Sharp portrait lens?

An EF-S60/2.8 or an EF50/2.5 would both fit the bill......based on your simple demand of sharpness and price.

Bob
 
Definitely check out the 50/F2.5 - it's an excellent lens and is well within your budget at around £235 new, well worth the money
 
50mm f/1.8 - awesome lens at £95. I've got one and love it.

If you want a bit more 'quality' and a bit less noise, apparently the 50mm f1.4 is good (not from personal experience)
 
I'm going to say either the 50 1.8 or the 50 1.4. I've got the 1.8 MkII and it's a great lens that gives excellent results on my 60D and 5D3. I'm also looking at getting some primes and am thinking 35 f2, 50 1.4 and 85 1.8, which are all under £300 new.
 
daugirdas said:
85mm f/1.8 is the best bang for the money. I don't like the 50's as much, as they are clearly mechanically inferior.
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I'd think 85mm on an APS-C body will be very limiting indoors won't it?
 
Canon Bob said:
I'd think 85mm on an APS-C body will be very limiting indoors won't it?
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It depends on the style, but generally, no it shouldn't. I had used something like 200mm on crop for some shots - no problems
 
drummerkev said:
I was looking at that lens as its on offer at the moment at like £88. seems like a decent lens and iv not heard and bad things about it! think it may be on the agenda!
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Not that sharp, poor Af speed and accuracy, questionable build quality and a 5 blade aperture diaphragm are things to consider. It's cheap for a reason
 
I use a Helios 44-M 58mm f/2 for portraits, built in russia basically a reverse engineered zeiss lol I only paid £40! and personally prefer it to the EF50mm f1.8 by canon which I think looks way too soft in most circumstances. I think a second hand zeiss would be a great option but only if it's in perfect optical condition
 
symmetricalOCD said:
I use a Helios 44-M 58mm f/2 for portraits, built in russia basically a reverse engineered zeiss lol I only paid £40! and personally prefer it to the EF50mm f1.8 by canon which I think looks way too soft in most circumstances. I think a second hand zeiss would be a great option but only if it's in perfect optical condition
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Optically it is bound to be better. But try manually focusing that with a tiny x00D viewfinder!
 
daugirdas said:
Optically it is bound to be better. But try manually focusing that with a tiny x00D viewfinder!
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Katzeye screen if they do one, I found them a very good combo on my 20D which also has a teeny tiny viewfinder.
 
puggie said:
Katzeye screen if they do one, I found them a very good combo on my 20D which also has a teeny tiny viewfinder.
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But won't the 600d have a pentamirror too rather than a prism, there's a lot of light loss in a modern budget DSLR - which for me means I'd never buy MF lenses unless the body was top end. But I like my gear to 'just work' I was brought up on stop down metering and MF and I'd rather have the modern luxuries than ever go back there.
 
POAH said:
Not that sharp, poor Af speed and accuracy, questionable build quality and a 5 blade aperture diaphragm are things to consider. It's cheap for a reason
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And this^ The 85mm 1.8 is a far superior lens, I own the 50mm and the only reason I've never swapped it for the 1.4 is that it's often reported as not that much better than the 1.8. When I do bin the 50mm, it'll probably be for the Sigma 1.4.
 
I use 2 lenses for portraits

Canon 85mm f1.8 A beautifully sharp and fast focussing lens.

I use this indoors for head shots.

The other lens is the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

Very good for full body or 3/4 length shots.

I don't like 50mm range just on head shots for ladies but for those full length shots

the zoom ability is spot on.

Finally both the lenses are fast so it's nice to have a shallow Dof option too.
 
puggie said:
Katzeye screen if they do one, I found them a very good combo on my 20D which also has a teeny tiny viewfinder.
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Phil V said:
But won't the 600d have a pentamirror too rather than a prism, there's a lot of light loss in a modern budget DSLR - which for me means I'd never buy MF lenses unless the body was top end. But I like my gear to 'just work' I was brought up on stop down metering and MF and I'd rather have the modern luxuries than ever go back there.
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600d has pentamiror and WON'T easily take a custom focus screen. 20D is not that tiny by the way, just very small :D

Phil V said:
And this^ The 85mm 1.8 is a far superior lens, I own the 50mm and the only reason I've never swapped it for the 1.4 is that it's often reported as not that much better than the 1.8. When I do bin the 50mm, it'll probably be for the Sigma 1.4.
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Optically 85 is far superior, but equally so 50/1.4 is miles ahead of 50/1.8. I had both and kept the better of course. I've also seen sigma, and in my view it offers nothing that canon can't do, bad copies on either side aside (excuse the punt)
 
daugirdas said:
600d has pentamiror and WON'T easily take a custom focus screen. 20D is not that tiny by the way, just very small :D
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Fair enough... in which case I'd buy the Canon 85mm f1.8 cos its a superb bit of kit but if that looks too long for you a 50mm, the f1.8 if your feeling tight, the Sigma f1.4 if you want to spend a bit more of the canon 50mm macro if you might fancy having a dabble at macro at some point in the future.
 
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