Jack of Most Trades, Master of None

I’ve owned this lens for just over a year now and thought I’d write a short review which you can find in my signature.

TLDR: This is a great lens that offers something unique that most other 85mm primes don’t in the form of a very short minimum focusing distance. It offers great image quality with average autofocus in a decent sized package.

When looking at native RF options it’s great value but once 3rd party lenses like the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DN Art comes to RF mount then it may lose a lot do it’s appeal.

Here are a few images taken with the lens.

copperswede wrote:

Thank you for sharing your opinion and with great photos attached. I just ordered one myself.

You’re welcome and glad you enjoyed it! It’s a great lens and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

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.

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.

This is the first 85mm I have owned (although I used my 50mm on APSC a lot, so similar fov) and has been the most used lens in my bag since I got it.

It suits my needs, image quality is good, price is good, 0.5 macro is a nice bonus. I've also been using it when converting my old negatives to digital.

A few photos taken with it and the RP

F2 - 1/25 - iso 3200 - flash

F2 - 1/200 - iso 100

F2 - 1/180 - iso 100 - flash

F16 - 8" - iso 100 - cropped

It's a master of low light landscapes / cityscapes. It has great stabilization without IBIS and with IBIS even more, and it's sharp across the frame wide open. As long as you manage to avoid the AF from hunting in those low light situations it's great for these kind of tasks, although the focal length isn't the most common for these kind jobs.

Another strong point is it's contrast in back lit situations.

Great to hear you’re enjoying it! I find 85mm to be a very versatile focal length, pretty much the telephoto version of 35mm.

I think this lens is great and ignoring all G.A.S I’m really happy with it, it’s just the appeal of that Sigma 85mm DN Art that gets me personally.

thunder storm wrote:

It's a master of low light landscapes / cityscapes. It has great stabilization without IBIS and with IBIS even more, and it's sharp across the frame wide open. As long as you manage to avoid the AF from hunting in those low light situations it's great for these kind of tasks, although the focal length isn't the most common for these kind jobs.

Another strong point is it's contrast in back lit situations.

This has been my main use for the lens along with still life. I think where you live greatly plays a factor in which focal lengths are suited for cityscapes/landscapes.

Here in Sydney 85mm and longer is actually great for cityscapes due to all the different vantage points we have. As mentioned above 85mm is very versatile too, I’ve seen some people use this focal length as a walk around lens and get excellent results with that too.

ThePhotographyEnthusiast wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

It's a master of low light landscapes / cityscapes. It has great stabilization without IBIS and with IBIS even more, and it's sharp across the frame wide open. As long as you manage to avoid the AF from hunting in those low light situations it's great for these kind of tasks, although the focal length isn't the most common for these kind jobs.

Another strong point is it's contrast in back lit situations.

This has been my main use for the lens along with still life. I think where you live greatly plays a factor in which focal lengths are suited for cityscapes/landscapes.

Here in Sydney 85mm and longer is actually great for cityscapes due to all the different vantage points we have.

Yes, for some cities it works very well to use a (moderate) telephoto lens. Stockholm is another one.

As mentioned above 85mm is very versatile too, I’ve seen some people use this focal length as a walk around lens and get excellent results with that too.

85mm is too long for my taste as a single walk around focal length.  40/45/50mm works for that for me. And I need 28mm at least as the widest FL.

Used mine at my sons indoor Futsal (variant of soccer on a basketball court) and at the kids piano recitals. Just long enough. I can get favorable seating that makes it work. Since I can’t drop a couple thousand on a 70-200 f/2.8, it does very nicely.

thunder storm wrote:

ThePhotographyEnthusiast wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

It's a master of low light landscapes / cityscapes. It has great stabilization without IBIS and with IBIS even more, and it's sharp across the frame wide open. As long as you manage to avoid the AF from hunting in those low light situations it's great for these kind of tasks, although the focal length isn't the most common for these kind jobs.

Another strong point is it's contrast in back lit situations.

This has been my main use for the lens along with still life. I think where you live greatly plays a factor in which focal lengths are suited for cityscapes/landscapes.

Here in Sydney 85mm and longer is actually great for cityscapes due to all the different vantage points we have.

Yes, for some cities it works very well to use a (moderate) telephoto lens. Stockholm is another one.

I think a 100-400mm can work better for some distances but I’ve found that here in Sydney that 85mm works well for the majority of places and only a few I’ve been too would be too tight or too far.

As mentioned above 85mm is very versatile too, I’ve seen some people use this focal length as a walk around lens and get excellent results with that too.

85mm is too long for my taste as a single walk around focal length. 40/45/50mm works for that for me. And I need 28mm at least as the widest FL.

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45 is more than enough, but 500.000 isn't

It actually is for me too but Jason Vong specifically does really great walk around with 85mm. I feel some people really see in a certain focal length which for me is 35mm.

JustUs7 wrote:

Used mine at my sons indoor Futsal (variant of soccer on a basketball court) and at the kids piano recitals. Just long enough. I can get favorable seating that makes it work. Since I can’t drop a couple thousand on a 70-200 f/2.8, it does very nicely.

Get yourself a used Sigma Sports. I've payed only 850 euro.  That said, these lenses are only f/2.8, and if you can get close enough brighter primes simply rule in those situations.

Whatever you choose, there's no need to drop a couple of thousands on an RF 70-200mm f/2.8, unless you really need your f/2.8 zoom to be light weight. And if you have a 24-240mm....