Canon to Announce 85mm f/1.4L IS Lens

Canon to Announce 85mm f/1.4L IS Lens

Sigma wowed us with the release of the 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, which is undoubtedly a strike across the bow of the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM. Not to be outdone, however, Canon is gearing up to release a new 85mm f/1.4L lens of their own with image stabilization. 

Both the Sigma 85mm Art and Canon 85mm f/1.2L II are superlative lenses, highly sought after by many photographers and a staple of many kits. However, the Sigma has recently been taking a bit of the spotlight from the Canon, particularly with its wide-open sharpness. Our friends at Canon Rumors are reporting that Canon, not to be outdone, will be announcing an 85mm f/1.4L IS in mid-summer. The addition of image stabilization has been a request from many photographers, and if this lens also features the blue spectrum optics found on the  along with a bump in wide-aperture sharpness from its f/1.2 cousin, you can expect a serious competitor to the Sigma. Most interesting is that this lens will not be replacing the 85mm f/1.2L II, which may indicate Canon is going for broke resolution-wise (and size-wise) in a swipe at Sigma, leaving the 85mm f/1.2L II as the "classic" portrait lens. 

[via Canon Rumors]

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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20 Comments

It's going to be hard to beat the Sigma. They are on a roll!

Canon did with the 35mm Mk II, it's minor but it's still a better lens for overall sharpness and has far more accurate/consistent AF combined with the BSO makes it a very nice lens if pricey. If Canon repeats that with the 85mm f/1.4 then they'll have a winner.

Exactly. I reviewed the Canon, and I can't emphasize enough how big a difference having that first-party AF makes: https://fstoppers.com/originals/can-canon-dethrone-sigma-art-fstoppers-r...

Sigma auto focus is garbage... there is more to a lens than sharpness and sigma fails miserably at auto focus

Making sigma not even in the same ballpark to either canon or Nikon

People need to stop overlooking the horrendous auto focus issues these Sigmas have and blindly calling Sigma the leader in anything...

A car with 1000 Hp and 1000lb Torque is still garbage if it's transmission can't get out of first gear

sigma is the car with the garbage transmission

And that's how competition works.

Yes, but will it be priced competitively with Sigma?

While the 85mm f/1.2L II is pricey it really is in a league of its own and will be very hard to beat....adding an 85mm f/1.4 IS lens to the lineup will fill the gap Sigma is chasing so I think it would be a smart move by Canon

The better question to ask is would Canon have decided to make this lens if Sigma had not made theirs?

Even if the Canon lens is more expensive it may offer something or some things that Canon users might find worth paying for. In addition to keeping prices in check, competition causes more products to enter the market.

yes it is..but i will be interested to see the focusing capabilities of the 1.4...the 1.2 is a complete no go for anything moving fast( i am sports photog)..

guys can you please suggest me full frame wide angle lens i am using canon 6d thank you

You should consider the 16-35 f4. Relatively cheap, IS, quite good. You lose 1 stop, sometimes useful (especially if you do wedding) but you can raise the ISO, it's not a disaster.

completely agree..actually better in edges than the 2.8

Thank you for your feedback i will shoot interior and exterior and some time video also which brand ?

Will see the price too.
That could make a big difference for me. I m on the fence of buying the Sigma in few weeks but want to wait now. But I m scare that canon is going to come with a price way higher and I love sharp image and I heard the Sigma is out of that world for that.

See, Canon is catching on... and developing new things to meet demand. Nikon, I feel is severely lacking in R&D - obviously a much smaller company than Canon, but still... the 105 1.4 is the only real powerhouse new offering, many other things, such as a 135mm, the offering from Nikon is a very old, and comparatively soft lens... and no sight on the horizon of something new. - I feel Sigma, despite having some QC issues, is still really hurting Nikon in this regard with sharper lenses at a much lower price.

Hmmm - I'm not completely with you on this one, but it may simply be that my needs are a lot simpler than e.g. wedding photographers, where really shallow depth of field and gorgeous bokeh is a lot more in demand than in commercial work and corporate headshot.

I do 90% of my work with the 35/50/85 mm f/1.8 G series from Nikon, and as far as sharp lenses at a reasonable cost goes, there is nothing touching the 35 and the 85 (the 50 may be debatable wide open). This means that I can run a business with a Nikon system with some really bright, sharp glass with modern coatings for a much lower price than if I were a Canon shooter (and I used to be), and I can be as sure as possible that I will have no issues with body/lens compatibility.

However, if I were an event photographer with a 24-120 VR f/4 welded to my camera, you're definitely right that Sigma is killing it at a much lower price, and the same goes for the high-end primes.

Oh, and yeah - 135 mm f/2 from Nikon, pretty please. The sooner, the better.

As long as people only care about pixel peeping sharpness at 400% over atrocious auto focus and Quality control issues... Sigma will seem like the winner

The issue is... Nikon actually cares about quality products and puts out lenses with great auto focus capability and also consistency

Sigma can't do either of those things

They simply feed off the ignorant masses who overlook one of the most important aspects of a lens (auto focus accuracy and consistency) for a hyped aspect (sharpness you can only see the difference in at 200+% zoom, on a computer screen by the photographer only)

I use mostly Nikon lenses (58 1.4, 105 1.4 and 200/2), and ive used almost all Sigma ART lenses except the 135, 85, and the 12-24, and based on my experience your statement holds no weight, and calling professionals who use ART lenses "ignorant"shows your true character. IMHO ART lenses have as much quality control as Nikon. I've had AF issues with many Nikon lenses that I had to send to Nikon (17-35, 200/2, and a 70-200 vrii). I also had some issues with the Sigma 35 1.4 and the the 50 1.4, but the dock fixed that and I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg. I prefer some Nikon lenses for their rendering, however, ALL my Sigma lenses have faster AF than their Nikon counterparts. FYI if not for Sigma's ART lineup, Nikon would've never come up with a lot of their recent lenses.

I rented the sigma 85 and was blown away with the quality of that lens. But I've been holding out for the rumored canon. As much as people love the Art series, I'm not convinced. Excited for this release.

How much do you reckon a Canon 85mm F/1.4 IS will weigh in at? Hoping it'll be a little less than the Sigma ART.