Let’s forget about the rhetoric of what makes a great lens, megapixels, clinical sharpness, etc. And instead, let’s talk about the final look in the end. Everyone loves the way that film looks. It’s hard to deny just how gorgeous is can make someone appear in a well-made photograph. And if you’re into portrait photography and the film look, we have great news. It’s possible to get this look with full-frame cameras and without using post-production. It starts with LUMIX cameras, the Real Time LUT feature, and to shoot like you’re shooting film.
This blog post is presented in partnership with LUMIX.
Table of Contents
How We Test and Choose These Lenses for Portrait Photography With a Film Look
- 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.
- If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
- When we test lenses, we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the lens and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that lens in a variety of situations. If the 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.
- In this specific roundup, 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 Lenses for Portrait Photography With a Film Look: LUMIX 85mm f1.8
There’s a lot to love about the LUMIX 85mm f1.8 lens. First off, it’s affordable yet bring with it weather resistance, fast autofocus speed, silent focusing, and pretty nice bokeh. It’s overall just a simply reliable lens that we can’t really shame or fault because of its incredible overall balance between these things. We’re also choosing this because it purposely isn’t from the LUMIX S PRO lineup — which can sometimes look a bit less film-like. The 85mm field of view was popular with film photography and is still popular today for portraiture.
Tech Specs
These specs are taken from the Lensrentals listing.
Angle of View | 29° |
Aperture Blades | 9, Rounded |
Autofocus | Autofocus |
Brand | Panasonic |
Diameter | 2.9″ |
Extra Low-Dispersion Elements | 2 |
Filter Size | 67.0mm |
Focal Length | 85.0-85.0 |
Format | Full-Frame |
Groups/Elements | 8/9 |
Hood Included | Yes |
Image Stabilization | No |
Item Type | Lens |
Length | 3.2″ |
Max Aperture | 1.8 |
Maximum Magnification | 0.13x |
Mfr. Model Number | S-S85 |
Minimum Aperture | 22.0 |
Minimum Focusing Distance | 2.6’ |
Mount | L Mount |
Weight | 0.8 lb. |
In our review, we state:
The Panasonic 85mm f1.8 has nine aperture blades and a beautiful, creamy bokeh. For what it’s worth, I really like it. I think most photographers will really like it for the price point. Is there better bokeh? Yes, but not for this price point.
3 Other Lenses for Portrait Photography with a Film Look
Photographers want great color — that’s not even a question; it’s a demand. In over a decade of camera and lens testing, we’ve found that some of our favorite colors come from prime lenses. So, sure, the zoom lens that we recommend will do a great job if you’re buying an interchangeable lens camera. But if you want stellar colors, then you need to check these out. These are a few LUMIX lenses that we think have phenomenal colors.
LUMIX 50mm f1.8
In our review, we state:
The Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S has 9 aperture blades. And of course, that’s more than enough to give it creamy bokeh. Is it the creamiest 50mm? No. I’ve seen creamier for sure. But I think that for a 50mm f1.8, it’s more than usable.
LUMIX 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Pro
In our review, we said:
Now with all heartfelt honesty, the strongest feature of the 50mm f1.4 LUMIX S Pro is the image quality. Photojournalists, wedding photographers, landscape photographers, portrait photographers and those who just like pixel peeping will admire what the 50mm f1.4 LUMIX S Pro can do. This lens is so sharp that it makes the LUMIX S1 seem like it’s a higher megapixel camera. Beyond that it has beautiful bokeh, can focus closely, and has no major problems at all.
70-200mm f2.8 LUMIX S PRO
In our review, we state:
Points of light create nice, rounded bokeh balls at the center that, as expected, elongate towards the edges. Telephoto lenses will make the background appear closer. At 200mm, you can make those nice bokeh balls appear larger and much more obvious.
How to Use This Guide to Lenses for Portrait Photography with a Film Look
Here’s what you should know about using this guide to the best lenses for portrait photography with a film look:
- This guide contains products we’ve reviewed. Lucky for you folks, we’ve reviewed the vast majority of Panasonic lenses and modern lenses in general. Our Ethical Practices don’t allow us to feature products we haven’t fully reviewed. So when we say these are the best wide-angle lenses with great color for LUMIX, we mean it.
- This guide is sponsored by LUMIX, who trusts us and understands that we have a set of ethics when it comes to reviewing products. All the product images and sample images in this roundup were shot by Phoblographer staff. There are also links to our full reviews.
- These are the best lenses for portrait photography with a film look. We’re emphasizing mostly lenses that have digital sharpness, to that end, the heroes of your photos will always look their best.
- Of course, we’re choosing lenses that have wide, fast, apertures. What’s the film look without the bokeh, afterall?
- LUMIX is otherwise known in the market as Panasonic.
- This specific list of the best lenses for portrait photography with a film look is catering specifically to the full-frame LUMIX crowd. So that’s why there aren’t any Micro Four Thirds offerings here.
- Generally speaking, LUMIX lenses work better on LUMIX bodies than they do with others within the L-Mount Alliance. Part of this has to do with the motors being used. They’ll work perfectly fine on Leica and Sigma L-mount camera bodies too.
- We’ve chosen lenses with weather-resistance. Weather resistance has more use than just shooting in the rain. Think of it as “weathering away” instead of “talking about the weather.” It helps prevent dust from getting into your lens and camera. That means you don’t need to retouch sensor dust. If it helps any more, all LUMIX S lenses have weather resistance as of the publishing of this article.
- 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.
Picking the Right One For You
If you’re still a bit confused as to the right 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?