Great performance on a 5D. Unsurpassed sharpness and color rendition in the price range. Much better than any affordable zoom

I am new to the Canon system and am very much impressed with the 30D on which I use the 85mm f1.8. I find this lens to be very sharp at f1.8 and gets better as you stop down. At f4 you get good bokeh and brilliant clarity. This is an excellent portrait lens and very fast focusing. It is somewhat different in intent than the Minolta 85mm f1.4, which has some of the best bokeh I have seen (short of the M 135mm STF). The Canon lens is more sharpness oriented while the Minolta is more inclined to mastery of shade and light gradation. I assume that the Minolta is a kin to the Canon f1.2 in that it requires a lot of practice to bring out the best it can offer.

Just bought this lens for portrait and indoor sports but what i like this lens is for astrophotography..I'll keep this whether i use APS-C body or full frame body in the future..