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My next prime portrait lens should be ... ?

Started 7 months ago | Questions thread
Canon_Guy
Canon_Guy Senior Member • Posts: 1,486
Re: My next prime portrait lens should be ... ?
2

From all the lenses mentioned the RF 85/1.2 is a clear winner from IQ perspective.

Used 135/2 is a clear winner in the price/performance perspective. The bokeh quality is extraordinary, it is reasonably sharp wide opened around the center (with a bit of contrast loss) and CA's are visible only in some specific situations. Overall it is a very good and very capable lens.

But the truth is that today's designs are able to push lenses one significant step above. Already mentioned the clearly superb RF85/1.2. Sigmas 135/1.8 and 105/1.4 are also excellent in terms of sharpness, contrast and a lack of CA's but for very significantly less money. With also textbook smooth bokeh and a lots of separation. Especially the 105/1.4 shines here, it gets very close to the medium format look.

Personally I am not very much into the "portrait lens does not have to be tack sharp". To me portraits are not just headshots, torso or half body shots where I partially do understand that a razor sharpness can be distracting sometimes. But portraits are also more distant shots where we use the wide opened aperture to separate the subject, make it pop and shine. And a good default sharpness just helps here. Fast lenses are also often used for indor sports and events where also a good sharpness is a plus.

Two examples from children's playground taken with EF 135/2.

 Canon_Guy's gear list:Canon_Guy's gear list
Canon EOS R6 Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art Sigma 105mm F1.4 DG HSM Art Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM +6 more
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