Canon's late rangefinder portrait tele — 85mm f/1.8 in Leica Thread Mount, manual focus.
The Canon 85mm f/1.8 is a fast short-telephoto rangefinder lens made in Japan for the 39mm Leica screw thread. It appeared in the early 1960s, late in Canon's rangefinder era, as a refined portrait-length lens in the screw-mount line. It served Leica-thread and Canon rangefinder bodies as a bright 85mm.
This is a manual-focus, rangefinder-coupled Leica Thread Mount lens with an 85mm focal length and a maximum aperture of f/1.8. 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/1.8 is a strong portrait combination, giving pleasing perspective, comfortable subject distance and clear separation from the background. As a later design it tends to render with a touch more contrast than the earlier fast teles while staying smooth wide open. It handles portraits, candid work and tighter street framing.
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. Test rangefinder-coupling accuracy on a body, which is important at this focal length. 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.