Price Guarantee
Rent NowNOTE: Scuffing on front coatings, does not seem to affect image quality.
The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is a short-telephoto, portrait-length prime lens designed for full-frame Canon EF-mount DSLR cameras, and one of Canon’s longest-running autofocus lenses, first introduced in 1992. Its slightly compressed perspective, combined with a bright maximum aperture and fast autofocus, has made it an enduringly popular choice with portrait photographers who want a flattering, versatile focal length.
Optically, the lens is built from 9 elements in 7 groups, with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 that lets photographers shoot handheld in difficult, low-light conditions while also restricting depth of field for creative, selective-focus effects. Canon’s Super Spectra coating is applied to individual elements to minimize reflections, lens flare, and ghosting, helping achieve high color fidelity and contrast. An 8-blade diaphragm produces a virtually circular aperture, giving out-of-focus regions a softer, more even quality that lets in-focus subjects stand out against a blurred background.
Autofocus is handled by a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM), delivering fast, precise, and quiet performance along with full-time manual focus override via Canon’s Quick-Shift system, letting photographers simply rotate the focus ring to switch to manual focus at any time. The lens uses a rear-focusing design, and because the front lens group does not rotate during focusing, special effects filters such as polarizers and graduated filters remain unaffected by focus adjustments.
Build quality includes a high-quality plastic outer barrel combined with a metal mount, along with a broad, rubberized focus ring that operates smoothly; the lens’s overall physical length stays constant regardless of focus distance. It has a closest focusing distance of 0.85m (2.8 ft.), yielding a maximum magnification of 0.13x, extendable to 0.27-0.15x with Canon’s EF12 II extension tube or 0.44-0.32x with the EF25 II. The lens accepts a 58mm filter thread, measures approximately 75 x 71.5mm, and weighs approximately 425g. It does not include image stabilization.
As a full-frame-compatible lens, the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM produces its standard 28°30′ angle of view on full-frame Canon bodies and an effective 136mm equivalent focal length on APS-C bodies.
Key Features
– 85mm f/1.8 short-telephoto prime lens for Canon EF mount
– 9 elements in 7 groups optical construction
– Super Spectra coating
– Ring-type USM autofocus with Quick-Shift full-time manual focus
– Rear-focusing design (non-rotating front element)
– 8-blade diaphragm (virtually circular aperture)
– Closest focusing distance of 0.85m (2.8 ft.); 0.13x maximum magnification
– Compatible with EF12 II/EF25 II extension tubes for increased magnification
– 58mm filter thread
– No image stabilization
– Plastic barrel with metal mount
– Approximate weight: 425g
– Compatible with full-frame and APS-C Canon EF-mount cameras
