Good ambient light usage at f1.8, good color rendition, and well controlled aberrations.

It has amazing colors, beautiful depth of field,

Fixed lens gives you reliable sharpness and good color

This lens has an exceptional image quality and is fast, accurate, sharp and has a great contrast and color.

The amazing colors, bookeh and contrast are the ones you can find

Using the lens mostly for portraits, I have enjoyed very clear images with excellent color

If you are after tack-sharp portraits with beautiful saturation and color, beautiful bokeh, and are on a limited budget, get this lens

Excellent sharpness and beautiful color.

After the 50mm 1.8 I acquired the 35mmL F1.4 which allows for outstanding indoor candid group shots and portraits - beautiful shots indoors and out on the fly - capturing children outside running, jumping, laughing at lightning speed and with amazing clarity and colors.

When stopped down a little, the images it produces are quite sharp, have very decent color (if a TINY bit dull in some situations) and I like that it produces such powerful results in a relatively small package

I am so glad I finally purchased it, Gorgeous colors, very sharp

amazingly sharp images, great contract and color

I shoot a lot of indoor sports and have found this lens to be VERY fast focusing with sharp colors.

One of the sharpest lens among L and non-L, color is beautiful

It was very sharp and had great contrast and color.

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

Great color

It lacks the lens coatings of L lenses so the colors and contrast aren't as good, but sharpness leaves nothing to be desired

It is perfect for portraits, the colors are bright and the image is crisp

Sharp, beautiful color, extremely well made (heavy), and very bright

" I've taken with this lens has made for beautiful colors and lines.

I even find it sharp wide-open with good color and contrast

This lens makes me consider to get prime lenses instead of heavy and bulky zooms nice color and bokeh absolutely recommended

This lens has an amazingly clear focus, and the colors are also spectacular!I'm definitely not a professional, but I feel like this lens bumped my portrait photography up to the next level.

Great color, contrast

Ultrasonic helped with every picture in focus and all very sharp with vibrant colors, very nice saturation, and I used ISO 400 and I could even freeze the action on stage

a different review).Autofocus is fast and accurate, colors are rich, and it's sharp wide open at 1.8

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

Lots of fine details, rich colors and plenty of bookeah if you want it, and it's relatively small

Don't get me wrong - the 28-135 did good, but after a few hundred shots I noticed a pattern of overall better color under natural light conditions AND better auto-focus on the subjects with the EF 85.

Tender color rendition but sharp in resolution - skin is looking great with this lens

When stopped down a little, the images it produces are quite sharp, have very decent color (if a TINY bit dull in some situations) and I like that it produces such powerful results in a relatively small package

Color, image quality, contrast, etc. are all great!This lens is one of the best portrait lens that money can buy!My only con is the minimum focusing distance of almost 3 feet

My pictures are crisp, clear, the bokeh is nice and creamy and the filter gives perfect color.

but now when i look back at those wonderful pics, i can see bad color fringes

Combined with the perfect weather and colors, it took amazing portraits

Just excellent color and contrast, no flare effect, no cromatic aberrations

The picture is sharp, sharp, sharp and the color is great, great, great.

Very compressed and ridiculous color

It has wonderful color and it provides a bright viewfinder so AF and framing is quick and easy

The blurried backround is just fantastic and the colors vivid and sharp razon images.

Since using it I find it produces a nicely sharp image with good color, decent contrast, and has reasonably quick and accurate focussing

The 85/1.8 is really fast, AF is quick, it melts away pesky backgrounds, and the color and contrast are superb

Extremely sharp, excellent colors and a fast aperture

The background blur (bokeh) is simply superb as are the crispness of clarity and rich colors

Again, great clarity, color, and the auto-focus was always spot-on

The 50mm 1.8 STM seems to have sharper images and better color for a fraction of the price.

I got many amazing pictures from this 85mm, some of them jaw dropping - Beautiful colors, contrast and something magical

Granted I am not a portrait photographer, but I love the color and clarity of this lens

The colors are awesome and the lens speed is very nice!

Snappy focus, brilliant colors, sharp, bokeh, etc etc etc ... all those words that positive lens reviews usually use

You get a really attractive bokeh on the wide end of the aperature, and images have good color and contrast

It is SOOOO sharp and the colors are fabulous

Color is beautiful and the bokeh

produces such vibrant color, and beautiful bokeh.

It's really sharp and the color is really good.

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.