I'm late to the party but want to add my two cents. I'm a pro photographer, specializing in portraits, models, glamour, grad. seniors, etc. I have used the Canon RF85mm F/2 IS STM lens for many, many photo shoots and am completely pleased with it. I use it on a Canon R body. I use both eye detection focus and single point focus and have shot outdoors with and without fill flash, indoors in my studio with strobes and constant lights and have never had an issue with this lens. In fact, for photographers who shoot in my genre I would highly recommend this lens. I don't shoot macro, so I have no clue what it's capabilities with macro are, but I have both a 50 and 100mm macro lens for shooting macro if I need to. I used them a lot when I shot weddings--which I don't shoot any longer. There's no such thing as a one lens fits all and I've learned that in my 30 plus years as a professional photographer.
Great vid, Justin. I like the way you emphasized the macro capabilities, which other reviewers often leave out. Macro seems to have gained in popularity, especially during the pandemic 😷
Thank you!! Great and honest review! Very similar to other reviews I’ve seen on this lens regarding the differences between photography and videography. I’m strictly a photographer, so I’m going for it! Thank you!
The EOS R platform is held back by its entry and mid level lenses. You either have to buy L lenses with their inflated prices (1.5-2x higher than their EF equivalents), slow zooms with a small aperture on the long side (really slow) and these “so so” 1.8/2.0 primes. Also their affordable but slow tele lenses. RF 24-105 f/4-7.1 IS STM vs EF 24-105 f/3.5-5.6 IS STM So WTF Canon, the new mount should improve the design of fast lenses, but not slow down cheap zooms?!? If you look at the lenses Canon just doesn’t offer a decent mid range. Nikon also suffers on the expensive high end, but their low to mid range is better. Sony having the more established mount has a wide range of choice. I am using my R6 with EF lenses and have not seen an RF lens that I want to buy. Either it has a red ring and I am not willing to pay the price or it is just “meh”. Maybe once the red stuff drops in price and is more readily available on the used market, but F the current premium. I bought a mint Z 24-70/4 for EUR 389,- (with a shop discount). That’s a really nice mid range lens, great if bought used. I also have the Z 35/1.8, 50/1.8 and 85/1.8 and they may not have IS nor macro, but imo these are better lenses. …but the wildcard other than AF is something like Fujifilm. Nice cameras with affordable quality APSC glass. Canon needs to fill in the middle ground more. If I had nothing and wanted to get into FF I’d go for Sony.
This is the case with all STM lenses AF in video is cripple by software canon on purposes slowed down all STM lenses AF in video mode I have 35 macro RF and it is same bad in video however of anyone looking to buy the best existing 85mm lens I can recommend EF canon 85mm f1.4 IS USM I sold my canon EF 85 f 1.2 to but that lens and I’ll never even take for free anymore version f1.2 the worst lens ever and the bokeh is almost identical can’t say difference
@@JustinMyersPhoto than I think it must be something to do with build and internal mechanism what do you think or just because macro lenses might be build differently hard to guess need to do some more tests with many various STM lenses
Yes. Focusing is very frustrating with video. I almost missed a first look shot because of the clunky and slow focus. That being said, for photography it’s good.
I prefer my RF 70-200 2.8 for portrait shots now, I've been amazed with what that lens can do. I was using 85mm for portraits for a while but I won't be going back to that any more.
That is an amazing lens, especially considering what they were able to do with the size and weight! Mind-blowing! Which camera body are you pairing it with at the moment?
@@JustinMyersPhoto Yes, I have physical mobility issues so sports and wildlife are not really in my ballpark. I rented the R5 and the R6 to see if they would be worthy upgrades to the R but in all honesty, the features of those cameras (albeit awesome) are just not features that are best suited to my particular shoots over the R which has never disappointed me. Your videos are very informative and I enjoy watching them. Keep up the good work.
Good information! I’m seriously considering this lens. I shoot 95% photos, and some macro on an occasion. It sounds like this is a good lens for my needs. Too bad about auto focus in video. That’s a disappointment. Good content. Thanks! If I decide to buy this lens I’ll use your affiliate link.
Once again another great review!! I still want to buy this lens which I am soon 😃. I rarely do video mostly photos for me. And if I do sod video I’ll most likely use the 35mm. Can’t wait to get it, I never owned a 85mm it’s one of those must have focal length
I do find it interesting that someone would complain about the macro capabilities of a lens that is not a true macro lens. If you want a professional level lens buy 100mm F 2.8 L lens. It has a 1.4x magnification. It has Dual Nano USM motors. Problem solved!
This hasn't been an issue with video on my RF85/2. So maybe indeed it's a firmware thing... or perhaps yours was an unusually bad copy?? I just haven't had slow focus hunting on this lens + RP.
@@JustinMyersPhoto i must admit 85mm is not a very useful focal length for video, I'm usually filming between about 20 - 35mm, and about 200mm for closeup work. However when I got the lens in December I decided to shoot the first minute of my next video on the 85, if you're interested its here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TROnvlE4JF4.html so you can see it hunting slightly when I move while filming the tree branches, but nothing like as bad as yours. It certainly hasn't been journeying to infinity and back when it loses focus. I only have the RP, so don't know about the other bodies you tried it on. Cheers!
@@JustinMyersPhoto yeah I think probably straight F2 or maybe F2.2, to get that nice bokeh. I use an ND16 or ND32 so I can get a wide aperture with 1/50s exposure. Agreed it does not lock on well enough, which you really need for that kind of B-roll. I suppose the focal length for filming is dictated by your subject matter. The first 5 or 6 seconds of that video was also using the RP+85mm on a tripod with me standing still so in that instance it locked on properly with eye focus throughout. This weekend I'm going to try a walkabout with it again, to test a load of different focus settings, I want to see if I can defeat the hunting problem! Cheers 👍
@@Jamesfrancosdog I'm sure it's a superb focal length for many subjects. And I've tried to use it for b-roll in a few of my videos but doesn't seem to suit shooting in a smallish garden? Or maybe I'm missing a trick... in any case, after Justin identified the focus hunting in the 85/2 I haven't been happy with the footage. Do you have any tips that could help?
Exactly! All these prima donnas berating this fabulous lens for something 90% of users won’t care two hoots about that is video. I would never video with 85mm if I did video it’s just not wide enough. It is a superb portrait lens.
Thank you for the "warning" about sloooow / strange focus behaviour in video. I am trying hardly to bring down the number of lenses I own so I thought this lens could merge my 100mm Macro USM and my f/2 100mm EF lens into one lens with additional IS ... not now.
@@JustinMyersPhoto Photos: I really like the compressed view of roughly 100mm for landscapes and I like close ups of plants - compositions of shapes and colors with interesting blurred backgrounds! For movies: At the moment I shoot some video for my channel, where I use the EOS RP with the RF 35 but I thought about using the RF 85 for different settings where I needed stronger background blur. AF of the EF 2.0 100 is a little bit on the rough side: very fast but I like STM more for video - maybe some firmware update will make the RF 85 more usable (as you mentioned in your video)
@@JustinMyersPhoto I’m more into video than pics, I ignored your last few vids about the 50mm and 35 and went for the 50 cause it was cheap and you were so right, when I got the 35 I was blown away and the 50 just collects dust now the 35 was just so much better for video. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more when I put more time into it but I think I’m going to hold out for an L lens next
@@JustinMyersPhoto yea for sure, I’m leaning towards the 15-35 hopefully I don’t get too itchy and grab the 24-105 before lol, I have the non L 24-105 but I don’t think it counts I haven’t liked it at all so far
Great video! Thanks very much! I just bought this lens for photography to fill a 85mm niche with occasional macro (and not for video use). I just confirmed with Canon Support that, as of July 2023, there is no firmware that can be downloaded for this lens.
And if turn off linear focus - in theory, manual focus should become faster ? Does the limiter affect manual focus ? Any news about the firmware? God, I wish this lens was useful to me because in theory it does all my work without compromises. I'm currently using the 100mm macro for portraits and product photography, and the 100mm macro is just a little less "portrait" and a little more "macro" than I need. All these focus nuances are terribly upsetting, because I thought to shoot video at close range. I really love the idea of this lens, and the idea of doing almost all my the work on one lens. If canon made this lens as part of the L-series, with good mechanics, nano-usm and sealed body, I would definitely overpay a couple of hundred dollars for this.
Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the focus being any better with changing linear focus settings. I’ve also heard the same issues from other people with this lens. And unfortunately, no I haven’t seen any firmware to correct the issue. However, the issues occur primarily in video, and I did not have issues in photography
@@JustinMyersPhoto Thanks for the response. I wanted to shoot a videооо too. About the same as you - coffee and all that ☕. By the way, Canon R6 in video mode likes to drive up to MDF my old macro EF 100 2.8 too - but this is easy to deal with - the physical focus ring helps out. Manual focusing is very easy. But with 24-105 stm (ef version) I do the opposite - manual focus is very unpleasant, but autofocus is fast and does not make unnecessary movements. So I focus with autofocus and then turn it off - i call it "manual autofocus" 🙃. And as for 35 1.8 - is it possible to work with it in close up video tasks ? Manual focus not so useless at close range ?
@@dima1353 I haven’t had AF issues with the RF 35mm f1.8. I have played around with my autofocus settings every now and then, mostly responsiveness settings, but overall I enjoy that lens
STM lenses will always be slower in video than a USM lens because of the motor type. STM lenses should be used for mostly stationary video with the subject constant. Stay away for far to close video shooting and this lens is outstandingz
Actually, the STM type motor was developed to work better with video and live autofocus. There are STM lenses that focus much faster than some USM lenses. It all depends on the implementation, and unfortunately, the implementation in this lens doesn't work well for autofocus in video. If it fits your needs, that's great because it is an otherwise great lens for the price point
It my experience, it did not help with video AF performance. I really do hope that it gets improved through firmware because other than video AF, this is a really great lens for the price point. I really wanted to love the lens, but the video AF keeps it from being a reasonable lens for my own kit. Are you looking into getting this lens or something like it?
A reasonable and fair review. The other day, I used the RF85 on an RP for "macro" (not really macro as it only goes to 1:2) shooting. It would rarely lock focus in the short-range (0.35-0.5m) focus setting. I finally just left it on full-range, found something big to focus on first that was close to the distance of the subject, and then locked-in on the subject. The RF85f2 weakest point is the focus mechanism.
@@JustinMyersPhoto Actually, I was trying to catch water drops off an icicle but I was focusing on the tip of the icicle. The focus would get lost. So I ended up putting the lens in the full range, focus on a big part of the icicle to get the focus "in range", and then aiming the focus point at the tip. I was going to use a tripod but it was too sunny to use the LCD screen and too awkward to use the viewfinder so I was hand-holding and needing autofocus. I don't shoot a lot of macros. I have an inexpensive (Neewer) macro rig and would normally use it for shooting macros. Canon slaps the "macro" label on a lot of lenses. The RF85f2 is sort of a tweener by getting to 1:2 (better than other so-called Canon macros) when a "true" macro is considered to be 1:1. If I shot a lot of macros, I would not pick the RF85f2. but would get a proper macro lens (in the past I have used macro extenders and I have an Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro lens).
Why are you rating the lens as if its a video lens... it's a Portrait lens for photography. You don't normally shoot video with an 85mm lens in the first place.
its funny so many has problems and hate this lens so much , my version works 110% perfect on my Canon rp cam.. ya its not the fastest lens when it comes focusing but but but it hits everytime , same with ppl talk abt it get stuck in macro mode i have never had any issues with it .. i must be the lucky number 1 who has the only perfect version of this lens haha .. great video :-)
Ya, I don’t hate the lens though. My problems were in video shooting. For photography, I think it’s a pretty awesome and versatile budget lens! What kind of photography and/or video do you typically shoot?
Great video on this awesome lens. As a dedicated macro shooter, I already have the 100rf so the viltrox or samyang 85mm are great choices to add for the 85mm range with bokeh everything (lazy man's shooting)
@@JustinMyersPhoto very similar, loved the images ingot out of it both for photos and video but the throw in autofocus was very frustrating when filming, thankfully it only happened once during some post roll directions that weren't likely to be used anyhow but still frustrating. I really want to love this lens and wanna get behind the whole new lineup of prime IS canon macro lenses, the 35mm is a game changer and hopefully theyll find a way to fix the issue. It's still in the game because I need an af 85 and am looking at the samyang rf 85 1.4 as well
@@JustinMyersPhoto I do family photography a lot. So it needs to keep up with a child running. As that can often get you banger candid photos. I’ve been told it’s not quick enough. I’m torn between this and the samyang RF 85 1.4.
Glad you enjoyed it! I actually have a playlist of my entire search for the perfect 85mm lens. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pros and cons to all of them, but I tried to test and explain that as well as possible through the playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLE0x6izAIP50ElXtiQgS8qZdObx-o0Kzu
Glad you enjoyed it! I actually have a playlist of my entire search for the perfect 85mm lens. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pros and cons to all of them, but I tried to test and explain that as well as possible through the playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLE0x6izAIP50ElXtiQgS8qZdObx-o0Kzu
Traces can be seen on the lens that indicate that the lens has suffered some sort of drop or major impact. Have you considered whether this may be the cause of all the problems you mention?
I think it would actually be pretty good for the price in that setting. As long as you’re referring to a controlled light studio situation where you would typically have a stationary subject with the camera on a tripod. For me personally, I may use autofocus initially but will then have autofocus turned off for the duration of the shoot. So, any negatives with autofocus wouldn’t be particularly relevant. Even so, I didn’t find the autofocus to be that bad for photography anyway. What sort of product photography do you typically shoot?
@@JustinMyersPhoto Thanks for info. Very helpful. I am a newbie. Wanted to get into something I can do from home and thought this is a good fit. So put on my training wheels and started to practice. Thought this was well priced option.
@@JustinMyersPhoto Also looking at a new monitor for editing. I have a 1080p Dell. Really like the new Studio Display, but price wise looking at the LG Ultrafine 24” version.
Great video... I own this lens and I HATE it... I will go so far as to call it garbage. I am selling mine and purchasing the Samyang 1.4. I use mine for photography and it is a nightmare. Just to reiterate! I HATE!! It.. 😉✌🏻
@@JustinMyersPhoto I find the focus breathing to be a real problem. So much of my time attempting to take photographs with this lens is dealing with the focus breathing. And I find that the eye detection is not as fast and accurate as other lenses that I use. To be quite frank, my old Canon EF 50mm 1.8 Lens with an adapter works in sync with the eye detection more affectively. Obviously this is just my opinion. When the lens does hit the mark, the result can be really beautiful. But this lens misses way too much in crucial moments when I need it to work. And I have been left feeling really frustrated. I nearly threw it over a fence a couple of weeks ago! haha Best to calm the hell down and just sell that thing.. Do you still use the lens, Justin? For Photography?
@@thetrojanhorse.1320 ya, I can see that. No, I did not keep the lens. For me, it wasn’t worth it if I couldn’t use it for photo and video. I could definitely see being frustrated with it
Lol do people know what that focus limiter switch is for? I have this lens and shoot fashion videos ... just limit the ficus to .5 to infinity and step back... the if you want macro video ... switch to. 3 to .5 or manual.
@@JustinMyersPhoto in the photo section you did- try it on the video side. I almost never shoot macro so I always have the lens on .5 to infinity in the focus limiter swtch and my video af performance is totally good! I only switch to macro in rare edge cases and in that case- I would manually focus. For me- I have a sigma 105 1.4 art which is a beast to hold- super heavy- this lens fit the recipe as a perfect compat tele with great features like is and macro when needed- plus having the control ring is super handy in video too as you can set it up for something handy
@@JustinMyersPhoto it a mystery- no complaints with the video af on mine. Maybe it works better on 5r? no idea. But this is the second youtube review I saw warning about this issue- I bought one to evaluate and couldnt be happier for what I do- photo and video af- mostly people, portrait, fashion style
@@joseluisphoto6351 glad it works for you. But yes, since posting this, I’ve seen several other people have the same issues with video AF on the lens. Best case scenario, that would mean a huge quality control issue then. Not sure which would be worse
@@oceanview418 gotcha. Well, it depends on what else you have in your bag. If you had to, you could shoot most weddings on the 24-105 by itself, but with the 85 you would most likely need at least a 35 or 24 on a second body to get solid coverage
@@JustinMyersPhoto So I just started and just bought the R6 so I only have a 50mm F2.5 macro. I upgraded from a T7i and now I'm working on glass. I only have efs lenses.
Too bad, I was also really excited for this lens. It seemed like just a perfect b roll lens, but its AF is seemingly too slow. Just one question if you don’t mind: you set the AF speed in the menu to fastest? Thank you for the review!
The autofocus situation sucks, I mainly shoot video and I'm looking for a RF lens to accompany my 35 + 50 and the 85 seemed perfect. How does the other 85mm 1.2 perform for video? Even though the price tag is hefty. What would you recommend instead that matches the RF image quality? Or should we just wait until they release new gear.
Ya, I was in the same situation looking to get this lens. The RF 85mm f1.2L has nano USM motors and the AF performance is way better, albeit several times the price. There is also the RF 100mm f2.8L macro, that is much less expensive than the 85mm L, but with a slower max aperture and more telephoto. There is also the EF 85mm f1.4L IS that can be adapted. Samyang also has an RF 85mm f1.4 lens. I’ve heard mostly good things about it, but haven’t had a chance to try it personally. There’s also the Sigma EF mount 85mm f1.4 Art that can be adapted. If you’re looking for a very budget option, there is also the Canon EF 85mm f1.8 that can be adapted. Like I said I’m in a similar situation looking for a good hybrid photo/video 85mm option for the RF. What type of video do you typically shoot?
Actually, if you notice I talk about the focus limiter in the video and mention that I was using the focus limiter the whole time (except when specifically testing the lens without the focus limiter). Going into this test, I also thought the focus limiter would solve the issue, but unfortunately this lens has bigger functionality issues
