Customer Ratings & Reviews

I've been switching between this and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens for volleyball photography. The f1/8 aperture lets in a ton of light, and really allows me to adjust other settings to get the shot I want (freezing the ball, for instance). I need to do a little editing afterwards to crop some of the photos to focus on the subject. And compared to the 70-200 f2/8, this lens is light as a feather!

Very nice bokeh and depth of field. My only complaint was the chromatic aberration.

I've been planning to buy this lens years ago, but since I always had 50mm, 100mm Macro, and 70-200mm I always also had an excuse not to buy it. The price dropped once again, this time well below $400, and I finally decided to go and get it... and what a great decision that I did. This lens is really nice lens, and worth every penny and much more. The built quality is just good and solid, and the pictures are really great. Go get one, you won't be sorry!

Good value for the price. Sharp lens nice bokeh. Nice addition to our lineup

This is a great lens for the budding portrait photographer. It allows you to be further away from your client yet feel very close to them through the lens!! I will say I noticed some chromatic aberration as others have mentioned about this lens, but it hasn't happened enough for me to dislike the lens and I can always fix it in post production. I would definitely recommend coupling this lens with the nifty fifty to your arsenal of lenses!

Use this lens mainly for shooting middle school sports portraits. Great bokeh & lets in plenty of light so I can avoid using flash with my studio lights. Lens has seen a lot of use in the time I've had it and I've had no issues. Replaced the 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens I was using - compresses the image a little more and gives me a little more room to move back and adjust some.

AMAZING lens, it hurt me to spend the money I am not gonna lie, specially because I has the 50mm 1.8 option available foe way less money but this lens is so much better. It's built very good, not cheap feeling to it, the size is great, and the speed is even better, I got it mainly for night shoots and I am very happy with it, even for day time shootings the speed is great. I would really recommend getting this as part of your collection.

Good value at a reasonable price for the hobbyist. Really like the sharp pictures with great bokeh.

Great lens for portraits. Highly recommend it and valued at a reasonable price.

Amazing photos come out extremely sharp! The lens itself feels slightly heavy.

This lens has a great build. It is silent with the USM and fast. Light on the camera frame unlike the 1.2. Very little color fringing which was prominent on the 1.2 counterpart i also purchased. Does a great job for portraiture. Awesome price when I bought it. A definite must have.

Its the ideal lense for a budget shooter, as 85 is a beautiful portrait range, and with the 1.8F, you can really capture a lot of emotion and DOP by pushing that blurred background. The only thing I would have loved is the image stabilization, but for a prime lense purchase guide on a budget I highly recommend this one, the 24mm and the 35mm. Focusing is pretty fast, much faster than my 24-105mm, so for video where I need to quickly shift focus its pretty good. The only downside for video is that the motor is still a little loud for my taste, and it pulls back and forth to land the focus. I don't always like that effect, but at least it does it fast enough.

This is an awesome lens for portraits, solid build, fantastic bokeh - no complaints about this lens

I needed a good portrait lens for my last semester of photography. My instructor as well as many reviews state this lens is the perfect one for the job. Although you can pay through the nose for a 1.2 "L" lens, most of the opinions I've gotten is this 1.8 can do a great job unless you really need that narrow depth of field. I'll spend my money on other "L" lenses that are more versatile. Very happy with my purchase!

Great overall lens. Solid build and excellent price point

Quality is superb and love the bokeh it gives. So far, after a few usage love this lens.

Great for portraits and low light situations. Solid build and max aperture for the price.

I've done several photoshoots with this lens. Amazing results! Beautiful contrast and creamy bokeh. There is some CA in certain lighting but you can easily avoid once you learn where it occurs

love it, really easy to use and great results great advise at the store

It's easy to use and light weight. Takes great pictures.