Anyone having experience with Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens?

[angry hampster]

god dammit i had a long respons written out and then I hit the back button accidentally. What it boils down to is that you initially used the wrong terminology and that focal length is focal length no matter what the crop is. Different crops display different focal lengths differently.

 

[soydios]

Foghorn is talking about geometric distortions, not barrel or pincushion. I.e. if you aren't shooting a subject straight-on, you'll get geometric distortions. But if you are shooting perfectly straight on to the object, geometric distortions won't matter. Wideangle lenses induce more geometric distortion, because the angle of view is capturing more.

 

[angry hampster]

That has more to do with angle of view than focal length. IE: A person will look much more distorted on the edge of a 15mm fisheye frame than on the edge of a 15mm rectillinear frame.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: foghorn67
All you guys are missing something. 50mm on a crop body is like an 85mm on FF only in focal length only.
It won't give you the subtle flattening effect of a telephoto.

distance from the subject gives you the effect, not whether the optical center is outside of the lens's physical construction.

if you're doing a head and shoulders portrait with a 20 mm lens you're going to be standing close to the subject. their nose is several inches in front of their ears and an inch in front of the eyes. if you're standing 3 feet away those inches are significant.

if you're doing the same head and shoulders portrait with a 200 mm lens you're standing many yards away, and those couple of inches between the ears and nose don't matter much.

 

[rml]

thanks for all the advice, I pulled the trigger on Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM using 25% live.com ebay discount. Can't wait to receive it and test it out!

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: rml
thanks for all the advice, I pulled the trigger on Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM using 25% live.com ebay discount. Can't wait to receive it and test it out!

The thread de-railing aside, you will have fun with that lens. Nice job on the cash back.

 

[rml]

Got the lens today! Picture is so good! Looking for another accessories to take advantage of the 25% MS Cashback.

Might consider upgrading the camera to 40D, so tempting for $600 shipped (so many sellers out there right now)