The Big Brother of f1.2

Today I added another "red ring" to my lens collection, the renowned Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II. First impression was its weight, it is surprisingly heavy and chunky for a piece of short telephoto glass. Apart from the 50mm f1.2, it has the biggest aperture of all the lenses that are currently manufactured by Canon. The depth of field is razor thin at f1.2 and focusing obviously will be the biggest challenge of using this lens.

The biggest advantage of having such a huge aperture is it's ability to send everything not in focus into beautifully diffused blur or bokeh. Of course, big aperture also comes in extremely handy in low light conditions.

However, it's not all good news unfortunately. The biggest problem which I encountered so far with this monster is serious chromatic aberration when shooting wide open. The purple/pink fringing is particular noticeable on high contrast or shiny objects. It's kind of disappointing considering I almost have to literally sell one of my kidney to buy it! The second problem is of course slightly slower AF system comparing to my other Canon lenses. It also tends to hunt a bit more whenever there is a slight light falling directly onto the lens during focusing. ...and what's with that dodgy "electronic" manual focusing ring at the front of the lens?? BUT, I am willing to overlook all these shortcomings and thorough fall in love with this piece of glass as soon as I press the shutter button and watch the background disappears into beautiful BOKEH!

Oh...did I mention I love the BOKEH?