wilco42's Full Review: Canon EF 85 mm F1.2 L II Lens
At nearly $2000, anyone considering this lens must consider this lens to be a specialty lens. When looking at this lens, the two immediate uses for this lens for me were portrait photography and low light/indoor sports photography. Canon touts this lens as the ideal portrait lens, so let's take a look at the various applications of this lens.
As a Portrait Lens What appeals photographers to this lens for portrait photography is that at f/1.2 the subject can be in tight focus and the background becomes a nice big blur. Indeed, this lens does provide fantastic bokeh, but with f/1.2, which can be a blessing, comes the curse of a max aperture at f/1.2.
The depth of field for this lens is so shallow, especially when you are close up to the subject, that getting the focus lock that you want can range from difficult to borderline impossible. If, for example, you set your focus on your subject and then recompose your shot, what previously was in focus may suddenly not be in focus. Such are the perils of shooting at such an aperture. I have shot portraits where the tip of the nose of my subject is in razor sharp focus, but the eyes are soft!
So there's a learning curve with the lens and getting good focus in your shots. When casually taking a few photos with the lens, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the images are soft. That's what I did, initially, but upon further examination of my photos, I realized that there is razor sharp focus in my images, but the depth of field is so shallow that I just didn't notice it. Stop down the lens a little bit and it becomes much more forgiving or really learn how the lens works. Patience is key. You'll soon learn that you will either want to manual focus or avoid the temptation to recompose your shots and hope that the AF system found the focus you were hoping for.
My first portrait sessions with this lens were really frustrating because all of the images ended up coming out blurry or soft and I felt that I could have done much better with my standard walkaround lens, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L. Also, because 99% of my shooting is with the 24-70mm lens, I tend to stand much closer to my subject. This lens does pull you back and away from your subject a little. It's an adjustment that I had to get used to, but I think may have made my subjects more at ease as I was not in-their-face close when taking a picture.
As an Indoor Sports Lens/Low Light Lens One would think with a max aperture of f/1.2, you would have gobs of light to work with. This is true. The lens is considerably faster than my other (what I thought were fast) f/2.8 lenses. Depending on what camera body you use and what kind of focal length multiplier you have, 85mm might feel long enough for indoor sports. For me, I use a Canon 5D, a full-frame body, so it feels a little short unless you are on the floor where the players are. If you are up in the stands somewhere, forget about it, for me, it's just not worth it.
Aside from how much zoom you get with the lens, the other unexpected thing is just how slow the autofocus is on the lens. Noticeably slower than virtually all of my lenses, the AF system on this lens can be painful to use in a sports situation. This lens also has a tendency to hunt around for focus a little at f/1.2. The little guy is trying to find focus in that shallow depth of focus that it provides. And really, when I say little, weighing in at over 2 pounds, I really mean to say this beast of a lens is trying to find focus.
There are really only two ways to deal with this dilemma: 1) Shoot a lot and hope for focus or 2) Pre-focus. The shoot-a-lot method really relies a lot on luck and can be really disappointing. It's what a lot of people do, though. Surprising, really. The other option is to pre-focus. Find something in the plane that you want to focus on, set your focus, lock it, and wait for things to go into your pre-focused area. Still, shoot a lot, because depth of field is shallow. Have I mentioned that enough yet?
If you can deal with the AF issues, this lens is fantastic.
Other Observations So aside from its ridiculous weight and size (it's heavy, fat, and BIG), it still feels as impressive as it looks. This lens is really a joy to use, the images that can come out of it are tack-sharp, and, when used right, is a fantastic asset to be used in low light photography. Is this a lens for everyone? No. It's a quirky lens that takes time to learn how to use. How many lenses can you say that about? Usually, you pick up a lens, and provided that it is better than your previous lens, you just start taking better pictures. This lens requires you to learn how to wield its power, but once you do, you will wonder how you ever thought shooting at f/2.8 was fast.
Manual focusing on this lens takes a little getting used to as well. It employs a full-time electronic manual focus which means that the lens must be powered on to change focus as it uses the focus motor to adjust the focus. This also means that when using manual focus there is a slight lag behind your movement and the focusing of the lens. It didn't bother me much, but some people are offput by this as they tend to never use AF and manually focus all the time.
I really like all of the things that this lens offers (tack sharp photos, faster shutter speeds in low light situations, and great bokeh), but I really dislike that it took so much effort to learn how to use a lens.
Who is this lens really for? Can you make do with the 85mm/1.8? For me, I think that people who take a lot of portraits benefit the most from the lens, just because of how much of the background can be thrown into a nice fuzzy blur. This could mean normal portrait photography, maybe some on-scene wedding photography, and any other controlled environment. Low light photography is a little more tricky, but I think this lens can be used in that fashion. I tend to want to be closer to my subjects when shooting in a more photojournalistic style in low light, so one might want to consider Canon's 50mm f/1.2L offering as well.
Still, if I had to choose between the 50mm f/1.2L and the 85mm, I'd probably pick the 85mm. I like the length and on my full frame body, it's nice to have that little bit of extra reach. I generally tend to find my 50mm isn't long enough, especially for indoor sports.
Is it worth nearly 5 times the cost of the 85mm f/1.8? If you really need the speed or the bokeh, it's worth every penny. Chances are, though, that if you are seriously considering this lens, you've already made investments in other expensive Canon L lenses and the cost difference between the lenses don't really scare you...that much. This lens definitely isn't for the novice, but it's a powerful tool for the experienced photographer.
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