Bob Evans

If I have a 50mm do I Need a 85mm for my T3i, to get best portraits/

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

There are no rules or obligations that come with camera ownership. Only you can decide what you need. Take some portraits with the 50mm and decide whether you like them. If not, you can consider other options.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

85mm or Tamron 90mm macro with a Canon mount.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

machia Loc: NJ

An 85mm will give you more compression as it will be equivalent approximately to a 125mm . The 50mm will be approximately equivalent to a 75mm , which is slightly wide for portraits .
The best portrait lenses in general fall between 85 and 105mm .
Test shots will allow you to see what pleases your eye .
Personally I'd go with the 85mm as this will give you an equivalency of about 125mm which to my eye is more flattering as it tends to compress rather than exaggerate features .
Good luck !

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

With you camera the FF equivalents are: 50mm=80; 85mm=136.

80mm is more versatile for portraits.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I use both for portraiture with crop sensor cameras, same as your T3i. (Actually, on Canon APS-C cameras like ours the 50mm and 85mm lenses give the same angle of view as 80mm and 136mm would on a full frame camera. "Ideal" portrait lenses!)

On your T3i, 50mm and 85mm represent the traditional "short portrait telephoto" to "long portrait telephoto" focal length range.

In my opinion, neither is "better". They serve somewhat different purposes.

50mm is great for indoors, full torso portraits, even couples and/or full-length portraits if you have enough working space. You need to be careful not to get too close with a 50mm or you'll start to see perspective distortion, so it's less useful for tight face shots.

85mm needs more working space, so may be less useful indoors, but is great for tight face shots without getting too close, which helps avoid distortions. It's also good for looser portraits from a bit of distance when there's adequate working space, which might be a bit more candid.

Recently I've been carrying a Tamron 60mm f2.0 Macro/Portrait lens at times (in place of three lenses: 50mm, 85mm and an f2.8 macro). It uses a micro motor, so is not nearly as fast focusing as my Canon USM lenses and isn't really up to fast sports/action shooting. But it's fine for portraits and macro. It's f2.0 aperture is better than almost all other macro lenses, which are f2.8 at best. That's within 1/3 stop of my 85mm's f1.8... And I'm usually stopping down my 50/1.4 to f2 or f2.2 anyway. The Tamron 60mm is a "crop only" lens, reasonably compact and internal focusing, great image quality and a useful alternative so I have less to carry around some of the time.

This is not to say that both wider and longer lenses can't be used for portraits. They can. But they need to be used more carefully.

There are reasons the above telephoto range is popular for portraiture. Anything wider has greater risk of various perspective distortions that can be a problem... or humorous. Big noses, tiny ears, plus anamorphic distortion of anyone or any body part near the edge of the image. Those might make people laugh... if they aren't pissed off at you. That said, a 35mm, 30mm, 28mm or even 24 or 20mm (on a crop camera... 50mm to 30mm on FF) might be used for certain types of portraits, such as "environmentals" where a lot of the person's living or work space is included in the image.

Longer teles require a lot more working space and have a subtle "perspective flattening" effect. It can be a good thing. Longer teles: 135mm to 200mm on crop cameras (200 to 300mm on FF)... are popular for fashion photography, essentially another form of portraits. You just need a very big studio or lots of room on location to use them.

With kids and pets, a zoom can be handy! I usually use a 24-70/2.8 on crop sensor cameras (or a 70-200mm on full frame). Still, these zooms are only f2.8, at best... and are rather large, heavy, intrusive lenses. So whenever possible I still prefer the smaller, faster primes.

Jim Bob

Need, no. Useful, yes.

machia Loc: NJ

I've shot portraits for over 40 years using an 85mm f1.7 . Beautiful results .
But I suppose for versatility , a 85-105mm fast zoom would be the best portrait lens , which would be about a 55-70mm for Canon DSLR's .
Interesting .

CO

Tamron has been releasing a new SP series of prime lenses that have stabilization. Very few prime lenses are stabilized. The 35mm f/1.8 VC and 45mm f/1.8 VC lenses were the first two released in Sept. of last year. They recently released an 85mm f/1.8 VC and a 90mm f/2.8 macro. I purchased the 45mm f/1.8 for my Nikon. The vibration compensation can really help if you're hand holding the camera. They have a pro build quality with a metal lens barrel and are fully weather sealed including a weather seal at the lens mount.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

The best portraits come from the longest lenses! 500mm is even better, if you have the room to use it(or the money to buy it)!!!
But the 85 is very good and tends to be fast if you want isolation and at a good price for the 1.8's!
SS

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

On my 7D MK II, I prefer the 85mm for portraits. The only concern I would have is how much room you have to work with.

If you are using a back drop (or wall) and lighting, you will want the subject to be far enough from the wall to minimize shadows and such. Then you will need enough distance from your subject in order to frame the shot the way you want. The more of the body you want included in the frame, the more distance you will need between the camera and subject. If you have multiple subjects in the frame then you probably will want a wider lens than the 85mm.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

When doing portraits, I've been using the EF 85 f/1.2L for years with amazing results. This is the original, not the mark II so it takes it good old time focusing. DOF can be an issue with this lens but not so much is you know how to use it. It seems to have a flattering effect when the subject is a woman or a baby or a woman with a baby or oddly enough a dog. I can only describe it as soft and sharp at the same time and its probably the most bokehlishious lens I own. It's big and heavy and slow and one heck of a great portrait lens. The biggest problem I've had with it on a crop sensor body is available room; not a problem on a full frame body. It's also pretty handy in a location where fast focus isn't an issue but flash is; it's a light sponge.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

As you already have a 50mm lens, I suggest the 135mm as the second lens for greatest flexibility.

Bob Evans

After months of looking at this site. Today was the first time I asked a question, and I feel like I got an education. Not being a pro, I did not have any idea of the things I learned by reading the responses. So thanks to you all. Best advice was from rook2c4 get the 135mm since I have the 5omm already.