[thibs]

Do you really need WR and motor for portraits?

Right, a 85mm lens is useless for anything but portraits.

Geez, guys, you should have known better.

[ogl]

Right, a 85mm lens is useless for anything but portraits.

Geez, guys, you should have known better.

it's classical portrait length. you can shoot everything, but the 85 mm is not universal focal length at all. it's rather special focal length.

85 and 105-135 mm are classical portrait lenses.

FA77 is one of the best portrait lens, first of all.

The Pentax SMCP-FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited lens is a versatile, high resolution medium-telephoto lens that was specifically designed with portrait and snapshot applications in mind.


Batis 85mm f/1.8 Lens from Zeiss is a portrait-length, short telephoto lens featuring a fast f/1.8 maximum aperture for greater focus control and enhanced low-light shooting

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/0162569004/where-are-the-portrait-lenses
The portrait range has classically been considered as being between 85mm and 135mm for comfortable 'head and shoulders' shots

[Yukiko]

The Facebook translation is not correct. Mr. Hirakawa said, "I'm now working for Tamron. Let's talk about Pentax cameras and lenses."

[starbase218]

it's classical portrait length. you can shoot everything, but the 85 mm is not universal focal length at all. it's rather special focal length.

85 and 105-135 mm are classical portrait lenses.

FA77 is one of the best portrait lens, first of all.

The Pentax SMCP-FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited lens is a versatile, high resolution medium-telephoto lens that was specifically designed with portrait and snapshot applications in mind.


Batis 85mm f/1.8 Lens from Zeiss is a portrait-length, short telephoto lens featuring a fast f/1.8 maximum aperture for greater focus control and enhanced low-light shooting

Where are the portrait lenses?: Digital Photography Review
The portrait range has classically been considered as being between 85mm and 135mm for comfortable 'head and shoulders' shots

The 70mm Limited is also considered a portrait prime, I think? Yet I took this non-portrait shot with it. Outdoors, in Iceland. It wasn't raining, but that doesn't mean WR on such a lens would not be useful for shots like this.



If you only shoot portraits with focal lengths like these, and you don't need WR, that's ok. But if someone else prefers to have WR on an 85mm lens, what's the problem?

Also, I really don't care so much what a lens is designed for. If it works for what I want to do with it, that's all that matters to me.

[Na Horuk]

The 70mm Limited is also considered a portrait prime, I think?

That is a wonderful portrait of a rock.

On a serious note, I think its generally understood that 85mm-135mm (on FF) is portrait focal lengths, where lenses are balanced for pleasing skin tones and nice OoF blur. And it is also generally understood that portraits can be done with other lenses, even 8mm fisheyes; despite that definitely not being the norm. And it is also understood that a classic 85mm f1.4 lens can be used for.. well, anything you want to use it for. I take plenty landscapes with my DFA 100mm macro. I'm just trying to say that the arguments here are not actually going against each other

[D1N0]

The Facebook translation is not correct. Mr. Hirakawa said, "I'm now working for Tamron. Let's talk about Pentax cameras and lenses."

Yeah that's how Google translates it too. So he was in a pentax facebook group and was saying politely he didn't want to talk about Tamron lenses there.