Looking for a portrait lens. 50mm or 85mm ?

I am looking to buy a second lens to go with my t3i. Have shot with kit lens so far. Its been only a month. There are couple of things that the kit lens has kept me longing for

1. More reach.
2. Better portrait shots (i.e. more bokeh)

I'm not looking to get both of these things in a single lens. i guess i will deal with the 'reach' thing later, but to deal with the portrait shots, i'm looking to buy a prime lens.

Have done a bit of research and so far 50mm and 85mm seem to be the two popular focal lengths for the portrait shots (with 30 and 35mm variants also being recommended for full body shots).

So what i need to ask is which of the two is the better suited focal length for a crop body, 50mm (80mm equiv) or 85mm (136mm equiv) for portraits ?
I will mostly be shooting torso up.

I'm currently torn between these choices
Canon 50mm 1.8 (or shall i go for 1.4?)
Canon 85mm 1.8 (same price as 50 1.4 !!)
Samyang/Rokinon 85mm 1.4. have read excellent reviews about this lens.
Its Cheaper than its counterparts, but lacks AF.

I'm strongly inclined towards Samyang at this point, but i have no idea how it will be like working with manual focus.

So what should i go for. Will really appreciate any ideas/suggestion or personal experiences. Thanks : ).

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Azfar said:

I am looking to buy a second lens to go with my t3i. Have shot with kit lens so far. Its been only a month. There are couple of things that the kit lens has kept me longing for

1. More reach.
2. Better portrait shots (i.e. more bokeh)

Click to expand...

A lens cannot have more bokeh. By definition, bokeh is a quality, not a quantity. What you really want is a lens with a shallower depth of field.

Azfar said:

I'm currently torn between these choices
Canon 50mm 1.8 (or shall i go for 1.4?)
Canon 85mm 1.8 (same price as 50 1.4 !!)
Samyang/Rokinon 85mm 1.4. have read excellent reviews about this lens.
Its Cheaper than its counterparts, but lacks AF.

I'm strongly inclined towards Samyang at this point, but i have no idea how it will be like working with manual focus.

Click to expand...

Either focal length would be fine, but the 85mm would give you more potential for a shallow depth of field. You would need more working distance though; if you are inside, then it may be too long. IMO, manual focus would not be an issue for taking portraits, but if you wanted to use the lens for other things, then the lack of it might bother you.

Azfar said:

So what i need to ask is which of the two is the better suited focal length for a crop body, 50mm (80mm equiv) or 85mm (136mm equiv) for portraits ?
I will mostly be shooting torso up.

Click to expand...

It depends upon the camera to subject distance that you can use. Indoors in a small space the 50mm might be better while the 85mm would be my choice outdoors whenr I could back up at will.

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Azfar said:

I am looking to buy a second lens to go with my t3i. Have shot with kit lens so far. Its been only a month. There are couple of things that the kit lens has kept me longing for

1. More reach.
2. Better portrait shots (i.e. more bokeh)

Click to expand...

...

Azfar said:

So what i need to ask is which of the two is the better suited focal length for a crop body, 50mm (80mm equiv) or 85mm (136mm equiv) for portraits ?
I will mostly be shooting torso up.

I'm currently torn between these choices
Canon 50mm 1.8 (or shall i go for 1.4?)
Canon 85mm 1.8 (same price as 50 1.4 !!)
Samyang/Rokinon 85mm 1.4. have read excellent reviews about this lens.
Its Cheaper than its counterparts, but lacks AF.

Click to expand...

...

135mm is the classic full frame portrait length. This is good for head/upper torso shots indoors unless you have a large room, the 85mm being the crop equivalent. 85mm is more the full frame standard for half portraits in close quarters, so about 53mm in the Canon crop. So really either a 50mm or 85mm would be good for portraits depending on how much room you have. If you look at depth of focus, it depends on distance to subject, aperture, focal length and CoC.

For instance DOF for a 1.5X crop sensor CoC 0.009mm
50mm, f/1.8, 7ft: DOF 0.197 ft
85mm, f/1.8, 12ft: DOF 0.201 ft

50mm, f/1.4, 7ft: DOF 0.154 ft
85mm, f/1.4, 12ft: DOF 0.156 ft

These two cases result in the same field of view, half portrait and have the roughly the same DOF at the same f-stop.

Thanks for the replies. So what i get is that 50 or 85 are no that different and it comes down to indoor/outdoor use or the availabel working space.

Any takes on the Samyang then, anyone using it or used it before?
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/28498283@N00/

Azfar said:

So what i get is that 50 or 85 are no that different and it comes down to indoor/outdoor use or the availabel working space.

Click to expand...

There would definitely be a difference between a 50mm f/1.8 and an 85mm f.1.4 in terms of depth of field.

trekkeruss said:

Azfar said:

So what i get is that 50 or 85 are no that different and it comes down to indoor/outdoor use or the availabel working space.

Click to expand...

There would definitely be a difference between a 50mm f/1.8 and an 85mm f.1.4 in terms of depth of field.

Click to expand...

Definitely. I wonder if they let you try out different lenses at the store.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/28498283@N00/

Take your kit-lens, and zoom to 50mm. Take some portrait shots. Get a feel for the focal length. Repeat the process for 85mm. Then make your decision. Personally, I love my 85mm f/1.8, but that's a very subjective opinion on my part.

Also, on the kit lens, turn off auto-focus and do an afternoon's heavy shooting session. That will give you an idea whether you'll want the AF or not.

Alvatrus said:

Take your kit-lens, and zoom to 50mm. Take some portrait shots. Get a feel for the focal length. Repeat the process for 85mm. Then make your decision. Personally, I love my 85mm f/1.8, but that's a very subjective opinion on my part.

Also, on the kit lens, turn off auto-focus and do an afternoon's heavy shooting session. That will give you an idea whether you'll want the AF or not.

Click to expand...

Excellent suggestions. Although i wont be able to get 85mm on kit but yes i can experiment at 50mm as well as manual focusing. Thank you Alvatrus .
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