Dan Kerin

 Canon 85mm F/1.9

During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Canon was making some truly ground breaking lenses such as the 35mm f1.5, 50mm f0.95 and the legendary 85mm f1.5. These lenses were designed for the Canon rangefinder cameras of the time which all had a m39 screw mount, the same as the older Barnack Leicas produced in Wetzlar. (Note the Canon 50mm f0.95 has a breach lock design for use on the Canon 7 rangefinder). Many of these lenses were ahead of their time and it took Leica a number of years to catch up and produce lenses with the same technical specifications, albeit with better performance. First entering production in 1951 the Canon 85mm f1.9 Serenar was a fast telephoto lens for use on screw mount rangefinders. The lens has 6 elements in 4 groups and a whopping 20 aperture blades making for some extremely smooth bokeh in the out of focus areas.

The lens has a very long focus throw which will slow you down when using this lens however is a much welcomes feature when using a fast telephoto lens on a rangefinder camera. There were two versions of the Canon 85mm f1.9 made. The first in 1951 which came in a polished chrome body and had a click less aperture. This model also weighed 605g due to the brass construction making it a very heavy lens and one which I would not want to hang freely off the camera. The second version which is the version I was using is optically the same but has an increased minimum aperture of f22 over the previous versions f16 and a brushed chrome finish. It has also shed nearly 200g coming in at 410g and has a clicked aperture control.

The first thing you will notice when holding this lens is the weight. You would expect it to weigh half what it does and this is also noticeable when shooting. I was using an inexpensive m39 screw mount to Leica M adapter which allowed for rangefinder coupling and brought up the 90mm framelines on the camera. Like with many chromed finished lenses these suites the chrome silver body cameras though this is a purely ascetical preference. As mentioned above having the long focus throw made it really easy to nail focus when shooting wide open though most of the time, I was shooting stopped down to f5.6/ f8. One big achilleas heel of this lens is the weight. If you are after a light travel lens this is out of the question and I would recommend one of the many Leica 90mm f4 lenses they produced. For me the bigger weight concern was the stress it was putting on the mount of the camera is unsupported. Usually, I don’t have this concern but this is a fairly long rangefinder lens and this combines with the fact I was using an adapter I didn’t feel comfortable just letting it hang off the end of the camera and for this reason I held the lens when walking instead of the camera.

My first impressions when looking at the photos taken with this lens is, why are more people not talking about this lens! When shooting wide open the lens is a little soft and does lack contrast but what do you expect from a lens that is over 60 years old. The out of focus areas just melt away thanks to the 20 aperture blades and when shot in the correct light this lens produces some amazing results. And to make things better once you stop down to f2.8 it is very sharp and you wouldn’t think you were using a lens of this age. It is actually quite interesting that there isn’t much talk about this lens and the prices are pretty reasonable, going for around £300. Canon also did produce the 85mm f1.5 and the 85mm f2 lens, both of which I have been fortunate enough to use and from some quick test shots on film I could not tell the difference. The f1.5 has a legendary status and fetches well over £5000 while the f2 is a smaller lens and can be had generally for £100 less than the f1.9.