Canon 85mm f/1.2L Lens Review
/One of the best and most rewarding photography experiences is seeing wedding clients view their photos for the first time. I'm blessed to have been able to experience this a handful of times and as the memories flood over, watching clients laugh, cry, and smile at the photos is one of the best feelings as a photographer.
Now, getting to that point is usually very stressful and requires a lot of hard work! When I shoot a wedding, I'm counted on as the primary professional resource to capture and preserve the memories of that special day. I have invested in some rock-solid gear so I don't have to worry about my gear failing during a shoot, and one lens that I keep going back to for every wedding is the Canon 85mm f/1.2L.
The Canon 85mm f/1.2L is one of the best portrait lenses I have ever used, and it garnered a lot of acclaim over the years, and one of digital photography's most trusted resources called it "Exquisitely sharp and contrasty, even wide open, even in the corners, and even on full-frame."
Can this lens be that good? I first tried this lens back in 2009 when I was shooting my first wedding and I did a fair amount of research about lens options before the wedding and the nearly universal acclaim convinced me to try this lens out for the weekend. When I saw the photos that I was shooting with it, I knew that I had something special in my hands. The beautiful bokeh is almost other-worldly, and it is sharp. Very sharp! This lens is almost a special effect lens because of the bokeh, it really is that good!
You might be saying "sounds perfect, when did you buy yours?" which I would say, I'm still waiting to buy mine. The Canon 85mm f/1.2L is one of the absolute best lenses I have ever used and I haven't even thought about buying it. As great as the lens is, there are drawbacks to this lens.
First, this lens is heavy. I have affectionately called this lens the "lens keg" or "the fat boy" for a long time, both nicknames are completely deserved too. The size of this 85mm lens is remarkable, it's girth-y and stout. I used this lens for the first time when I still had my Canon EOS 30D and it weight over twice as much as my camera I think. Holding a camera with this lens attached for a whole wedding can be physically exhausting, Canon should think about including some weight training techniques to accompany the lens.
Second, the focus is painfully slow. The autofocus motor is just plain slow, and you won't have a much better time manually focusing either. And if you want to use this lens for video functions, you are likely to be S.O.L because the manual focus ring will just keep turning without affecting the focus.
Third, the Canon 85mm f/1.2 is expensive. Don't get me wrong, this is a phenomenal lens but spending $2,100 for this lens is a dealbreaker for me. I purchased the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro lens for a fraction of the cost and I have been pleasantly surprised shooting portraits with it. That 100mm lens is nowhere close to being on par with the 85mm lens, but it's lighter, less expensive, and is much faster focusing.
So should you get this? Yes.
Wait, what? I just spent three paragraphs going on about the issues I have with the lens. All the negative things I could say about this lens don't hold much water when I look at the photos at it helps me take. I will clarify in saying that I don't think you should buy this lens necessarily, I think you should take every opportunity to use this lens because it really is that good. If you rent this lens, you will not be disappointed unless you are trying to take sports action shots with it.
Wait, what? I just spent three paragraphs going on about the issues I have with the lens. All the negative things I could say about this lens don't hold much water when I look at the photos at it helps me take. I will clarify in saying that I don't think you should buy this lens necessarily, I think you should take every opportunity to use this lens because it really is that good. If you rent this lens, you will not be disappointed unless you are trying to take sports action shots with it.
This lens will transform you portrait photography if you have not used it before. My first time using it, I took the best portraits I had taken up to that point in my photography career. The next wedding, those were some of the best portraits. And so on and so forth.
While I cannot guarantee that you will fall in love with the 85mm f/1.2L lens from Canon, I can recommend that you should rent it for a weekend and take some portraits. You'll see what I mean quickly.
The Good: The Canon 85mm f/1.2L is an extremely well-built lens that is sharp across the board, even wide open. The bokeh it produces is some of the best bokeh I have seen.
The Bad: The lens is very heavy, slow, and cumbersome. The focus cannot be relied upon for quick focusing situations. If you fill the frame for a headshot, it is possible to get the bridge of the nose in focus if it is wide-open at f/1.2. I have done it numerous times and it's frustrating because it looks like it is in focus when I looked at it on the viewfinder.
The Verdict: Find a way to use this lens. It is really that good and you will have so much fun shooting portraits with this lens, the bokeh is outstanding and when you get the focus dialed it is extremely sharp.
Enjoy some of my favorite photos I have taken using the Canon 85mm f/1.2L lens below.
