Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras - Fixed

Comment

Excellent lens--I agree with all the positives mentioned here. I will add that for the amateur/beginner photographer, make sure you understand how your camera focuses before you go down to f/1.2. You can take some amazing pictures at 1.2, but you have a huge risk of taking blurry photos. Check your photos often to see if you need to bump it up to f/2-3. Thats especially important if you are taking photos of 2+ people next to each other. At f/1.2 if one person is slightly in front or behind the other one will be out of focus.

more

Comment

This is a very beautiful lens that takes nice soft pictures. However I dont like it I often wished I had not sold my 85mm 1.8 and know this sounds crazy but the 1.8 took stellar photos and that autofocus was fast and precise. With this lens its very slow and at 1.2 its really hard to nail the focus and come on the whole reason to get this lens its to shoot it wide open. I know part of the appeal is to have a nice soft picture with beautiful bokeh and this does produce fantastic bokeh I feel that the 1.8 does both for me . Aside from that this thing is monstrously heavy and awkward to hold . Im usually a 50 guy and love primes and have the 35mm f2 or 1.4 in my bag along with a 85 and this wasnt practical for me so I sold it. For what this cost I would recommend the 70-200mm II with IS youll get really fast and exact focus and wonderful bokeh especially if you can take a couple steps back and zoom to 200 .It sounds crazy because I drooled over this lens for so long until I was able to save to buy one but these are just my two cents and why.

more

Comment

There is a lot of hype over this lens. Believe it! Buy it now! It will give you the love again. I went outside and started shooting. The first picture that I took at 1.2 is tree bark. Even that made me say wow. There are complaints about weight--yes it does have mass, but when you see the glass, youll know that you have quality. They complain about the speed. This is not a fast action lens per say. Its made for portraits. At the 1.2 stop, you have to know what you are focusing on. I have a 5D Mark IV, and was taking photos of my 50D for the heck of it. With this lens at 1.2 with that shot, you need to ask what part of the camera should be in focus? I focused on the left flap of the lens hood. Its that detailed. Simply amazing. The camera body was out of focus, and the background just disappeared. This is real power, and your models and clients are going to love you.

more

Comment

I had the 85mm 1.8 for years and finally upgraded to this one and let me tell you there is for sure a difference. I was skeptical because all the reviews are always saying how this lens is not as sharp as the 1.8 and that you only need it for 1.2 and theres no point on shooting it closed down. honestly I have know idea what they are talking about because this thing is dope from 1.2 - f 16. If your contemplating on getting this or the 1.8 I would say this one is the clear winner.

more

Comment

Well, had to find out what f-1.2 can do and it is magic! The bokeh is to die for. You however need to make investment in the hood for this lens. Otherwise stray light can ruin your shots. I guess this lens comes with hood if you buy brand new. I didnt so had to learn that hard way. Since is it is fixed focal length, you have to adjust to moving back and forth. Also I tried to shoot flowers with it. Not ideal for that because close focusing distance is bit much. I wanted to see how bokeh looks. This is a portrait lens and that is what it does best. There isnt that much to figure out. I had no issues focusing wide open.

more

Comment

This is quite a lens. At f/1.2 it creates fabulous bokeh. Creamy, smeary, if you like out of focus backgrounds with subjects that pop out of the frame this lens is for you! Absolutely Canon’s best lens for portraits. Yes, the 50 mm f/1.2 is excellent too, but the compression the 85mm can provide makes this the winner. Not the quickest focusing lens, but if you are taking pictures of (relatively) slow people, or for weddings, don’t look any further. Yes, it is expensive. No, there is no Image stabilization. But if you want low chromatic aberration (weird colors from bending of light) and pretty tight corners with low vignetting (darkening of the corners of images) just get this lens. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you want a professional lens, get this one. 5*****

more

Comment

so to start, this is a portrait lens. used for taking portraits. i use this exclusive when i take wedding and event portraits. the distortion is nonexistent, beautiful sharpness at f/1.4. focus on the eyes - try not to do the focus and reframe thing you can do on most lenses as the depth of field is super shallow. try to use one of your focusing points on the subjects eyes. if youre using this for anything other than portraits or nature scenes (sports photography, macro photography, high action, etc), youre going to be majorly disappointed. the autofocus is slow, ive heard it has to do with having to turn so much glass, or it is more precise, or there wasnt enough space in the housing to hold a large enough motor to move all that glass, whatever the problem is, you really can only use this for posed or not-fast moving subjects. if you want something faster at this focal length, get the f1.8, the focus is significantly faster (and noisier). the minimum focusing distance is 0.95m, this is not a macro photography lens. dont try to use it as one. funny quirk about this lens is the electronic focusing motor. it is kind of unique that there is no full-time-manual override, so you cant focus then tweak it a little. youll have to click the switch on the body over from AF to MF. it is electronic focusing, so when the camera "sleeps", the focusing ring doesnt work. i dont know how this mechanically works, but you cannot retract the lens using the focusing ring unless (1) the camera is on and (2) the switch is set to MF. comes with a great hood that fits on the bayonet but uses buttons to release, not a twist mechanism. be CAREFUL when handling this lens. the rear element goes flush with the metal mounting bezel. dont lay this on a table thinking the bezel will protect the lens. this is a big and heavy lens. i do not recommend just anyone go out and buy this. the f/1.8 might be enough for you i you just want something at this focal length. that being said, im giving this 5 stars because i love the sharpness at f/1.4 and f/1.8 and it does exactly what i expect it to.

more

Comment

Everyone raves about this lens rendering; Its sharp, has amazing Bokeh, and has something more. That something more is hard to isolate it just has a feeling no other lens seems to render. I debated over this lens for quite a while, borrowing it twice over the past years but really was not doing a lot photography where this lens excels (portraits, still life, video) I was primarily doing sports where focus speed is critical. I have begun doing portraiture and more studio work and bought this lens right away as I knew it was the best lens for those jobs (for my style) That leads us to the downsides to the lens. its relatively slow to focus due to the large amount of glass it moves around, the focus by wire is not ideal again due to large elements I would prefer a direct gear train. its big, its heavy, and it is expensive. But its totally worth the price if you can justify the costs in Money, weight and slightly slow AF, the results are amazing. It is THE portrait lens for Canon users in my opinion. The venerable Canon 70-200 f2.8 and 135 F2 are great too as is the Sigma 85mm f1.4 but there is that magic something extra with the Canon 85mm f1.2

more

Comment

I echo the well known comments about beautiful bokeh from this lens. This is an amazing portrait lens and considered by many to be the best. I give this 5 stars for its awesomeness, but must mention the terrible purple fringes (Chromatic aberration) especially on hair when using the sun as a background hair light. I spend too much time in Lightroom (in the Lens Corrections/Chromatic Aberration/Manual Defringe of Purple Hue) trying to tweak the image to remove the purple fringing. Usually it negatively impacts other parts of the image and I have to compromise and accept something less than perfect. Maybe there is an easier way to touch up the spots with the radial filters in Lightroom or using a brush in photoshop, but I dont like having to do that extra work. I still love this lens and what I get from it...and its my go to portrait lens on my 5D Mark III and 5D SR, but man I wish that fringing could be corrected by Canon.

more

Comment

I am an amateur photographer that takes a lot of pictures of people in natural light. This includes family events and pictures of children at my daughters school. This has over the last 14 months become my favorite lens in many situations. However, that doesnt mean that it was easy to learn to use. I have learned to really pay attention to what I am trying to do with my depth-of-field since at f1.2 this lens has a very narrow focus area (depending on how close you are to the subject). This can be very frustrating in the beginning and lead to a lot of blurry photos, until you learn to focus right where you want the sharpest spot to be. Once you figure out how to use this lens the Bokeh (blurring of the background) and the contrast of the photos is really amazing. So to give a summary here is a list of what I found to be the pros and cons of the lens (Im using this with a Canon 20D): Cons: 1) Slow focus (especially if changing from something nearby to something further away) 2) Narrow Depth of field leads to blurry shots if you dont correctly pick where you are focusing 3) Heavy! Pros: 1) Great Saturation 2) Great Contrast 3) Fabulous Bokeh 4) Narrow Depth of field - makes for some great artistic shots 5) My favorite portrait lens for natural light, both with a crop-sensor camera (20D) and with a full-frame sensor (got to try out a 5D II) I definitely recommend this lens for portraits, however be prepared to spend a lot of time learning to use it.

more