Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM Review

Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM Performance

85mm lenses over the years have fallen into two design philosophies. On the one hand we have had designs where the widest apertures are deliberately slightly soft for sublime portraiture, becoming tack sharp as the lens is stopped down. In more recent years the tendency is to have that critical sharpness from wide open, and this latter group is where we find the new Canon.

Centrally, sharpness is already of a high order, being very good, at the open aperture of f/1.4. This becomes excellent from f/2 all the way through to f/11, remaining very good at f/16 and only softening to any extent at f/22.

Edge sharpness is very good at f/1.4 and again becomes excellent from f/2 through to f/8. Performance is still very good at f/11 and f/16, softening at f/22. The inclusion of f/22 is a bonus if required, but best avoided for the most critical work.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very tightly controlled in the centre, generally being less than one tenth of a pixel wide. The edges also return an excellent performance. Generally, fringing is not a problem and for almost every conceivable application it is unlikely that further software correction will be needed.

Short telephoto lenses tend to show some pincushion distortion and this is no exception. It measures a low +0.54% so is not likely to be noticed in most shots. If required, it could be further reduced using software.

Flare is almost always completely absent from images, with the exception of being able to catch just the right spot with the sun and creating a mass of haze that overwhelms the image. The sample shot shows this effect, but we have to work hard to find a situation where it is likely to be a problem. It is just worth bearing in mind that the sun is better kept out of shot.

Bokeh is very smooth and pleasant and in keeping with the requirements of a portrait lens. Using the widest apertures it is easy to throw even quite close backgrounds out of focus, without any hint of the busy or ragged look that some high resolution lenses can suffer from.

The IS (Image Stabilisation) system is a nice addition to the specification. Four stops advantage is suggested by Canon. This reviewer can reliably find three stops advantage, but this will vary of course from user to user and even from day to day. Suffice it to say that there is at least a very real three stops of advantage where critical sharpness can be maintained.

Value For Money

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM lens is priced at £1569. Canon offer two alternatives, the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM at £327 and the EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM at £1748. Looking at alternative lenses from all marques we can get an idea as to how these Canon lenses are pitched cost-wise.

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 AS IF UMC, £279
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, £999
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G, £1429
Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 G Master, £1549
Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 T* Planar, £969
Zeiss Milvus 85mm f/1.4, £1404
Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4, £2703

That is quite a powerful spread of superior optics, all of which offer excellent results with perhaps varying degrees of construction quality and varying degrees of that excellence. The closest comparable lenses to the new Canon are the Nikon and Sony FE and the prices of all three are very close, so for what they represent that seems about right. The rest of the VFM equation will depend on the depth of our pockets and how much use we need from an 85mm lens.

For more options have a look at the Top 15 Best Canon EOS lenses, or the Top 34 Best Portrait Lenses.

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