The image quality is excellent and the background blur is fantastic

Quality lens, good portrait background blur

Great for portraits with very good sharpness and great background blur

The background blur you can achieve is outstanding but the depth of field is very narrow fully open, as you'd expect

If you use the aperature priority setting and play around, you'll see that you too can make professional level background blur even if you barely know what you are doing (this would be me).

I'm loving the creamy background blur.

Excellent sharpness and background blur at large f stops

Beautiful portraits, sharp, great colors, contrast, background blur.

The background blur is awesome.

The background blurs are very good.

Great for portraits with very good sharpness and great background blur

The background blurs are very good.

The background blur is awesome.

This lens produces good background blur and bokeh

In my favorites,the focal point is tack-sharp against a beautiful background blur

Beautiful portraits, sharp, great colors, contrast, background blur.

Excellent sharpness and background blur at large f stops

Fast focus, great background blur and it seems to be of excellent build quality

I've been playing around and I took tons of shots of my kids today and the portraits are amazingly clear with GREAT background blur

The background blur you can achieve is outstanding but the depth of field is very narrow fully open, as you'd expect

The image quality is excellent and the background blur is fantastic

i own a 35L, a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS, and a 16-35mm f/2.8L..and this lens is by far my most used lens.super sharp wide open, beautiful background blur, in my opinion the best bang for the buck other than maybe the 50mm f/1.8...which i've never owned.the only downside is the purple fringing, it produces some serious fringe wide open with extreme contrasty situations.

Excellent lens, perfect quality, superb delineation and portability, excellent for background blur, would highly recommend.

This lens lets me get faster and the 1.8 ap performs great background blurring.

The bokeh (the structure of the background blur) is nothing short of great, easily competing with much more expensive lenses

and when I use it for portrait shots I do get a pleasing background blur

For portraits, you'll want to go right for f/1.8 if lighting conditions allow in order to take advantage of the shallow and pleasing DOF isolation this lens is famous for; background blur is very soft yet very strong, while the in focus region remains deep enough to keep the important features of the face in focus from ear to nose

For portraits, you'll want to go right for f/1.8 if lighting conditions allow in order to take advantage of the shallow and pleasing DOF isolation this lens is famous for; background blur is very soft yet very strong, while the in focus region remains deep enough to keep the important features of the face in focus from ear to nose

It serves me really well taking people pictures outside - fantastic background blur and fast enough for low light indoor close ups

Fast focus, great background blur and it seems to be of excellent build quality

you can tell it's not nearly as sharp as it is stopped down just a little.

Sturdily built but not heavy and bulky, wonderful bokeh, great f/stop control, clarity of image - my only problem with it, really, is that it isn't as sharp as I'd like, but that's all-too-easily fixed in Photoshop.

It has some chromatic abberation wide open but still very sharp and stop it down, it is as sharp as $

This lens does well wide open or stopped down as well as in low light situations

At f3.5 this lens is very sharp, every bit as sharp as my 100-400L lens @ 100

If you are in the market for a great cheap non L series lens, I would pick this over the 50mm 1.8.

This lens fortunately as a "cheap" version from the L seri that really pricey, something that I can't afford buying it but Thanks to Canon have created the non series lens that works beautifuly.

Probably one of the best non-L Lens that you can get from Canon for a reasonable price

F/2 L, you will lose your love for 85mm F/1.82

Excellent Bokeh,as good as my L lens

For the price of a consumer zoom, you can have image quality that rivals the finest L series lenses.

Besides that, it's just as good as any of my expensive L lenses

I was contemplating between this one and the more expensive L lens before I purchased this one

I'm an amateur photographer, and I'm in no position to drop thousands on L lenses and the like.

Not as sturdy as the "L" glass, maybe, but it is sharper at the same settings than my 24-105 f:4 L zoom.

Some photographers are gobsmacked that I would dare to shoot sports with a lens that doesn't have Canon's elegant red ring (denoting an expensive L lens) when I have "superior" lenses like the 70-200mm f2.8

So that leaves the very expensive L option

Unless I was a millionaire, absolutely HAD to have the extra f-stop, or die-hard "L" freak, I am more than happy with the 85mm 1.8.It is the most extreme focal length lens I have and works great with my working set of lenses which includes the 24-70L, 35mm f2, and wider lenses

fast AF+ f/1.8 and medium telephoto length allow you to isolate subjects+ Sharp enough wide open, very sharp stopped down to f/2.8-5.6+ VERY easy to travel with (compared to L counterparts)Cons:- AF not quite as accurate as L lenses (misses more than my 70-200 IS II or 50

F/2 L, you will lose your love for 85mm F/1.82

L suffers from quite a bit

If you are in the market for a great cheap non L series lens, I would pick this over the 50mm 1.8.

Plus if you go fixed you don't really need to get the expensive L-glass because there is less glass to cause distortion and aberrations.

I know it is little unfair to compare this budget lens with costlier L

"Let me take your snapshot...from across the room".This is the only non-L lens that has really impressed me.

It feels easily as solid as the L glass that ive used, and is small and compact

Clearly it won't be as good as an L series, so you shouldn't expect perfection, but it still does a fantastic job

You can spend a lot more on an "L" lens like the 85 f/1.2 L II - I borrowed one from CPS - but unless you're making a great deal of money from it, it isn't worth it.

I have a fair collection of primes to compare it to, some of which are L glass, and I've got some great L zooms as well; yet for portraits, I inevitably turn to this specific lens as it outperforms everything else I own in the successful shooting methodologies I find myself returning to over and over

If you want to make your first step up from a kite lens and don't want to spend L money I would recommend buying this lens, I use it at wedding all the time and it gives you nice crisp shots with great

Having the lens in my hand I can say this is a very decent prime glass, well built (not an "L" level), responsive, small and light

To me, its an L: built like an L, color and saturation comparable to an L

Mainly take pictures of my son's baseball games and bought the EF 70-300 F4-5.6 Telephoto (also great, glad my brother-in-law talked me out of the spendy L-glass I was considering!) in the Fall but wanted a lens to do more portraiture-type stuff.

Works every bit as well as my L lenses; I'm very happy with this purchase.

If you can't afford the "L" and don't want to take a chance on the Sigma 85, then this is your only cholce for 85 mm.