How sharp is the Canon 85mm f1.8 wide open?

When I got my 85 1.8 I went to B&H and compared three used copies of the lens on a 6D. One of the copies had noticeably less purple fringing (the only IQ metric that's easy to test in store) so I got that one. It's incredibly  sharp stopped down (like cut your eyeballs sharp), and it's lovely wide open too. I think with this lens and the 100 f2 there's quite a bit of copy variation so if possible I suggest going to a store where you can compare multiple used copies.

Thought I'd see if I could help.  These are straight out of camera jpg images - sharpness set to 3, standard picture style, auto (ambience priority) picture style, in-camera NR turned off (some assert there's still NR occurring, I have no idea), DLO is NOT turned on but improvements are made if it is, especially in fine detail like fur/eyelashes.

Maya is a great subject to check for purple fringing as she has stark white bordered by dark black.  You can see purple in these images (I've done nothing to correct it in camera).

Hope this helps.

Same setup, only 12 feet away this time

Jonathan Brady wrote:

Same setup, only 12 feet away this time

Thank you for the samples. Beautiful dog. Your results are only a bit less sharp than I'm used to but some of the best I've seen for the 85mm and very usable. That's also compared to two $1,000+ lenses so very impressive for the price.

It appears copy variation could be a major factor here as these seem sharper than many other Canon 85mm shots I've seen wide open. Or the DOF could be so thin that many shots I've seen are OOF. As someone else stated this lens does seem to sharpen up some significantly at f2-f2.5. Is this also your experience?

SonyArtisan wrote:

Jonathan Brady wrote:

Same setup, only 12 feet away this time

Thank you for the samples. Beautiful dog.

You're welcome, and thank you!

Your results are only a bit less sharp than I'm used to but some of the best I've seen for the 85mm and very usable. That's also compared to two $1,000+ lenses so very impressive for the price.

It appears copy variation could be a major factor here as these seem sharper than many other Canon 85mm shots I've seen wide open.

I can't imagine that it makes a ton of difference but the additional pixel density of the 5D Mark 4 could be helping just a little. I'm also shooting at ISO 100 so depending on the samples you were looking at that could make a difference as well.

Or the DOF could be so thin that many shots I've seen are OOF. As someone else stated this lens does seem to sharpen up some significantly at f2-f2.5. Is this also your experience?

I would ABSOLUTELY agree with that. f/2.8 is crazy-sharp!

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