you only have the budget for one right now, I'd probably recommend the 50mm as the more versatile of the two and maybe the first one to get. With the 85mm, there can be times when you just can't back up any more and it's too long to get the shot you want, such as shooting indoors in smaller rooms. That's a lot less of a concern with the 50mm.