My search of the perfect portrait lens

[Marve Almar]

As I have been on the search for the perfect portrait companion for my A7 and A7s for a while I thought it was time to share my experiences.

 

First a little about my background and use. I am a hobby photographer with three kids and a bunch of nephews and nieces and most of my shooting is of those. I have also been doing weddings, formal portraits, new born photography and so on, but I’m far from being a pro and I don’t want to become one either. Photography is just a hobby and I want to keep it that way.

 

When I test lenses I’m only concerned about my usage of the lenses. I’m not shooting brick walls, I don’t understand MTF curves and I often find vignetting to be a positive thing for a portrait. Other important aspects for me are size and how easy the lens is to focus (and there are huge differences).

 

I’ve been testing the following lenses on my A7/A7s (sorted on focal length and aperture):

 

Sony ZA 135/1.8

When I was using A900 this was my favorite lens. I have very few complaints with it, but it didn’t balance very well with my mirrorless bodies and I eventually let it go. I will probably miss it for the rest of my life.

 

Likes

-Sharp

-Bright

-Renders beautifully and has a something to it I can’t explain

 

Dislikes

-Big and heavy

-Slow AF and a little slack on the focus ring

 

Sony 135/2.8 STF

The other lens I will miss for the rest of my life. It has a rendering and a background blur I have never seen on any other lens. I ended up selling it for its size and because the biggest aperture is f4.5 (brightness wise). It is not an everyday lens, but for the certain situations it is the perfect lens.

 

Likes

-Sharp, never seen anything sharper wide open

-Beautiful bokeh

-Really easy to manual focus using focus peaking

 

Dislikes

-Big and heavy (I wish for a 100 mm or 85 mm of this in FE mount)

-Daylight is required

 

Zeiss Makro Planar 100/2.0

This was my replacement for the above-mentioned lenses and is now my safe bet for any paid jobs. My only real complaint on this lens is its size and weight, but it is very versatile with its aperture and 1:2 macro ability. If I could only afford to keep one lens, this would be the one.

 

Likes

-Sharp

-Nice bokeh

-Really easy to manual focus using peaking

-Macro ability

 

Dislikes

-Big and heavy

-It sometimes has some strange artifacts in high contrast areas between what is in focus and not and it is a little hard to predict while shooting.

 

Olympus Zuiko OM 100/2.8

I haven’t tested it much yet because of some adapter issues, but it seems to be a nice lens and it is really small and light. Seems to be sharp and the blur seems fine, but I need more testing of it. I only wish it was f2.0.

 

Leica Summicron 90/2.0 APO ASPH and non APO ASPH

I have the non APO ASPH now, but used to have the APO ASPH version. They are pretty similar, but have a little different rendering from each other. I think I prefer the non AA for its price, but I also think I prefer the rendering from it. It seems to be a little smoother for portraits.

 

Likes

-Perfect size for what it is and balances very well on the A7 bodies

-Great lens hood solution

-Nice rendering on both versions, but I think I prefer non-AA

 

Dislikes

-Price – I find them too expensive for what they are

-A little short focus throw

-A little difficult to nail perfect focus without the focus magnifier (peaking doesn’t work that good on these lenses)

 

Leica Tele-Elmarit 90/2.8

I never really liked this lens. It wasn’t really sharp until stopped down to f 4.0 and focus ring was a little loose with short focus throw. And it didn’t have the brilliant Leica built-in-lens hood, which is my best reason to use Leica lenses. I sold it after two weeks.

 

Canon FD 85/1.2

I haven’t had this lens for long and I need to test it more, but so far I have a little mixed feelings about it. I expected it to be a little soft, but with smooth bokeh and pleasant rendering. My experience so far is the opposite, it is sharp in center even wide open and the bokeh is a little harsh and swirly and you really need to keep the subject within the center of the picture. Outside “the rule of thirds” it is very soft and the lens also suffers from the worst CA I have ever seen. I will do more testing on it before I come up with my final judge.

 

Sony ZA 85/1.4

This was my go to lens until I started looking at MF lenses. It is sharp from 1.7 and I have very few complaints with its rendering except pretty big CA issues on larger apertures, but that didn’t bother me much.

 

Likes

-Sharp and nice

 

Dislikes

-Slooow AF and a little loose focus ring for MF. After I started using MF lenses the focusing of this lens started annoying me.

 

Asahi Pentax SMC Takumar 85/1.8

A really nice, small and light lens with nice rendering. I really like this lens, it has a little vintage glow, but not too much and it is still pretty sharp.

 

Likes

-Size and weight (it is really light)

-Nice rendering, balances what I like very well

 

Dislike

-A little stiff aperture ring (but who cares)

-Not as easy to MF as the STF or the MP, but about the same as the Summicrons

 

Voigtlander Heliar 75/1.8

Another lens that I really liked the rendering from. It also has a vintage something to it, but it different from the Takumar. I only wish this lens was a little longer; 75 mm was too short for my taste.

 

Likes

-Rendering

 

Dislikes

-Too short focus throw

-Personally I wish it were 90 mm

 

 

I also took a couple of shots of the lenses I still have today for those who are interested in sizes. I keep googling everything to get an impression on how big the different lenses are.

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The order is Sony FE 70-200/4 (just as a size reference), Zeiss Makro Planar 100/2, Canon FD 85/1.2, Leica Summicron 90/2, Asahi Pentax SMC Takumar 85/1.8, Olympus Zuiko OM 100/2.8

 

Looking forward to hear your experiences.

 

[mopswerk]

It's a nice list ... I almost never do portraits, but I like those old GDR lenses. Probably the 75mm Biotar F1.5 from Zeiss Jena would be something to get Portraits with that certain Bokeh. I have this lens, but mostly use it for Nature stuff:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100003468@N05/14921189470/

It's back from the 60ies and quite heavy ("only" glasses with lead), and in the meantime it got quite pricey as well.

For portraits I recommend Flickr for samples (of course, not mine): https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=biotar%2075

[panzerbjorne]

On Canon my favourite was the unsung Sigma 85/1.4. I'm thinking I will get an adapter for that and the Canon 135/2. Both those lenses aren't easy to shoot with but make me cry when I get it right.

 

 

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[OldNoob]

The Takumar is a fun lens. 

I wonder if yours has the special radioactive coating on it?

[carbondated]

If you can find a lens hood for the FD 85 1.2 you may like it more, it's one of the lenses that really needs it.

[Marve Almar]

Thanks for your replies!

 

I am using a lens hood for the FD 85/1.2, it is kind of useless without one. I also figured out that it is much better on shorter focusing distances than on longer ones. The bokeh is much nicer when focused closer (like 1 to 3-4 meters).

 

I have no idea about the coating on my Takumar.

 

I have also used my Olympus 100/2.8 a lot lately and I have to say that I like that lens. It is sharp wide open, easy to focus, has a nice rendering and it is really small an light. A perfect travel light companion.

[shaolin95]

Thanks for sharing this!

I have been thinking about the Canon 85mm 1.2L for a LONG time but the CA (correctable of course) is indeed pretty bad and my main thing is for wide open usage. Lately I have been thinking on just getting the Rokinon 84mm 1.4 and losing the .2 but gaining much better CA control and a LOT cheaper.
Currently my portrait Primes have a gap since I go from my FD 50mm 1.4 prime to FD 100mm F2 (great lens!) then an FL 135mm 2.5 and then FD 200mm F2.8

[Marve Almar]

Yes, the CA on the FD 85/1.2 is the worst I have ever seen, but it is not often that it really bothers me. The strange bokeh has bothered me more, but I think I have started to understand it more now.

 

I tested the Rokinon/Samyang 84/1.4 a couple of years ago as well, but didn't like it then. I would like to test it again now, because I guess I would like it more now. Another lens I also will test is the Nikkor 105/2.5, I'm just waiting for one with a reasonable price.