Perfect Optical design.
Great equippment.
This is the one you should not miss if you use Canon camera.
Maybe the best half size portraitlens.

May be the slowest Ultrasonic EF L lens.
But it does not matter.
Because taking pictures of people need manual focus.

If you have never use this lens, you should be careful when mount the lens.

Similar Products Used:

EF100 2
EF200 2.8
EF200 1.8

F1.2 aperature is excellent for kids indoor basketball. Resolution is outstanding.

None

I use it with Canon D30 camera (1.6X lense factor) for indoor basketball for effective focal length of 136mm (f1.2) lense. It is outstanding despite being a little slow to focus.

Similar Products Used:

50mm F1.0
28-70mm F2.8 zoom

Sharpness wide open that will shock you.

Autofocus that is so slow you will question whether this is really a Canon USM motor.

If you are a sharpness fiend, this is the lens for you. It is just plain incredible - so sharp that you may want to soften things up on portraits. Natural light photography will be a renewed realm with this lens - you can leave your flash in the camera bag.

You should definitely use this lens wide open. If you're not going to, then you could save a bundle on cost, weight and focusing time by buying the F/1.8 85mm which is also a nice optic - especially at F/2.8 and smaller.

For those not used to shooting at F/1.2, if you focus on the tip of someone's nose, their cheek will be out of focus! So, be careful here with the very narrow DOF that such a lens is capable of imparting. Then again, use it to your advantage to create dynamite portraits. If you are a serious portrait photographer, this is the holy grail.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

85 F/1.8, 28-70 F/2.8L, 70-200 F/2.8L

Lovely front element
top resolution wide open
Great handling qualities

Lesser performance at smaller aperture
Adequate AF

l love dreamy lenses like these with their big sparkler and superb speed. People shots are probably the most rewarding and this lens is just you need to deliver. Well this certainly is a lovely lens even a dream lens but not as big a star performer as my MF Nikkor or its AF version. It's big and superb wide open ( better than even the MF Nikkor, for sharpness but not resolution) but you gain only a 1/3 fstop for a bigger lens and smaller DOF. I gave it up after 3 weeks, why? because in perspective this lens cost twice the price second hand than the Nikon when new and weighs twice as much and is bulkier. Amazingly it uses the same size thread as my MF lens so I ended up getting the Nikkor MF which I felt was better overall, smaller and has that exquisite MF feel, it's slower but suits my particular needs very well when using this lens. If you get hold of the Canon and want to achieve terrific portraits or low light shots, do so, you will not be sorry despite the size and price. However it only gets three stars for value.

Customer Service

NONE

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 85f1.4MF
Nikkor 84f1,4AFD
Nikkor 105f1.8MF

- F1.2!!!
- BIG!!! (eye-catching sometimes)
- optical performance
- Lovely front element

- Mechanical design is out-dated
- big rear element, can be easily touch/scrath when mounting the lens, be very careful
- AF very slow (but quiet)
- quite heavy
- lens hood is not bayonet type, sometimes feel a bit loose
- not internal focus, but front element doesn't rotate
- no FTM
- focusing ring is not the smartest design
- expensive when compare with Minolta 85/1.4, Pentax 85/1.4, Nikon 85/1.4, or Contax 85/1.4

I think that this is not the best-value lens in the Canon lens product line, especially when you compare with Canon ef 85/1.8. The 1.8 lens is lighter, faster AF, internal focus, about 2/3 cheaper), optically not much inferior
But when you want a faster Canon 85mm lens, that is the only choice for you to upgrade from 85/1.8.
BTW, I personally am very proud to shoot with this lens.
5 star for optical performance, 3 star from mechanical design

Customer Service

Not bad, but quite costly

Similar Products Used:

canon ef 85/1.8
tamron af 90/2.8
Nikon AIS 85/1.4