One of the most popular genres of photography, for people wanting to start out in the craft, is portrait photography. More often than not, people new to the field want to take better pictures of human subjects. Friends, family, strangers even. While I’d often recommend a nifty 50 as a first choice for this, there’s no denying that an 85mm or longer would give a much more flattering facial perspective. And for those of you thinking of getting a lens exclusively for portraits this year, we have some recommendations that won’t cost you an arm or a leg.
Table of Contents
How We Test And Choose The Best Budget Portrait Lenses
- The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
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- When we test products we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the product and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that product in a variety of situations. For example, if a lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others. And that’s what we’re trying to find in our reviews.
- In all of our roundups, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.
Our Choice Amongst the Best Budget Portrait Lenses Of 2024: Sony 85mm f1.8 FE
With supreme image quality and super fast autofocus capabilities, the Sony 85mm f1.8 FE is our top choice for a decently priced portrait lens today. We honestly couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It’s not a new lens by any standard, but it can still hold its own against most new lenses. Pair it with a newer Sony FE mirrorless body to make the most of it. In our review, we said:
This is in many ways, the absolute most perfect portrait lens for most Sony camera users. If you don’t need or can afford the 85mm f1.4 G Master lens, then the Sony 85mm f1.8 FE lens is a fantastic option. It’s sharp, has less saturated colors (only the Loxia is less saturated than this), focuses pretty well with most cameras (the Batis is the fastest) and has weather resistance. But it’s also small and offered at a pretty affordable price point.
Tech Specs
Taken from the Adorama listing:
| Color | Black |
| Lens Type | Telephoto |
| Lens Mount | Sony E (Full Frame) |
| Format Compatibility | 35mm Film / Full-Frame Digital Sensor |
| Focus Type | Auto Focus |
| Closest Focus Distance | 2.62′ / 80 cm |
| Focal Length | 85mm |
| Angle Of View | 29 |
| 35mm Equivalent Focal Length | Not Applicable |
| Maximum Aperture | f/1.8 |
| Minimum Aperture | f/22 |
| Maximum Magnification | 0.13x |
| Filter Size | 67mm |
| Lens Elements / Groups | 9 Elements / 8 Groups |
| Diaphragm Blades | 9, Rounded |
| Dimensions Diameter x Length | 3.07 x 3.23″ (78 x 82 mm) |
| Weight | 13.09 oz / 371 g |
| Image Stabilization | None |
At a little over USD 500, this is a great bargain. Get yours today from Adorama.
For Some Photographers, These Might Be The Best Budget Portrait Lenses To Choose From
We get it, not everyone might feel that all these lenses fall in the affordable category. But we’ve done our best to check for various options to suit everyone. And I can assure you, there are loads of pricier portrait lens options out there too, should you decide to spend a lot more moolah. These lenses however, give you great results, without having to make you worry about your bank balance.
Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 G2
During the short time we spent with this lens for our preview article, we found it to be a really good performer. And it surprised us even more when we took it out for a much longer test for our review piece. It’s not often you hear of a zoom lens being able to stand up to prime lenses when it comes to portraits, but this lens really showcases some top imaging qualities, especially in the bokeh section. In our review we noted:
The Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 G2 is a lens that delivers in many different ways. Optically, it’s pretty darn great for anyone who doesn’t want a clinical look overall. Performance-wise, the autofocus is just as snappy as the lenses that Sony makes. It’s also as weather-resistant as a modern lens can really get. Because of its light weight, you’ll be happy carrying it with you everywhere
Nikon Z 85mm f1.8
Slap this lens on a Nikon Z mirrorless camera using their Expeed 7 processor (Nikon Zf / Z8 / Z9) to get the best possible autofocus out of it, and you won’t find a better portrait lens that balances budget and results so well. It’s got excellent weather sealing and some amazing bokeh, as you’ll see more of in our review:
There isn’t a single bad thing to be said about the Nikon Z 85mm f1.8. It has exceptional image quality, build quality, it’s priced right, and it’s portable. This is everything that mirrorless is supposed to be
Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 R
Giving you a full-frame equivalent of 84mm on your Fuji X-series camera, the Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 R is one of the best APS-C format portrait lenses we’ve seen lately. The autofocus performance will vary widely, based on what body the lens is paired with, but the hit rate you get with stationary subject are more than acceptable. Unfortunately the autofocus noise was a little too loud for our liking. We love the flare it produces and the super smooth backgrounds you get at f1.2. In our review we said:
If you like Sony-level sharpness but love Fujifilm character, the Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 R WR is your lens. A subject’s sharp eyes will really pop from beautiful background bokeh. Colors need very little editing, and flare is amazing. It’s not quite as sharp on the edges, and there’s some chromatic aberration at times, but it’s a great lens for portrait photographers craving a mix of technical sharpness and character.
Rokinon 85mm F1.4 II MF
This low contrast lens gives you a film-like look for your images. Available in multiple mounts, it needs a fair bit of patience to use, as it’s a manual focus lens. But the good news is, there is an autofocus version too. It’s a decent lens if you’re looking for classic results straight out of your camera:
The strongest suits of the Rokinon 85mm f1.4 II MF are the image quality. I don’t think it’s going to win any awards, but it’s got a characteristic look to it. Samyang and Rokinon seem to be embracing the classic look that I’m discussing through the piece. And that’s very appreciated. The lens is also pretty small.
Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN
When it comes to Sigma mirrorless lenses, you can always be sure that they’re heavier than their counterparts. At just 0.7lb this lens stands out as a notable exception. You can expect really good results from this in a variety of scenarios. One downside though, it can’t open up any wider than f2.8. Read more about its performance in our review:
Sigma has created a beautiful lens with a premium design. Although it isn’t fully weather-sealed, the sealing at the lens mount is perfectly sufficient for how most photographers will use it. As companies continue to embrace technical perfection, the Sigma 90mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens is a breath of fresh air. It offers an outstanding balance of bokeh and sharpness. The colors and contrast it produces make the dreaded post-processing much less of a bore. I enjoyed shooting with this lens.
Canon RF 85mm f2 Macro IS STM
A macro lens for portraits? Why not, we ask. Especially when at $600, this lens is easily the more accessible option than the $3,000 RF 85mm f1.2 L USM DS. Don’t expect weather sealing or a premium feel at this price though. Still, the results it gives more than outweighs the few downsides we observed:
The Canon RF 85mm f2 Macro IS USM isn’t perfect, but for $600, it’s close enough. The f2 aperture, full-frame mount, longer focal length, and macro capabilities make distractions melt into the background. Images are sharp at the center, and the colors are excellent. Stabilization makes it possible to shoot the longer focal length at slower shutter speeds handheld. It’s an excellent step up in image quality for both beginners and enthusiasts
Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f1.8
Want something a lot less clinical? Go grab the Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f1.8 lens for some unpredictable yet dreamy results. You even get macro close focusing abilities with this lens, but be warned, it’s larger than it looks. It could easily be mistaken for a cinema lens due to how it’s designed. In our review we noted:
The Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f1.8 is a great lens in so many ways. It’s surely an improvement over the previous offering and it fantastic for portrait photographers. If you’re a fan of the classic lenses in terms of build quality and image quality, it’s going to be very difficult to get something better than this. Can it be sharper? Sure; but I’ll be the first person to tell you that you can deepen the black levels, boost the clarity and raise the sharpness to enhance overall sharpness in a photo. Almost nothing on the market will give you colors like this though unless you know how to get them
Using This Guide To The Best Budget Portrait Lenses Of 2024
If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list of the best budget portrait lenses, consider the following:
- All the product images and sample photos in these roundups are shot by our staff. In fact, we don’t talk about products at length in roundups like this unless we’ve done full reviews of them. But you can surely know that we’ve done all the research ourselves.
- There are lenses that can give you far sharper results than the ones in this list. Like Nikon’s 135mm Plena lens or Sony’s 85mm f1.4. But they come at a much higher price too
- Does portrait photography mystify you? Here are some tips for you to understand it better
- We’d never recommend a product to you that we haven’t tested or that we really didn’t like. You can reference our linked reviews, for more information on this.
Picking the Right One For You
If you’re still a bit confused as to the right portrait lens for you, here are some questions to ask yourself
- What’s your budget?
- How will you use the product?
- What lighting situations are you in, and how will that affect what you’re doing? Our reviews hyperlinked in this article can help with that.
- Are you traveling a lot with it?
- Will you be using it in a situation that’s a bit rougher?
- Who else uses this product? How are they using it?
- What’s so appealing about this product that I can’t get from what I have already or something else?
- When will I really have time to use this product?
- Where will I bring this product?
- How will this product help bring me joy and joy in my photography?