The more I use this lens, the more I like it! Its definitely not an 'L' lens, but man it does a good job.

What a great review and amazing presentation. I'm a photographer who also does not fit the mould of young KZfaqr showing off expensive camera stuff and found your practical approach to evaluating this lens very refreshing.

I short listed 50 1.8 for prime. My wife who joined me for camera shopping ( she jumped in at the mention of shopping), was super impressed by this. Though it was 4 times costlier than my choice, the quality and macro capabilities sold me. I do not regret picking this !

Informative and believable review, and straight to the useful content without the usual 5-minute pre-amble which is so popular on YT reviews - many thanks for your opinion and insight.

Love your simple, practical and honest review, that help me more confident to acquire the 85F2 (that got many negative review by other reviewer) Keep the good work sounding the truth about photography gear, sir. I'm subscribed !

Honest and precise review for a specific type of photography. Well done.

Great review. Lays out the case for being realistic and practical re: purchases. The weather sealing for me is the biggy. Thanks so much.😊

Excellent overview of this lens. I recently was struggling with whether to get the RF 70-200 f/2.8 lens or the f4 version. I ended up getting the f4 for much less money. With the money I saved over the f/2.8 version I was able to purchase this 85 mm f/2 lens refurbished and still have money left over. I am very happy with the capabilities of this lens I love it’s light weight and compact size. It does everything I need it to do. I use it for casual family and friends portraits, some macro work, and sometimes just as a walk around town lens. It’s very good bang for the buck.

I just order this lens, I have the EF mount 85mm non L lens and I’ve used the crap out of it over the years,and it’s made me lots of money over the years in the studio and shooting senior portraits, weddings. I’m in the process of upgrading all of my EF lens to EF lens. I picked up mine on facebook marketplace place for $400. What a bargain

I opted for this lens when I bought my EOS R instead of the typical kit zoom lens. It’s excellent for my portrait work in and out of the studio. I’ve come to terms years ago that Canon never bundles the non-L lenses with a hood. Nice review. Cheers

You just made me more confident with buying this lens, I started buying my equipment for Portraits, family and baby photos and I a lot of other people just talk about the 1.2 and honestly with that L lens money I bought my 4 flashes and two lenses... thanks for the review

Nice video. I've been looking at this lens closely as I want something for close ups.

Just splurged on a r6 body and this lens, excited to try it out

Thank you for this review. I’ve shot with the EF version (1.8) for years, but moved to mirrorless and was looking at this lens or the 1.2 version. Think I’ll go with the 2.0 and save $2100! Thank you!

i recently bought one for portrait with using in my R6, good review!

I bought this lens about a year ago or so, and I really like it. I use it on the Canon EOS R and with auto eye focus it's pretty darn good. I don't have a complaint about missing focus. I shoot mostly graduating seniors and models and it's a great lens. I have the EF85mm 1.2L, lens too, but it lacks IS, and because it's a heavy lens at times shooting at f/2 or f/2.8, unless you have a high shutter speed or you're on a tripod you can get some less than sharp images. It would work ok with the R6 or R6II which have IBIS, but the R doesn't have IBIS. Outdoors I usually use a monopod with the EF 85mm 1.2, but with this 85MM F/2 IS lens I don't need to worry about a monopod.

Thank you man! Greetings from Brasil

Nice review... Can I ask if you experienced autofocus issues when transitioning INTO and OUT OF the close distance macro mode? Other reviewers mentioned that... Thanks!

Hi... nice video indeed, very informative. I heard that this lens has issue with slow autofocus. Did you encounter this issue when using this lens? If yes, how to deal with that?

Thanks for the video, i'm also a portrait photographer and most of the time using a EOS R, i have the EF 85mm F/1.8 with the adapter and that gives me great shots, you have the EF version too, in your experience, is the RF version better ?

I have 24-70 f2.8, do you think 85 f2 will be a nice portrays lens for me?

Good job! Thank you Angel from The Bay

I picked one up from Canon refurbished for $299 and a JCC lens hood for $25. A great lens that is very budget-friendly.

well done!!

Would you recommend it for a Crop sensor? It would make it a 136mm Maybe too long for portraits? Which lens would be best. I have the 50mm 1.8.

Bro, you speak truth to power! I also understand the "more expensive is better, and if you don't shoot the newest, most expensive gear you're not a pro" culture that permeates KZfaq and where it comes from. I was shooting a Canon 5Ds with a combination of L glass and Sigma Art glass. I loved it, loved Canon (still do), but that camera had one flaw from my perspective and that was autofocus was temperamental, especially in low light. This led me down the rabbit hole of switching to mirrorless for the enhanced autofocus capabilities, especially eye af. Since I was migrating to mirrorless I decided to weigh all of my options and narrowed my choice down to Canon and Nikon. Sony is great as well, but the bodies just don't sit well in my hand and navigating the menu I found to be confusing. I landed on Nikon, oddly enough, because at the end of the day the glass is just much less expensive than the Canon glass (I'm primarily speaking of the premium RF L vs Nikon S Z mount glass). While I got some of the higher end glass, I also decided to go the less expensive route with their primes. To be honest, the higher end stuff is what you'd expect, but what blew me away is how good the inexpensive primes are. I got the 50, 85, and 35 f/1.8 primes and cannot believe how phenomenally well these lenses perform. They're sharp as a tack corner to corner wide open, fantastic color rendition, and wonderful contrast! The quality advancements that manufacturers have made in the "entry level" part of their line is terrific! However, one thing that really annoys me about Canon and Nikon is the lack of open sharing of technology with third party manufacturers like Tamron and Sigma. As always, thanks for sharing your expertise! Your videos are some of the best moments of my day! BTW, I see your subscriber count growing!

I miss some photos you took with this lens in your video. I was searching for a 85mm prime lens for my Canon R6 and ended up getting an EF 85mm f/1.4 which has IS, weather sealing and lens hood unlike RF 85mm f/2. I bought it for 1350 euros, less than double compared to RF 85 f/1.2. from my point of view it's much better option than RF 85 f/2.

My favourite lens for portrait and landscape.

I just bout this lens, when I was mounting the UV filter I've noticed that there's a tiny dust inside it. do you think it will effect the pictures? thank you

Watched some reviews about this lens and I realized that is a no brainer! Specially because you might not get that much of an exaggerated buttery bokeh, even though you get an amazing one but, the MACRO capability compared with the L version, there’s not even comparison. A 2 in 1, 600$ vs a 2.700$ with no MACRO at all. Seems like a pretty clear decision!

Would it be worth getting when you have a 14-35 f4 L lense? My partner wants to shoot some family portraits. Thanks

I've been preaching about his lens in groups and I get so much crap for it. I love this lens. It's so sharp. I use it for product and portraits. The bad: focus is very slow. Not very accurate but other than that.....

Canon has it in stock right now on refurb for 299. Just picked it up

I was waiting for this review, thank you so much. You are a great youtuber. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I am a very inexperienced snapper and had a few bob to spare and too much time on my hands decided to get into photography a little more seriously. I got an R6 and spent a small fortune on lenses, however, one of the first I bought was a 60 quid (75USD) ef 80-200 on e-bay, which I put to one side and never really used after watching various channels talking about you having to spend on the lens....which I did (no fool like an old fool lol) After taking 140-150 shots with various lenses on one shoot I loaded them onto Lightroom and there were about 8 which I liked for sharpness and colour looking at the metadata 6 of them were with that cheap lens...ah well!

Hello Master: Please help and give me some advice, The camera I am currently using is Canon EOS R10, The kit lens used with it is (RF-S18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM) My main subject matter is toy photography. The secondary shooting content is street photography or portrait photos. Now I want to buy new lenses, after watching your video, Want to compare between Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM and RF85mm F2 Macro IS STM After making a choice, I would like to ask you to give me some advice on which lens is more suitable for me? Thank you.

it's great but.. it is better when it is 1.8 or like the bokeh of viltrox creamy..

Why are you comparing f4 zoom to f2 prime?

Nice cripple hammer reference! 😉

I just purchased one recently on sale for $450 at Best Buy 😊

Interested in your thoughts of how the nifty fifty RF compares to this?

I enjoyed the video and the info in it. I was using a Canon 85mm f/1.8 EF lens for headshots, but thought I’d try to improve my lens. So, I rented the Canon RF 85mm f/2.0 to test it for headshots, and I also rented the Tamron 85mm f/1.8 G2 (EF) for the same reason. I found the Tamron was at least equal to the Canon and slightly superior in color depth and brightness at the same ISO and aperture. Additionally, the Tamron is weather-sealed and also has 5 stops of stabilization. I didn’t buy either lens. But now that my old Canon 85mm EF developed auto-focus motor problems, I’m being forced into buying a new lens (even though I’m getting the old on repaired). The question for me is… which one? The Canon RF is new tech while the Tamron isn’t. Plus, since the Tamron is discontinued, used is the only option. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Or, shall I say, indecision, indecision, indecision.😁

How is this lens vs the Sigma Art 85mm 1.4?

How much is that lens? I don't think you mentioned it...

Thank you for validating my thoughts about overpriced 2000 + dollar lenses. The differences I’ve seen between ones under 1000 compared to ones that cost thousands. And honestly I just don’t see the difference ever being worth thousands more.

A lot of KZfaq gear reviews are like Top Gear episode with that wow factor of gear one would love to have, however can never afford it ! Also why pay thousands for f1.2 lens and mostly shoot at f2.8 - f4,....! That's why lens like this should be more popular as a work horse for original people and Pros, not gear if we were too F1 manufacturer !

Why.. to flex😆😆😆

Lens is bad for video. too noisy.

Waste lens