The classic 85mm f/1.4 is probably one of the most sought after lenses for portrait photography, and of course the various other short telephoto applications. Canon now introduce the full frame EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM lens, falling in the range between the inexpensive EF 85mm f/1.8 USM and the high...

I have seen most of the reviews on YouTube and I have heard the good, bad, and the ugly of this Canon 85MM 1.4 L lens, I was going to wait for sometime for a sale to come by from B&H photo, but the itch in my brain keeps telling me go for it, so then I did with the 4TB hard driver special.

This new Canon 85mm f1.4L w/IS is an outstanding image maker. I am shooting handheld at 1/20-1/8 and pulling great shots. The buying experience at Crutchfield is reassuring. Many Canon L lenses are pretty expensive.

Someone at Crutchfield understands what it means to be "of service"

Zero

I absolutely love this lens! Love the image stabilization! Images are very sharp so be careful on focusing points! Well worth the money for portrait photography

Those with some knowledge of Canon lenses will know that up until recently there have been two 85mm prime lenses in the company's lineup. There's the affordable EF 85mm f/1.8 USM (£325), and the bokehlicious EF 85mm f/1.2 L II USM, for which you're required to pay a hefty premium (£1765).

Lighter than Canon's EF 85mm f/1.2 L II USM; Incorporates optical image stabilisation; Impressive central sharpness at f/1.4; Accepts filters and adapters via common 77mm thread size

Chromatic abberation isn't completely absent; Considerably more expensive than EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

Courtesy of the Canon Polska we were given an opportunity to test the new model in practice and our impressions you can find in the following chapters. You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?

excellent image quality in the frame centre; very good image quality on the edge of APS-C sensor; very good image quality on the edge of full frame; slight lateral chromatic aberration; lack of any serious problems with distortion; negligible astigmatism; low vignetting on APS-C; silent autofocus,...

noticeable longitudinal chromatic aberration; distortion level higher than that of direct rivals; performance against bright light leaves a bit to be desired; too high vignetting on full frame

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.4 L IS USM is a new professional "L series" lens from Canon. It is primarily designed for use on full-frame models like the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV or the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, but it can also be used on APS-C cameras, too.

Canon finally offers a professional 85 without any quirks. The legacy 85L (1.2) was slow to focus and had (to my eyes) unacceptable purple fringe in high contrast lines below 2. The 1980's era 85USM (1.8) is a charming lightweight lens with fast AF but image quality below 2.8 isn't up to the demands...

Delightful images; snap-focus; versatility of IS

Purple fringe is still there; Weight

Images so sharp you could cut yout fingers on them.

Durable; Great Picture Quality

Purchased elsewhere as no stock yet on amazon. This lens is a worthy contender to the legendary 1.2. Whilst the 1.2 has its own special place, this lens with its 4 step IS, finally a useable AF speed and better sharpness makes it a winner. The build quality is superb too.