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Best/best value portrait lens for FF?

Started Mar 24, 2013 | Discussions thread
(unknown member) Veteran Member • Posts: 5,018
A few 135L samples

ex human wrote:

Hey everyone!

Another one of these threads I know this topic has sort have been covered in threads in the past (I have searched the archives), but not in the specific capacity that concerns me.

I'm seriously mulling this over: I need a good portrait lens, and I don't need to cover every focal length.

My choice is between three lenses: the 85 f/1.8; the 100 f/2.0; and the 135 f/2.0L. I'm thinking that 85mm is a little short for my purposes on FF, but I've heard some reports that bokeh from the 85 f/1.8 is a wee bit smoother than from the 100 f/2.0.

The 85 f/1.8 is a little cheaper than the 100 f/2.0, but not by a lot. The 85 f/1.2L is not an option! (Too big/heavy/awkward/expensive).

Right now I'm leaning toward the 100 f/2.0 because of the optics, the focal length and the metal filter threads.

I could be swayed to the 85 f/1.8 if the bokeh IS noticeably much better; if the 135 f/2.0L really does slay them both I could save up for that as well--it's more expensive, but still not a ridiculously expensive lens.

Any and all thoughts/ramblings or sample images will be gratefully appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

-Don

You might recognize the last one

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Jim

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