Canon 50mm f/1.2L Review

Canon 50mm f/1.2L Review

Not only did I got a new iphone recently, but also a lens, the Canon 50L.
I have not been using it extensively enough to give a full review. But here's my experience with it so far.

The famous backfocusing ("design feature" as stated by Canon) for this lens is true because the lack of a floating aspherical element. I have tried multiple copies in my local camera store and they all backfocus consistently at close focusing distance: 45cm to about 150cm at f1.4 to f/2.8. However, shooting at objects farther than this distance or at f/1.2 or above f/2.8 would be fine.

However, this didn't stop me from buying this lens because with the use of a focusing screen, you can use this lens as a manual focusing lens. (like the Nikon 50mm f/1.2)
If you know the restrictions of this lens and worked your way around it, this is an excellent lens.

Using this lens and the focusing screen, I can nail the focus perfectly. And when the subject is sharp, this lens provides you with excellent contrast and amazing colour. I have shot with the 50mm f/1.4 before but the colour and contrast from this lens is just that amazing.

For some, the 50mm f/1.4 priced at around $400 is easily justifiable. But if you are looking for the best bokeh and colour, then you are with the heavily overpriced $1600 50L.

The bokeh at f/1.2 is so creamy that turns everything in the background indistinguishable leaving only your subject (even part of the subject is blurry), perfect for portrait shots, especially with 1.6x crop body giving an equivalent of 80mm. However, at f/1.2, the depth of field is very thin that any movement of you or the subject is definitely throw the shot out of focus.

It suffers some CA at f/1.2, gets better by 1.4 and gone by 1.8. I shoot on an XTi so I have not experience any vignetting, not sure about fullframe bodies.

Final Thoughts
I am switching to shooting primes. And the 50L is a good purchase (I sold my 70-200 f/2.8 IS to buy this lens). I find this focal length to be great for shooting portraits, some landscapes, low light indoor shots, and just any small objects. If it wasn't for the backfocusing issue, this lens will be one of Canon's holy grails in addition to the 85mm f/1.2. But with a focusing screen, it definitely helps a lot with the focusing. If you can get the focus, viewing the photo at 100% is razor sharp even at f/1.2 with some CA. I find that stopping down to f/1.4 and f/1.6 are the ideal apertures - enough DOF and kills the fringing. I am loving this lens that it will not come off the XTi for awhile.