Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

Amazing lens with outstanding quality. Works so well in low light with amazing exposures. DOF is very vey shallow at 1.2 and closer in so be carefull to use 1.2 appropriately. At f2 and above it is miles better than the 1.4

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

Can't fault this lens, since moving over to primes its my go to lens for general use and weddings

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

I bought this lens for low light and party photography and it's excellent for those. However, to my surprise I have found it good for close portrait work but it does need precise and practiced attention to the focus which is best done manually (especially close up). The auto-focus easily floats and you may find that you have a focus on something you did not intend to highlight. With a very precise and shallow depth of field this lens can really prove a challenge to get the shot right! The auto-focus may also pick up on something you have not seen. So be careful, use it in a measured way and practice.

I have found that this lens is also a pretty good lens on the camera for general purposes. Although as a prime it requires a lot of walking backwards/forwards to get the shot framed as you want it - which you would not do with a zoom.

In very bright light you will not be able to open it to full aperture because the camera probably will not have a high enough speed. This limits the use of the bokeh in very close shots. In low light I have never used another lens that can match its speed and sharpness.

I am really enjoying this lens and find it more fun as I use it more. And is it sharp? Oh yeah! Great.

I thought about and researched this one for months. My efforts have been repaid. It is a great lens.

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

After years of putting it off, I eventually bought this lens to replace my wonderful Canon f1.4 50mm USM lens. Seems like a lot of money to get f0.2 more, but now I have it I know it was worth it. Obviously you'd expect the L-Series glass to outperform my previous 50mm prime, and indeed it does in terms of sharpness and colour definition. Also, it focusses considerably quicker. These factors mean that I can dispense with flash in many more situations. Hurrah!
This lens is also fantastic for shooting video if you have a dark setting such as a bar scene at night. Clearly with f1.2 you have to focus carefully due to the depth of field being paper-thin, but this is one of the joys of the lens.

Downside? Only one so far. You will easily achieve some fairly bad CA if you use this lens wide open, or close to wide open, in a bright/high-contrast situation.
However, realistically, you won't be using this lens wide open when there is brightness in your scene because your camera won't have a fast enough shutter speed even at ISO 50! So this is just something to be aware of, but not a problem in real-world situations.

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

My main interest is in video, and I bought the EOS 5D Mark II as it supported 1920x1080 at 30fps. I can't be bothered with lugging around proper lights for video, and having started with the respectable 1.8 50mm, was attracted by the wide aperture on this lens, which really does make a difference in low light.

It complements my 28-300 zoom, which covers most other eventualities. It is vastly lighter and more convenient than the zoom, and works well indoors where a big zoom, which has issues with low light and makes people feel self conscious.

As it happens, I've used this lens much more for photos than video, with its friendly 50mm focal length and no flash requirement.

I've adjusted the camera focus by 7 points for all my lenses, which suggests it is a camera issue, and this sharpened the pictures enormously, and I recommend this adjustment where it is possible.

The depth of field is quite small with the wide aperture, so I have moved to using spot focus to pinpoint the area I want in focus. Even so, when given a choice, it often focusses where I hadn't intended - on a large petal at the back instead of the small insect in the foreground, or on an eye brow instead of an iris. This is less of an issue with video, as the exposures are long and the depth of field greater at the lower video resolutions. Also, this problem seems to have reduced with my increasing experience.

My cons generally reflect the inevitable constraints of such a lens - but the pros show that it doesn't give away more than is absolutely necessary.

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

This is my favorite lens out of my lens arsenal, it's fast and perfect for weddings. I shoot 80 percent of any wedding I do with this lens. But it's a lens that you need to know how to use.

Comments about Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens:

Bought the lens predominantly for wedding photography use. I regularly shoot in areas wher light is low and either can't or prefer not to use flash. I love it and can shoot with a fast shutter to retain sharpness. You have to be pretty good with focus though if you are open at f1.2.