Canon's fast rangefinder portrait tele — 85mm f/1.5 in Leica Thread Mount, manual focus.
The Canon 85mm f/1.5 is a very fast short-telephoto rangefinder lens made in Japan for the 39mm Leica screw thread. It comes from Canon's rangefinder line around 1960, carrying the Canon name after the earlier Serenar 85mm f/1.5. It served Leica-thread and Canon rangefinder bodies as one of the brighter portrait-length lenses in the system.
This is a manual-focus, rangefinder-coupled Leica Thread Mount lens with an 85mm focal length and a maximum aperture of f/1.5. The mount is the 39mm Leica screw thread (LTM / L39 / M39). Focus and aperture are set on the barrel by hand. Element count, weight and filter thread are not restated here because they are not verified from the gap data.
An 85mm at f/1.5 is a fast portrait lens that separates subjects strongly from soft backgrounds and gathers plenty of light. As a later design it tends to render with a little more contrast than the earlier fast teles while staying smooth wide open. It suits portraits, available-light work and tighter framing on the street.
On the used market, inspect for haze, fungus and balsam separation in the cemented groups. Check the coatings for cleaning marks and wear, look for oily aperture blades, and confirm the focus helicoid is smooth. Rangefinder-coupling accuracy is critical for a fast 85mm, so test it on a body. It adapts well to Leica M via M39-to-M and to mirrorless with M39-to-E, M39-to-Z or M39-to-RF adapters.