Canon 85mm F1.2 ii USM L lens

On unboxing this lens, the first thing I noticed was the huge ( and I mean HUGE ) difference in size for the front lens element. It's about 25-30% bigger than the Canon 85mm F1.8 USM and considerably heavier.

I wanted to do a side by side comparison to see how alike these lenses were, but apart from the focal length they really are 2 completely different lenses in every way.

The quality and sharpness rival and possibly beat the 135mm F2 which is no easy thing to do - another thing I like is the bokeh looks very different to other lenses I have used and at F1.2 the shutter speeds are blazingly fast enabling you to get shots which just aren't possible at F1.8 / F2 and F2.8 respectively.

The one thing that always put me off getting this lens was not only the price, but the justification for paying all that extra money just to get from F1.8 to F1.2 along with numerous reviews slating the focus speed. I put this lens through it's paces in light and dark situations and to be perfectly honest it focuses quickly and accurately in daylight and certainly doesn't hunt any more or less in very low light than any of my other lenses. It doesn't focus as fast as the 135mm F2 but that is a blazingly fast lens.

As a lens in it's own right, it would be unfair to say the focus speed is horribly slow because it isn't ! So if like myself this was a factor in you being put off then don't be, it's fine in daylight and in low light at F1.2 yes it hunts a little but when it locks you'll get shots that other lenses cannot do which is a fair compromise. And that is where this review is heading ( low light photography ).

This lens is built like a tank and weighs about the same ! I love the lens hood design and wish more of the lenses, especially L-glass used this new quick and more useful design, it's brilliant.

I'll talk you through these sample photo's I took. I tried to cover a few different types of photography but concentrated mainly on F1.2 as that's what most of you will be buying this lens for !

So this is F1.2 - very very shallow dof, but still surprisingly sharp. Autofocus was fast and accurate and as you can see the shutter speed is as high as it will go.

Some of you may be thinking "Why are you using ISO 200 and 1/8000th instead of lowering your ISO" and the reason is this: When taking photographs of things with subtle details in their textures I select "highlight priority" mode on my camera which has a minimum ISO limitation of 200.

If the image was blowing out I'd either turn this mode off or increase my F number but luckily it got me a perfect exposure. Focus point was set to the far right. When this close to an object you'll need to pick your focus point very carefully.

Backing up a little you can see how the F1.2 changes significantly. The flower on the right are now much more in focus but it still leaves a nice sense of isolation blurring out slowly into the background. Again I used the same focal point as before. I'm still getting 1/4000th second shutter speed which is more than enough - the amount of light this lens sucks in gives you a real freedom - especially in low light situations, but we'll get to that in a moment. Having much more information in the viewfinder doesn't seem to bother the focus either - it's still locking on as fast as the closeup shot taken previously.

Trying a bigger target now - people ! Focus even faster this time ( I always aim for the eyes when focusing ) and again the shutter speed is maxed out. Very sharp and great details for F1.2 and a very busy background has now melted away into soft shades of green and brown. Because both the heads are level the focus is fine - but be warned, when shooting at F1.2 keep your subjects facing the camera head on and make sure they are shoulder to shoulder or you'll have to increase the F number to get them focused properly - F1.2 at this distance makes the dof very thin.

For portraits in daylight at F1.2 you're going to be safe in ISO 100 but again I opt for "highlight priority" to bring out those little details in things like clothes and hair.

I took this shot to give you a little more insight into the isolation F1.2 provides it really does pull things out of the picture giving it an almost 3D like quality which works great on portraits of people but also can pull an element out of the frame which could make something as basic as a background with a foreground subject look interesting.

Just set your focal point and hold down the focus button and see what F1.2 can do for you - many times now I've created interesting things with F1.2 that you cant see with the naked eye. And the different ways it renders the bokeh also prove interesting. In this instance giving green leaves in direct sunlight an almost ocean ripple like appearance.

When you're after photo's when everything is in focus, don't switch lenses JUST yet.

Yes this is a lens designed for low F number, low light and dreamy backgrounds but if you stop it down to F8 - F13 it gets as sharp as a tack and the colour rendition is also very accurate. The focus speed at higher F numbers in this instance slightly slower but it's still perfectly acceptable for a low light photograph.

To really appreciate this detail in the textures, click on this image to make it appear at a larger size and just look at the detail in the violet / light blue parts of the flower.

A majority of you will be looking at this lens for its low light capabilities and performance and in many ways this is where this lens really shines.

For this photo the venue was dark - much darker than the photo suggests and like most musicians there's a lot of movement. I opted for F1.4 this time to get the singers head and guitar in better focus and yes it took a little longer to get the focus but given the circumstances ( lots of movement, low light ) still perfectly acceptable and when locked, the focus was spot on.

My keeper rate was as high as any other lens I've used and the beauty of being able to shoot F1.4 handheld in very low light is you can stay at ISO 1600 which is where I've often had to venture from ISO 2000 - ISO 3200 to get shots like these which were understandably much noisier images.

So to wrap things up: If you are doing a lot of low light photography and are sick of cranking up your ISO and getting noisy images then this is the lens for you.

It excels at isolating subjects from tiny flowers to people and beyond providing shutter speeds that should cater for the even most technically challenging shots.

It's sharp at F1.2 and it's insanely sharp at F8 and the bokeh it produces really has to be seen to be believed. Focus speed is nowhere near as horrible as I'd feared and I dare say if I hadn't have read so many negative things about it I doubt I'd have noticed it!

It's not Canons cheapest lens by a long shot - but when you see the results you'll know why.