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I bought this lens specifically for shooting indoors in natural light at reasonably fast shutter speeds without having to crank up the ISO too much. It certainly delivers in this regard offering effectively three extra stops. At f1.2 it's not as sharp as some but I'm not shooting subjects where that is so important so it doesn't matter - what is more important is that I'm getting stacks of light on my sensor without camera shake! If you look closely there is some fringing at f1.2 but at f5.6 upwards the lens performs very well indeed. The narrow depth of field at wide apertures needs care to make sure you focus on the right part of the subject but the bokeh is very pleasing and it is the perfect lens for picking out a subject in focus. It is incredibly expensive if bought new but, like all Canon L series lenses, it is solidly made and sits well on my 5D III being a bit smaller than a zoom lens. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Put that flash away folks! With the largest aperture available on the current Canon range, f1.2 eliminates the need for atmosphere-killing flash assistance where available light is almost nonexistent. Weddings, concerts, public functions etc. can all pose problems for photographers working with limited light and wishing to retain the atmosphere of a scene, and while flash is convenient for getting that picture it's not discreet or always acceptable, if even permitted. That's where this and its 85mm stablemate excel. If you're thinking "it's fine, I've got image stabilisation so light isn't a problem" then think again. IS only helps with static subjects in low light and it can't work it's magic if the subject is moving, regardless of how many stops-worth of assistance the IS system claims to offer. Compared to a typical f3.5 or f4L kit lens, this bad boy has an approximate 3.5 f-stop advantage, and lets in roughly 12x more light. That's the first reason you need this lens. The second reason is bokeh, the quality of background blur and out-of-focus highlights. It's simply stunning at f1.2 and creates dreamy backgrounds that make the subject in focus pop in sharp relief. The third reason to buy this lens is the red ring on the front. That ring effectively means your investment will depreciate very slowly, if at all. Canon updates its lenses infrequently so prices hold well, even when a new version is released. Buy secondhand and you'll recoup your investment as long as you take care of it. Negatives? Focus shift is the main one. It's not an issue if you shoot at f1.2 (or stop the lens down in live-view), but the focus point will shift at all other apertures. The second and third problems are the Canon 50mm f1.4 and f1.8 lenses, simply because if you're not shooting at f1.2 they offer nearly everything the f1.2L does at smaller apertures, and without the focus shift issue. The f1.4 sells for around 1/6 the price of the f1.2L, and the humble f1.8 will match the image quality of the f1.2L at certain apertures. The bottom line is this is a proper "art" lens and has a character of its own. It's also a safe investment and can capture images that are way beyond the limits of IS-equipped lenses. Read full review
Verified purchase: No
For great bokeh this lens is legendary. However, tack sharp it isn't. Close inspection of images shows that this lens has difficulty resolving fine detail like strands of hair in a crisp manner. Whilst individual strands are visible definition isn't great at this level of magnification. I have calibrated focus on my body (EOS 5D Mk III) using FoCal software with no significant improvement. Having said all of the above the results are still pleasing to the eye which is what this lens is all about. Disappointed, sure I am. For an L lens the resolving power wide open is relatively poor (why buy an expensive 1.2 lens and then shoot at 1.8...). I have the 1.4 85mm L lens too and this is much sharper. Maybe this a compromise that the designers made to achieve the creamy bokeh?
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
It sounds bizarre to have a 'favorite focal length', but the lens most often associated with our own eyesight and therefore most natural to our own perspective is 50mm and it IS my favorite focal length. It was the 'standard' lends that old film SLR cameras came equipped with in olden days, and even in a relatively inexpensive version boasted wide open apertures of f1.8, rendering out of focus areas into a delicious creamy blur that seemed to melt together like a hazy memory, which when compared to much slower 'standard' kit zooms frankly just make me look and enjoy the 'look' of the photo as well as the content. So in the interest of full disclosure I'm a fan of a 50mm prime lens, which when I had an Olympus OM1 meant a Zuiko f1.8, on my old Nikon F4 and earlry DX meant a Nikon f1.4 which I dropped from my loft hatch to the floor 12 feet below and apart from a broken lens filter, it was fine and then after my subsequent defection to Canon it has meant for the last few years the Canon f1.4. As a just grab-and-leave-on, walk-around with lens, the Canon f1.4 did it for me, light-weight, fast-to-focus, certainly sharp enough and great for capturing memories that tallied with my own mental recollections it is brilliant, I had to have it serviced when it went a bit strange for a stint, but it was my favorite lens bar none and I have many. But bearing in mind how often I used it, I often wondered at the wisdom of spending 4 times the amount to upgrade to the 'L' version just to get a half a stop speed improvement and rounded aperture blades to improve 'bokeh' at reduced apertures. But some things don't tally on a spread sheet. The L version of Canon's standard prime comes with reduced flare coatings, no discernible advantage at apertures above f2.8, much more bulk, a more solid, weighty feel and balance on a camera such as a 5D mkII and a wide open aperture of f1.2. Canon did make an f1 version some time back but everything I've read about it suggests it was great on paper and less endearing to have and use. The f1.2 is not super sharp at f1.2, I rarely shoot wide open, the f1.4 wasn't sharp wide open either, but stop down 1 stop and they both 'bite' and the f1.2 fractionally more so. This means the f1.2 is beautifully sharp with great bokeh by f1.8 whereas the f1.4 takes to f2. When you look at those numbers it really does sound like madness to upgrade but I still don't care, they're both great lenses, but I love the L f1.2, when you do stop down the out of focus areas are less busy and when it's close to wide open it's beautifully sharp and dreamily blurred in all the right places. I know the Zeiss lenses and the Hartblei manual focus lenses are sweet, I really wish I could manually focus for their 'look', but I'm resigned to autofocus lens technology for all their shortcomings and false positives they're still much better that I can do solo and at 50mm, my favorite focal length, in my camera system, this is the best lens I could want, it's a corker. Thank you Canon.Read full review
I bought the 50L 1.2 to accompany my Zeiss Milvus 50 f1.4 when AF was needed. The images produced on 5ds using the canon 50L are superb tack sharp they dont have zeiss bite but the bokeh is stunning at f1.2. The build is good and im sure will be in my bag for many years. The AF performance is surprisingly good considering the amount of glass that has to be moved.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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