The Buyers guide to...Best lenses for portraits

Canon’s L-Series has always been the mark for optical quality and the RF 85MM F1.2L USM is one of the fastest aperture autofocus lenses you can buy for portraiture.

Partnering the lens with Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF, the fast f/1.2 aperture is able to render stunning shallow depth of field to create bokeh and background separation.

The nine-aperture blade system has been designed to enhance the subject against a blurred background, making it the perfect choice for portraiture . This ultra-wide f/1.2 aperture transmits 50% more light than an f/1.4 lens – down to -6EV (EOS R) and -5EV (EOS RP).

Also inside this lens is Canon’s BR Optical technology, which corrects axial chromatic aberration that cannot be corrected using glass alone. The result is improved resolution and sharpness across the frame.

You can find the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM: price, specs, release date revealed

Canon completely redesigned the RF 50mm F1.8 STM compared to the old EF 50mm f/1.8 and has given it a higher optical standard. The new construction features PMo aspherical lenses for improved image quality and Super Spectra Coating technology, for reduced ghosting, flare, and aberration.

It uses an STM focusing motor, which helps to keep the price down, and although quiet it will be audible when used during video shots using the camera’s on-board mic.

A popular focal length, the RF 50mm F1.8 STM captures an angle of view close to our eyes, while the large aperture enables lenty of control over depth of field.

Find the latest deals on the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM announced: specs, price confirmed

Canon’s compact and lightweight RF 85mm F2 IS STM portrait prime lens both picks out beautiful detail and also utilises its fast f/2 aperture for exceptional shallow depth of field effects. With its short telephoto 85mm focal length, this is an ideal lens for portraiture, yet macro photographers will also appreciate its ability to pick out details with close focusing at up to 35cm.

It’s also equipped with five stops of Image Stabilization, or eight stops when used with the Canon EOS R6 or EOS R5, also announced today.

With its 1:2 macro shooting capability, the RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM captures subjects at 50% life size.

The RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM also employs STM Autofocus for faster, smoother focusing in both stills and video.

You can find the Canon RF 85mm F2 STM at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Canon debuts RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM lens

The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S is a classic portrait lens designed for head-and-shoulder shots and environmental portraits, and delivers superb image quality and lovely bokeh effects. The lens captures beautiful skin tones, and images are sharp even when you shoot wide open.

The Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 is compatible with the Nikon Z cameras’ new Eye-Detection feature and also promises silent AF and aperture adjustment for filmmaking.

On the lens barrel of the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S is a control ring that is customisable and can be used for manual focusing, aperture control or exposure compensation. The minimum focus distance is just 0.80m, and an anti-reflective Nano Crystal Coat helps prevent flare and ghosting.

Thanks for a collection of weatherproof seals, the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S can survive being used in less than perfect weather.

The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S also appeals to videographers, as it enables footage with nice shallow depth of field and silent AF operation.

You can find the Nikon Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Nikon Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S Review

The Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S is the first f/1.2 prime lens in Nikon’s Z range, and while it doesn’t come cheap, it walks the walk. This bright, full-frame lens redefines the ‘nifty fifty’ with a fast aperture that makes it viable in extreme low-light conditions and offers photographers complete control over depth of field.

Inside its optical construction comprises 17 elements in 15 groups, of which two are ED glass elements and three are aspherical elements. Nikon has also added its anti-reflective Nano Crystal Coat and ARNEO coatings to help combat ghosting and flare. Nikon has also weather-sealed the lens barrel and mount.

Yes, it’s large. Larger than Nikon’s Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8, in fact, but it delivers incredible sharpness.

You can find the Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Nikon Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S Review

The Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S (aka the Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S) is constructed from 12 elements in 9 groups. This includes 2 ED elements and 2 aspherical along with elements that have Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coating.

Perhaps not surprising given the size of the Z mount, the Z 50mm f/1.8 S is larger than then average 50mm lens. It measures 86.5 mm from the camera lens mount flange and has a maximum diameter of 76mm. However, it accepts 62mm filters.

Although it’s quite a large lens for its focal length, the Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S seems quite at home on the Z 7 and Z 6. It has weather-sealing to match the camera and it feels well-balanced with the large grip on the camera.

The large maximum aperture also helps the camera’s autofocus system and it gets most subjects sharp very quickly. That makes the manual focus ring largely redundant and perfect for adjusting exposure compensation (or aperture if you prefer).

The best results overall are produced within an aperture range of around f/4 to f/11, but actually, the full range produces superb results. Details look super-sharp and there’s no need to worry about distortion, chromatic aberration or flare.

You can find the Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S Review

Panasonic’s LUMIX S 85mm F1.8 lens is designed for its full-frame S series cameras. The lens is comprised of nine elements in eight groups promises smooth bokeh with little vignetting or chromatic aberrations, and also delivers much reduced focus breathing for better video performance.

Size-wise, the LUMIX S 85mm F1.8 lens weighs just 355g, and its body has been sealed to make it dust- and splash-resistant. It can also operate at temperatures down to -10C.

There’s a lot on offer here, and at a price tag of £599.99 / €679.99, the Panasonic LUMIX S 85mm F1.8 isn’t by any means cheap, but it is still an affordable, and exceptional, optic to have in your kit bag.

You can buy the Panasonic LUMIX S 85mm F1.8 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Panasonic announces LUMIX S 85mm F1.8 lens

Panasonic’s LUMIX G 42.5mm f/1.7 Asph. Power OIS is a small, lightweight (just 130g) lens that fits in your pocket yet packs a powerful punch. Its fast f/1.7 aperture means you have plenty of control over shallow depth of field effects, making it ideal for portraiture.

It also boasts Optical Image Stablization built-in to the lens, which you can enable via a switch on the lens barrel. This compensates for camera movements and helps you achieve sharper images in low light. In use, the lens incredibly sharp from its maximum aperture, and distortion and fringing are also well controlled.

What’s more, this lens won’t break the bank. At just over £300 / $300, it’s an absolute bargain.

You can buy the Panasonic LUMIX G 42.5mm f/1.7 Asph. Power OIS at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Panasonic DFD Focusing Explained

An update to its existing fixed-focal length lens, the LEICA DG 25mm f/1.4 boasts a splash and dust-resistant construction. It’s also compatible with a maximum 240fps sensor drive for high-speed auto focusing.

Designed for Micro Four Thirds mount cameras, the new LEICA DG Summilux 25mm / F1.4 II ASPH. offers the same angle of view as a 50mm lens for full frame systems.

With its f/1.4 aperture it offers plenty of capability for shooting low-light portraits without flash. Panasonic has also applied its Nano Surface Coating, which helps reduce ghosting and flare in your images.

As well as for portraiture, the Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 is also great for street photography, owing to its small, lightweight design.

But most importantly, image quality is superb. The lens is sharp even wide open at f/1.4, and its price tag is fairly modest for this level of quality.

You can buy the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 Asph. at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Panasonic unveils 25mm f/1.4 for MFT, 24-70mm f/2.8 full-frame lenses

The regular edition of Fujifilm’s 56mm f/1.2 lens is a good fit for portraiture on the company’s X-mount mirrorless bodies, combining an effective focal length of 84mm with a super-fast f/1.2 aperture.

Even so, considering that depth of field is more dependent on ‘actual’ rather than ‘effective’ focal length, it can still be a bit of a struggle to get really smooth background blur.

This ‘APD’ version of the lens comes to the rescue with a secret weapon, in the shape of a built-in apodization filter. The filter cunningly smooths the outlines of objects that fall outside the in-focus region, giving backgrounds a silky-smooth, creamy appearance.

Build quality is typically excellent, for one of Fujifilm’s up-market X-mount lenses, and handling is very refined complete with a physical aperture ring. The apodization filter slightly reduces light transmission, so the aperture ring has a secondary set of numbers marked in red.

And so that you can minimize depth of field with wide apertures, even under bright lighting, the lens is supplied complete with a three-stop neutral density filter.

You can buy the Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R APD at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

With an effective focal length of 41mm on a Fujifilm X-series camera, the Fujifilm XF 27mm f2.8 R WR is a compact or ‘pancake’ standard lens that makes a good choice for a wide of photography, but especially street and environmental portraiture.

While perfectly at home on a camera like the Fuji X-T4 or X-T3, Fuji’s prime lenses make a more natural partner for X-E-series cameras like the Fujifilm X-E4 or the X-Pro3. Its pancake design and sub-90g weight make it very discrete and especially well-suited to smaller cameras like the X-E4.

The Fujifilm XF 27mm f2.8 R WR has an aperture ring with markings running from f/2.8 to f/16 in whole stops, but it can be adjusted in 1/3EV steps.

The Fujifilm XF 27mm F2.8 R WR is available from Wex Photo Video and Amazon UK in the UK, and B&H Photo Video, Adorama and Amazon.com in the USA

It may not be a G Master lens but the new FE 85mm F1.8 is certainly capable of recording an impressive level of sharp detail.

At 371g, the 85mm optic is close to half the weight of the 700g 100mm f/2.8 lens, but it feels nicely made and looks perfectly at home on a Sony A7 series camera. It also has an aluminium barrel and seals around the controls and rings to ensure it’s dust- and moisture-proof.

Its superb build quality includes weather sealing, meaning you can shoot with this lens in all conditions. It’s also incredibly fast, and quiet. What’s more, a customisable focus hold button can be assigned to other functions such as Eye AF.

You can buy the Sony FE 85mm F1.8 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Sony unveils compact FE 85mm f/1.8 telephoto prime lens

As far as 85mm primes are concerned, Sony’s FE 85mm F1.4 is its finest portrait lens. Sitting in Sony’s G Masters series of optics, the lens features a circular, 11-blade aperture which produces stunning bokeh effects.

Meanwhile, its dual sensor system provides ultra-precise focus.

Build quality is superb. The lens is weather sealed and offers a number of nice features, such as a AF / MF switch on the lens barrel and a ‘de-click’ button that turns off the steps on the lens’s aperture ring when you’re shooting video.

Overall, you can depend on the FE 85mm F1.4 GM to focus accurately and quickly, with consistently impressive image quality.

You can buy the Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Sony A7S III Review

Designed for Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, the FE 50mm f/1.2 GM is a first-rate lens that’s designed to get the most out of a high-resolution full-frame sensor such as the one found in the Sony A7 R IV.

With a maximum aperture of f/1.2, it enables very limited depth of field for selective focus images and fast shutter speeds with low ISO settings in poor lighting, making it attractive for portraits and wedding photography or video.

The 11-blade circular aperture is newly designed for smooth bokeh while the optical construction is fine-tuned to minimise spherical aberration.

For high detail resolution across the frame even at f/1.2, the FE 50mm F1.2 GM has three XA (extreme aspherical) elements. Sony’s Nano AR Coating II has also been applied to minimize internal reflections so that flare and ghosting are kept at bay.

Four XD (extreme dynamic) Linear Motors enable fast focusing and tracking for stills or 4K video with human Eye AF. In addition, the lens’s floating focus mechanism, which is controlled by a dedicated lens drive algorithm, ensures high resolution across the focus range.

The closest focusing distance is 40cm.

Designed for professional use with ease of control, the FE 50mm F1.2 GM has a Linear Response MF (Manual Focus) system, an aperture ring with a click on/off switch plus a focus mode switch and two customisable focus hold buttons.

Happily, for those who don’t mind shooting in bad weather, it’s sealed against dust and moisture. Its also has a fluorine coating on the front element to protect it from fingerprints, dust, water and oil.

The FE 50mm F1.2 GM is available to order from Wex Photo Video in the UK and B&H Photo Video and Adorama in the USA.

Read our Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM Review

Sony’s bargain FE 50mm F1.8 weighs only 186g and is extremely portable. Its large f/1.8 aperture and seven-blade circular aperture allow you to create beautiful background bokeh that make your subjects really stand out.

Inside, a DC motor drive helps the lens focus quickly and precisely. That combined with the fast aperture enables the FE 50mm F1.8 to perform superbly in low light.

Images are sharp throughout. The lens’s aspherical element helps minimise distortion, and the metal mount provides a reassuring build quality.

The Sony FE 50mm F1.8 is a solid all-rounder and perfect for shooting environmental portraiture.

You can buy the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Best Sony A7 III Accessories

The 90mm equivalent M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.2 PRO is a medium telephoto lens aimed at professionals and again Olympus has placed the lens elements to allow for a more lightweight design and keep aberrations at bay.

The M.Zuiko Digital ED 45mm F1.2 PRO has a closest focusing distance of 50cm and a maximum image magnification of 0.1x.

Design-wise, Olympus has placed the focusing ring at the front of the lens to make focusing easier. And an MF Clutch mechanism allows photographers to instantly switch between auto and manual focusing mode by pulling the focusing ring towards them.

You can buy the Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm F1.2 PRO at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Olympus launches 17mm, 45mm f/1.2 PRO lenses

Another 90mm equivalent in Olympus’s M.Zuiko range, the 45mm f/1.8 is very modestly priced and offers a large aperture that provides very pleasing bokeh effects in your portraits.

An MSC (Movie & Still Compatible) mechanism delivers fast and smooth AF performance that is silent and accurate. To achieve this, Olympus developed a metallic shaft and feed screw to move the focusing lens, rather than a gear, which is typically the cause of focusing noise.

Combine all this with its ultra-lightweight design and small dimensions, and it’s the ideal budget portrait lens to keep in your kit bag.

You can buy the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 IS Review

Billed as ‘the ultimate sense for portraits’, the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 delivers such precise bokeh that you can focus on the pupil of a subject’s eye while blurring the eyelashes.

The Sigma lens employs 14 elements in 12 groups and is designed for use with full-frame cameras offer 50-megapixel or higher resolution. The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art incorporates two elements made of Special Low Dispersion Glass and one element with a high rate of anomalous partial dispersion and a high index of refraction.

Other features include weather-sealing, full-time manual focus override by rotating the focus ring – even during continuous AF – and a new Hyper Sonic Motor delivering 1.3 times the torque of its predecessor.

Compatible with Sony E-mount, Canon and Nikon cameras, you’ll find sharpness across the frame, even when shooting wide open at f/1.4.

You can find the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Sigma launches 85mm f/1.4 Art lens for ultra-precise bokeh

The Tokina atx-m 85mm f1.8 FE is a newly designed prime lens with the Sony FE lens mount. That means it’s suitable for use on Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras like the Sony A7S III, A7R IV, A7 III and A9 II. However, as Sony uses the same mount on its smaller-format interchangeable lens cameras, it can also be used on the likes of the Sony A6500.

Inside the lens barrel, there are 10 optical elements arranged in 7 groups. One of the elements is an SD (Low-dispersion) element that’s designed to help maintain the resolution into the corners of the frame.

Tokina has applied its Super Low Reflection Coating to minimise flare and ghosting as well as repel water, oil and dust. However, the lens is not weather-sealed.

Although it doesn’t have a stabilisation system built-in, the atx-m 85mm f1.8 FE is compatible with Sony’s 5-axis in-body image stabilisation (IBIS).

If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative to Sony’s 85mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 lenses, the Tokina atx-m 85mm f1.8 FE is well worth considering. It gets most subjects sharp quickly, is compatible with Sony’s Real-time Eye AF and it captures plenty of detail at the centre of the frame.

Read our Tokina atx-m 85mm f1.8 FE Review

One of four f/0.95 lenses for Micro Four Thirds in its range, Voigtländer’s 25mm is ideal for street photography and environmental portraiture. It’s got a solid all-metal body, but really, this lens is all about that super fast f/0.95 aperture.

The combination of the wide aperture and 10 aperture blades means you can get some pretty distinctive bokeh and wonderful shallow depth of field effects.

Voigtländer’s updated version of the lens also adds an Aperture Control System that de-clicks the aperture ring, making it silent and smooth for when you’re shooting video.

You can buy the Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 Nokton II at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Voigtlander 21mm f3.5 Aspherical Color Skopar Review