Re: Jack of Most Trades, Master of None
Rock and Rollei wrote:
I really like this lens. I've owned an awful lot of 80-90mm lenses over the years - in EF fit, the 85mm f1.8 and the 85mm f1.2 L II; the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Planar for Contax/Yashica; Zeiss 85mm f2.8 Sonnar for Rollei QBM; 80mm f1.8 Carl Zeiss Pancolar in M42 and Praktica Bayonet; 90mm f3.5 Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar in Leica M39 - and a few others. Every lens I've mentioned is special in some way - none are exactly perfect, but I love the look from all of them. And the RF 85 f2 is yet another slightly flawed gem. Produces some lovely images that just as nice as anything they can produce. Yes, focus speed isn't its strong suit, but I've not had any problem with it since I started religiously using the focus limiter switch - it's worked fine for everything I've thrown at it. It's reasonably light, although not especially compact, focuses close - yes, it's a jack of all trades. Master of none? True, but then the same goes for all the other lenses I've mentioned - there's not a clear winner among them.
Definitely agree with the sentiment that all 85mm lenses I’ve owned had something special and unique about them:
RF 85mm f/2 - close focus ability
Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX - Rendering
Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 - Size, weight, sharpness and Price
Sigma - 85mm f/1.4 DN Art - the best all around package.
I personally have no real gripes with the focus speed of the RF 85mm but I feel for it’s price range here (in Australia) it should have really had a Nano USM motor like the RF 100-400mm which is so fast and silent with the latter mattering the most to me.
For most of what I shoot (which is still life) this lens is honestly phenomenal and does everything I want plus more. There’s just times I miss that f/1.4 for full body people shots or something longer when doing macro style images.
The two considerations I have is when a Sigma 85mm DN Art releases on RF is I’d either sell this lens for the 105mm Art and the Sigma 85mm Art or keep this and use it for my still life/product stuff and the 85mm Art for people based stuff.