Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras

What to say about this lens! Excellent, outstanding bokeh and tack sharp even at wide open. It's even better with R system with excellent eye tracking. It produces excellent portraits no matter what your subject and what the background is. Simply set it to eye AF and set f1.2 or 1.4 and the lens do the magic for you. Highly recommend.

This is an excellent lens with a beautiful bokeh. Great for headshots and product photography!

I bought this lens for portraiture and the quality is astonishing. The lens itself is fairly heavy but there’s quite a bit of glass involved. I see a lot of chromatic aberration when shooting high contrast subjects. Although editing software usually does a decent job of removing it, it can sometimes be an issue when a subject is in business attire with a white shirt. Regardless, the depth of field is razor sharp and I recommend taking at least a few shots per pose to ensure that you get the eyes in focus. Speaking of focus, it’s slow. This is not a lens for fast-paced action. It wants you to take your time.

Perfect lens for portrait. Had a lot of fun with my kids now.

I have wanted an 85mm 1.2 since my first days of serious photography, back in the 70s and the old SSC (Super Spectra Coat) lenses. All my years of waiting ended about 6 months ago, and I couldn't be happier with this lens. As other reviewers have mentioned, this lens is meant to be shot wide open, and it does a great job. You can keep the ASA really low and still maintain reasonable shutter speeds (but be sure to enlarge the image in the camera if you're working on the edge to be sure there's no camera shake.) It gathers light better than the human eye; on several occasions I have taken some shots in poor lighting, observed that the lens seemed to provide its own fill, and asked others if they saw the same thing I saw. They did. I have had success in lightening dark areas (if needed) by overexposing by about a stop - I don't do much photoshop or raw file manipulating. It provides great warmth (perhaps its greatest asset) which is generally lost even with well balanced flash. I took some portraits of my wife for publication and the editor inquired about what equipment was used because of the beautiful bokeh. I loved my 85 1.8 but they are two very different lenses. Yes, it's heavy and costly, and as noted it mounts a little funny, but I'm sorry I waited so long to enjoy this.

I assume anyone looking at this lens is an experienced photographer, has read various reviews and is very near a buy decision. My advice is buy it! Since I've owned this lens complements on my work have tripled. Shooting wide open produces images that are frankly unmatched by any other lens. The negatives you will read about such as weight and slow to focus are in my experience overstated. The lens is heavy but still more than a pound lighter than the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS. Focus is a little slow if you are going from macro to Infinity but I rarely do that and I have never had a problem shooting a moving model. I guess the most important question is always would you buy it again if you had it to so all over again? My answer is in a heart beat. In fact, I own 5 L lenses and if I could only keep one this would be the one I would keep.

So worth every penny !! The focusing is slower than others.

I'll skip the sweet stuff and go directly to things I disliked: 1, The focus by wire FTM ring. I understand that the lens is actually moving ALL but one elements -- that's a lot of glass-- while focusing but I'd still prefer a stiff, heavy, mechanically connected FTM ring than the loose slippery electronic focus by wire system. Since the electronic FTM on this lens is pretty much useless I always disable the 'electronic manual over-ride ' feature in my 1DS settings menu. 2, The moving front group. I'd prefer a fixed front group or at least somehow extend the outer barrel so the front can be contained within the outer barrel while focusing. I hate to manually 'reset' the lens back to infinite after each session. And a extended outer barrel (maybe by around half an inch) will also make the lens body easier to grip while using large 1D series bodies. 3, No weather seals. 4, The AF/MF switch. It's too small and difficult to use especially with gloves on. This is a special lens, you can tell it's a 85/1.5 from the first glimpse of a picture but there's still much room to improve. so, a mk. III, please?

I love this lens, the DOF is extremely low as one would expect. I can shoot in near total darkness as long as I have a light for focus assist. Ambient light looks true and beautiful! With that said however this lens is the worst of all I own for backlit subjects. The chromatic aberration is awful, and it is nearly impossible to focus. Keeping in mind manual focus only works to around 4.0 I find myself constantly using auto, which is fast and fine most of the time, but very time consuming and annoying with an even slightly backlit subject. I wouldn't trade this lens for anything, but for variable light situations, I would always carry a backup.

I read the reviews on this lens and the 1.8 and thought a long hard about making the extra expenditure. Many people wrote about the 1.8 that they could not see any reason to buy the 1.2, to them I say then you should not. This lens was meant to shoot at 1.2 and when you do it is a marvel to behold. I also read that the focus was slow and not accurate. Yes it is a bit slow but plenty fast for portraits, I also use it when photographing musicians during concerts. It also is almost a requirement for weddings. As for the inaccurate focus that really is not true but you really must know and pay attention to what you are doing when shooting at 1.2 and close to your subject because the depth of field is so very narrow, but that is why you buy a lens like this. Learn to use it right and it will reward you with amazing photographs. People just look better with this lens. As for the complaints about it being heavy I don't find it bad at all, the weight feels good and I am reminded of the words of Joyous in the 13th warrior when Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan complains that the sword they gave him is too heavy...grow stronger. Okay I am just joking here a bit. Sure it is a bit heavy but that is a lot of glass. The price, well you get what you pay for it seems a lot when you fork over the cash but after you shoot with this lens you forget all about the money. This is a specialty lens and when used within that specialty it truly shines.

This is a Canon’s flagship and THE portrait lens. Most of things that were said about this lens are true and I won’t repeat what were said over and over, but I wrote MY OPINION on those issues. - SLOW FOCUS SPEED: People say it’s slow but I say it’s precise. I agree the auto focus is slow but it’s almost the speed of 135L (which is known to be blazing fast) in low light. When I got used to it, I didn’t pay too much attention. For portraits I rather have precise focus than blazing fast focus. Surely I had some hit-and-misses once in a while, but the rate is very low. When it misses focus, it’s forgivable, and never had out-of-wack focuses like I experienced with 35L or 50L. - SHARP FROM F1.2: Yes, it’s sharp from f1.2, and sharper than 50L but not a huge margin. - HEAVY CHROMATIC ABERRATION: Not as ugly as 35L on extreme high contrast. Bokeh fringing (ghosting image at f1.2) is much better controlled than 50L. - GREAT BOKEH: Yes, indeed. - GREAT IMAGE QUALITY: Yes, indeed. There’s that WOW factor in the images that comes out of this lens. - GREAT COLOR: I was surprised by how this lens renders skin tones. It’s not too saturated like 24L or 35L. And it’s different from how 50L renders the color. It’s not too contrasty. It’s just right and clean. This, too, confirms that a proof of Canon’s intention of 85LII as a portrait lens. - NO WEATHER SEALING: When considering this as a portrait lens especially for weddings, you don’t really have to worry too much about shooting in a dusty windy rainy snow blizzard. Just don’t use it when some crazy couple try to get married under some crazy extreme conditions. I rather keep the cost down without it. - FOCUS-BY-WIRE SYSTEM: Only thing I don’t like about this system is that I always have to remember to move the extended barrel back in to its place before turning off the camera. Even the camera is on, a focus ring doesn’t function at AF position unless you press the shutter button half way to override the focus. (Actually I have to read a manual to figure that out.) - SOFT OF THE CORNER: I wouldn't be concerned unless using it for landscapes. - EXPOSED REAR ELEMENT: Just be careful when you install the lens. - HEAVY: It is heavier than 24-70 2.8L surprisingly, but still not a brick like 70-200 2.8LII. - NEED IS: I must admit that almost all the photos that I shot under 1/80 shutter speed had motion blurr. But I never had a problem with 85f1.8. So maybe it’s my wimp arms are not strong enough to hold this lens. I can see that it will be a lot more price increase with IS if Canon makes it, and it’s already expensive itself. - I used to think EF 85mm f1.8 is a cheaper version of this lens, but I learned that 85LII is a whole different breed. You can tell that by the “Focus-by-Wire” system itself. While f1.8 version is all around player with fast focus, 85LII seems to be designed a specific purpose, which is a portrait. And in fact it makes me want to shoot nothing but portraits and mainly at f1.2, probably up to f2 at most. There is pros and cons for many people with this expensive lens but it’s absolutely okay because I think this is not a lens anybody can buy and use for whatever situations. But for me, I’m surely glad that I finally got it. It is a beautiful lens.

This lens is like looking down a well from the outside of the lens in. at 1.2 , you better have what you want in focus, because DOF is shallow, as it should be. the lens is amazingly sharp. for portraits of any kind, candid or posed, you're not going to find any better. this is the lens to compare ALL other 85s to. People often compare much cheaper portrait lens's and the others may be all most as good as, but this is the one you want when you want " The Best ".

Photography is my passion & my 5D Mark II my beloved. Each lens being a window to see the world in a different way, the 85mm f/1.2 offers a deeper more personal connection with the subject by allowing the rest of the world to fade from existance in a way no other lens seems to be able to do. I postponed buying this lens for too long; wouldn't be without it now!

My wife and I love this lens. We keep it on our new 5D MK3 fulltime so we can catch great photos of our new granddaughter. Crisp, sharp pictures with a wonderful background blur.

I've just finished making a few portrait shots with this lens and I must say, I am amazed by the image quality. The images have a great contrast, sharpness, and beautiful clarity; even at aperture wide open. The background blur (bokeh) is ASTONISHING--it just melts like cream. I was very nervous at first convincing myself about the price. However, the instant I saw the pictures I made with this lens, my worries quickly were put to rest, and great happiness and satisfaction filled my soul! If you are in the market to have "THE" best 85mm lens in the world, and you have the money, don't think twice and purchase this lens. You will be very happy you did.

Since buying the Canon 85mm f1.2L II USM lens, I have shot portraits that are sharp, dreamy and out of the world bokey. All my subjects are extremely happy with the results and this lens is everything that Canon promises it to be. Lot of people complains about its slow auto focus but that has never been an issue with me. It has delivered for me every time. I use f 1.2 pretty much all the time.. be careful about camera shake there. No scope for error at that depth of field. Thank you Canon for delivering such professional optics.

The only reason why I still shooting Canon. I almost love everything about this lens except for the weight. But at1.2, it's unavoidable. Image is sharp, with sweet rendering. I like the loose focus ring. It is so much easier to adjust manually with loose ring without moving camera to subject distance. With tight ring, you will move camera more thus not achieving good focus. I wonder how people prefer tighter ring over this. I use this lens to shoot basketball w/o problems. This is how a lens should be. Just almost a masterpiece. I had no issue with focusing. Learn how to manual focus and you are good to go. I don't rely AF on this lens to choose my focus. It just kinda help and I adjust it many times. but when it nails, it nails hard!

With the 5D II and this lens, I've gotten more referrals for outdoor portrait gigs than I ever got using previous glass. Senior portrait season is here, and I've had fun with my clients shooting multiple shots with different levels of background softening to give them an idea of the choices they have. Some go straight for the supersoft backgrounds. Others want enough detail to indicate where they are. Others want everything in the pic. However they choose, I've noticed I'm getting more "emotional" photographs. The thing is so fast I can tell my subject to be as still as possible, shoot an HDR bracket in half a second and have no ghosting after Photomatix has its way. Human subject HDR was elusive to me before this lens. Now I'm an HDR god. This lens lets me do it all. Parents think I'm a genius, and I'm just a landgrant grad with a camera. Now they're coming back and asking me to shoot their weddings! Uh oh. I'm going to have to buy more indoor gear. My outdoor work is worth the pay though, and I have to give it up to the 85 1.2. I have a lot more good shots than I used to before I got this bit of glass.

Going for portraits? Get this lens. Love it. Excellent depth of field. Excellent at 85mm. Excellent elements. Excellent glass, and how much of it there is. High price, but what do you expect? It's probably the best lens I've ever seen for the midrange telephoto lenses. You can't beat it. Excellent, excellent, oh and did I say it's purely excellent?

Now more than one year later, this is portrait lens of record for 15,000 images. The glass is heavy and the autofocus has to struggle a bit with all the mass to move, but when the beep goes off you are razor thin focused at full open aperature. I leave my flash in my bags and just love to grab portraits in deep shadows for the most dramatic lighting effects available. If it weren't for the required f5.6 tripod group shots at the weddings I'd only use this one wide open for nearly everything. People think I am a decent photographer, it is really THIS lens. Thanks Canon, a fan for life