Vivitar Series 1 85mm f/1.8 Manual Focus Portrait Lens for Canon EOS

2013-12-09T19:00:00

I use this lens as a general portrait lens, mostly for shooting people but works well on animals, as long as you don't stop it down too far. Stopping down to 1.8 will net you focused eyes and a blurred snout on a dog at least. The best part of this is the price. It's cheap, though in some respects it also feels cheap. It works nicely, however and does take getting accustomed to full manual controls for aperture and focusing. The only thing that would make this lens better is autofocus, but hey, that's part of why this lens is so inexpensive, so the trade off is acceptable. There is also no vibration compensation/image stabilization, which again, keeps the price down. If you're looking for a fun lens, that can do nice bokeh and does nice portraits, this is a good lens to try. I have used this on my 1Dx and an old XSi, both work equally as well and quality is very good overall from both.

Stephen L.