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Is the 85mm compromise wirth it?

Started Jul 9, 2020 | Polls thread
MayaTlab0 Senior Member • Posts: 2,985
Re: Is the 85mm compromise wirth it?
2

panther fan wrote:

I think it is pretty clear that Canon is positioning the 85mm F2 against the competing 85mm F1.8 options while wanting to provide additional versatility by making it a stabilized macro. It seems they have made some smaller sacrifices to get there

-1/3rd of a stop less light

I don't have much hope but if vignetting is low enough and equivalent at f2 to what the f1.8 options have at f2 this might not be that visible in actual photos.

-slightly higher weight

And one big one:

-External "whole unit" focus, which is likely not fast and expectedly not silent

Is that a welcome tradeoff

Another potential trade-off is that macro lenses tend to be quite well corrected for spherical aberration and focus shift, and I'm wondering if this might be an additional constraint put on the designers to make it great for portraits. Maybe, maybe not, IDK.

or do you wish Canon had stuck to the classic formula?

I would have largely preferred to see Canon focus all their efforts on IQ - and particularly background blur transitions and homogeneity across the frame (low field dependent aberrations). But that's just me and I can see the value in the closer focusing range.

Samples should multiply in the coming weeks / months so we'll see !

Its positioning leaves room for a f1.4 L similar to the EF one.

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