Crop Factor
When used with a Canon APS-C (1.6x crop) DSLR camera or APS-H (1.3x crop), the field of view of this lens is similar to a 136mm or 110.5mm on a 35mm film or full frame digital camera. There will be an apparent magnification of approximately 1.6x in the final image, since the "cropped" image will fill up the sensor. This is due to the crop factor inherent with APS-C or APS-H (crop) sensor digital SLR cameras.
An example would be taking an image of a rock using two cameras with the same lens. The first camera a 18mp full frame and the second a 18mp APS-C, both shooting the same composition in a stationary position. The first image will be more "wide" while the second image will be more "magnified". After bringing the results into an image editing program and enlarging the first image so that the rock is the same size in both images, one will see that the enlarged image is approximately 160% (1.6x) of the original.
The major advantage to this extra "reach" would be the utilizing of the full sensor space for a cropped image rather than having to crop afterwards, thus utilizing parts of the sensor that would have otherwise been wasted. The major disadvantage would be the lack of change in perspective, since the focal length has not actually changed it will be like shooting with the field of view of a 136mm lens on a full frame sensor while having the perspective of 85mm lens. The resulting image will appear to have a less pleasing background blur and unlike using an actual 136mm lens on a full frame sensor. Some users will find that the crop factor actually benefits this lens since it is hard to get a tight framing around the head without running into the 0.95m minimum focus distance.
Current Canon full-frame cameras are the EOS 6D, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 5D Mark III, and EOS-1Ds Mark III. The only current Canon APS-H camera is the EOS-1D Mark IV. The 1Ds Mark III and 1D Mark IV are soon to be replaced by the full-frame EOS-1D X. Current Canon APS-C cameras include the EOS 1100D/Rebel T3, EOS 550D/Rebel T2i, EOS 600D/Rebel T3i, EOS 60D and EOS 7D.
Read more about this topic: Canon EF 85mm Lens
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