BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Ford

has anyone tried this lens

EF 85mm f/1.2L USM

Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens

Item Code: 2517A017

With a large maximum aperture of f/1.2, this is the fastest 85mm telephoto lens in its class. One Aspherical lens element and two high-refraction elements give sharp images with little flare even at maximum aperture. The floating system corrects coma for high image quality.

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June 25, 2005

Jon Close

Image and text above appear to have been copied verbatim and without attribition from http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=152&modelid=7446.

Don't own it, but tried it out once. Sweet, but too heavy/expensive for me.

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June 25, 2005

Melissa L. Zavadil

John, sounds like you are still in college.... too many profs on your case!! LOL :o)

The guy is doing great advertising for the company do you really think that the company cares! :o)

I will keep my eye on it but I haven't heard anything yet. Sounds really really interesting!

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June 25, 2005

Ford

Im sorry Jon did you mean attribution

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June 25, 2005

Jon Close

Pardon my pedantry, ;-) but the posted image has a caption that attributes the copyright to "Seven Ford." Perhaps unintentional, but one should be more careful. Plus I'm not convinced that Seven isn't our resident name-changer.

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June 25, 2005

Ford

Im not selling the photo, why so technical about the info. I just wanted to know about the lens

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June 25, 2005

Jerry Frazier

The 85mm 1.2 is a very nice lens. It has virtually no bokeh wide open. It is awesome and worth every penny. If I didn't have one, I'd buy one.

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June 26, 2005

Tamara Lynn

Hi Ford, I have that very lens and it was priceless(with a big price), but well worth it. Funny story, I was shooting in my yard( romantics) and UPS delivered it to me when we were almost finished. So the last 5 shots I took with this new lens. Guess what, I used one of them as their best shot and blew it up. The picture was so good that when you looked at it framed you had the feeling that they were right there with you

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June 27, 2005

Christopher A. Vedros

Jon & Melissa - I have a strange feeling that there is only one other person involved in this conversation.

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June 27, 2005

Christopher A. Vedros

Just in case anyone really is interested in reading more about the Canon 85mm lenses, here is an interesting review comparing the 85mm f1.2L to the 85mm f1.8 lens. I read this review and a couple others with similar conclusions before I purchased the 85mm f1.8 lens.

Not that the 85mm f1.2L was actually a realistic consideration for me at that price. I just found it interesting to see how a $340 lens compares to a $1500 lens.

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June 27, 2005

Christopher A. Vedros

Forgot the link:

http://wlcastleman.com/equip/reviews/85mm/

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June 27, 2005

Tamara Lynn

very interesting Chris. I like seeing comparisons. I shoot alot of portraits, but I might get that cheaper lens for animals and such.
Sara

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June 28, 2005

Tamara Lynn

I don't understand the strange feeling thing. Anyway, if the people hold still for the shot( which most do, beside the occasional blink) you can see the difference. I am a PPA member and we have a great group of people and we meet together every other Wed. to discuss and share new equipment. In a studo we hook up the camera to a mac and sample the differences between lenses. We basically do the same tests as Dpreview and I haven't had the chance to use the 85mm 1.8 (none of us have that one).
Sara

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June 28, 2005

Christopher A. Vedros

Yeah, whatever.

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June 28, 2005

Tamara Lynn

Well, that was rather rude if you ask me

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June 28, 2005

Tamara Lynn

You can really get some strange effects with this lens that perhaps no other Canon lens at least can duplicate. The smoothness of the out of focus areas are amazing. What you do have to deal with at f1.2 is a very shallow DOF. This creates the bokeh, but something in your frame has to be sharp. So this is an extremely demanding lens, not for the casual shooter. It's priced out of their reach anyway and Canon has done them a favor. You can get some serious purple fringing with this lens wide open, and even stopped down to f2. You'll see this in very high contrast areas, like a tree's limbs across a very bright sky. Nothing else compares to the smooth, almost luminous bokeh I see. Colors are extraordinarily blended into a very rich pallete, almost like a painter came along and filled in my photo with brush strokes.
Bokeh! No one will mistake you for an amateur with this lens. You'll know you have arrived as a photographer when you look down the maul of this beast. You are getting serious indeed! Light gathering capabilities: I shot regularly at 1/6000 of a second at ISO 160. Can handhold up to 1/100 of a second, so I've certainly got some wiggle room! Balance of the weight is good on my camera. I don't feel that the camera is going to fall over with this lens attached.
This is an L-series lens