Sean Esopenko

Canon EF 85mm 1.8

May 29, 2010

ISO 160, F3.5, 1/60 sec

Oh my god the colour! I have never shot pictures with such deep and rich colour before with my 5D. So far I’m quite pleased with my purchase of the Canon EF 85mm 1.8 prime lens. It has contrast and sharpness that I have never shot with before and the depth of field is like butter with 8 rounded aperture blades and the ability to shoot at F1.8 while retaining most of it’s center sharpness.

However, when shooting at F1.8 on a lens of this reach, you have a very narrow margin of focus. My Canon 5D classic had no trouble focusing, however, with this fast lens. Even when focusing on a single AF point, it was fast and smooth. I’m still losing shots, however, due to my own mistake on focusing on incorrect points or simply shooting at too low of an aperture.

Here is a shot at ISO 100, F2.5, and 1/160th second exposure. You can see my DOF was too narrow to bring both boots into focus, unfortunately. This entirely defeated the lens’s ability to capture the bright colours of the pattern on the boots.

This isn’t an amazing picture, when it comes to composition, but it does a good job of illustrating the silky smooth depth of field. The 8 bladed aperture does a good job at blurring the background without introducing distracting clutter caused by lenses with fewer blades.

Comments (0) | More: Calgary, Photography