Non Canon branded lenses for portraiture.

[Craig Sperring]

Im looking at getting a new portrait lens for my Canon.

Upon looking at the prices of some of the L series well... after picking myself up off of the floor... lol I thought I would ask my friends on here what they think?

I know you get what you pay for in lenses.
But... what would you suggest as a good NON CANON lens for portraiture?

Has anyone had any experience in decent non Canon branded lenses?

Craig

 

[Hamish Gill]

Define good...
I assume If you have been looking at canon L series you are looking for something mega sharp and corrected etc?

Have you considered something old and flattering on skin tones?

I have a very old meyer which takes lovely softish portraits wide open ... maybe something like that with an adapter?

 

[Craig Sperring]

Hi Hamish,
Well yeah that's certainly an option
I was really just looking for some recommendations as to what guys here would say is a good portrait lens.

TBH I never thought of an old Meyer
Craig

 

[David Mitchell]

You can fit Nikon lenses onto a Canon body so as you don't need to quickly focus at a fast moving object some of the manual focus Nikkors might be good with an adapter?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Craig - are you shooting a full frame Canon or cropped?

If full frame - did you check out the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM?

The L lens 85mm is a super lens at a super price, but the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is a great lens at a much better price.


If shooting cropped - did you check out the 50mm f/1.4 USM - this would be a portrait equivalent focal length on a cropped sensor, and is a super lens, often used by wedding photographers (I used one for years before finally going for the 50mm f/1.2L)

Both of these lenses are going to be lovely, have the ability to go wide aperture with narrow DOF for a nice blurred background - and the prices are more palatable.

The 85mm is as low as £249.00 used on Amazon.co.uk

The 50mm is £283.99 new on Amazon.co.uk


Here are samples from my 50mm f/1.4 on a cropped sensor - in my case the 1D2

Sorry if I went of topic and stayed with Canon - just wated to be sure you'd checked them out.

 

[Craig Sperring]

I am currently using a crop camera but looking to possibly go to a full frame in the near future.
I was looking at going to either 7D or possibly 5DII (dependant on funds).
Both there lenses look perfect I will certainly look into these tonight

Thank you Chris for the great info!
Craig

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Cool - the L lenses do get you that last bit of quality, but the price to get there is very significant as you've noted.

For most shots that you'd ever take, 99.9% of people would not be able to tell if you used the L version, or the USM version of a lens

 

[Craig Sperring]

I have to say Chris the shots you have displayed here are terrific.
I guess I'm after the best value for money lens really and the ones you have recommended are certainly very very interesting!
Thank you again Chris
Craig