Neil S.
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2010
- Messages
- 1,128
- Reaction score
- 21
- Location
- Japan
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
For about a week now I have been testing my new 85mm 1.2L II, and wanted to give you my impressions.
I also have some questions that hopefully can be answered by the more experienced members.
Impressions:
Good news:
- The lens is extremely sharp, even when wide open. This was an important factor for me, and it does live up to the reputation in this aspect. :thumbup:
- The color and contrast are both excellent, and overall I am pleased with the image quality.
- Build quality is quite good, definitely lives up to L lens standards.
- The large maximum aperture provides a very bright viewfinder.
- The bokeh is so beautiful, make no mistake this lens is one of the best portrait lenses available. I am 100% pleased with this aspect of the lens. :thumbup:
UPDATE: In the interest of a fair review, I am posting 3 pics that display the beautiful bokeh this lens creates. I want everyone to understand that this is an outstanding lens despite its flaws(which are numerous).
These were all shot wide open handheld. I was able to(and required to) use extremely fast shutter speeds due to the large aperture.
1.
1/8000th sec
2.
1/8000th sec
3.
1/4000th sec
Bad news:
- The AF is quite bad. I knew this before buying it though, so it’s not that big of a deal to me. It was however worse than I expected. It is very slow and hunts a lot, even in good light. This lens is NOT suited for indoor sports/action photography, trust me on this one.
- It is quite heavy for an 85mm. This is to be expected for the speed of the lens though.
- It shows pretty significant chromatic aberration (my copy at least) in certain lighting situations. It seems to be especially bad when shooting reflective surfaces such as metal or high gloss plastics. It may be called purple fringing, as this is what it looks like to me.
- The "fly by wire" manual focusing system is garbage in my opinion. I don't like it at all, and I wish it was the standard type. This may be a necessity due to the large aperture and lens design, I don't know.
- It is scary to mount because the rear glass is about exactly flush with the mount. No quick lens changes in the dark for this one.
Questions:
- Is the chromatic aberration I am experiencing due to the very large aperture, or the 85mm 1.2 lens design itself?
- Is it possible that I have an especially bad copy?
- Do lenses of this large an aperture usually experience bad chromatic aberration wide open?
- Could an UD element or two fix the chromatic aberration, and if so why didn't they use them for this lens? It is expensive and L glass, so I don't see why they wouldn't.
CA Example Pics:
Attached are some images that show the chromatic aberration at its worst. The CA present in these images is not typical, these were cherry picked specifically to show the CA issue the lens has.
These pics were all shot wide open, and handheld. Stopping down some virtually eliminated the CA in these same shots.
1.
2.
3.
4.
I also have some questions that hopefully can be answered by the more experienced members.
Impressions:
Good news:
- The lens is extremely sharp, even when wide open. This was an important factor for me, and it does live up to the reputation in this aspect. :thumbup:
- The color and contrast are both excellent, and overall I am pleased with the image quality.
- Build quality is quite good, definitely lives up to L lens standards.
- The large maximum aperture provides a very bright viewfinder.
- The bokeh is so beautiful, make no mistake this lens is one of the best portrait lenses available. I am 100% pleased with this aspect of the lens. :thumbup:
UPDATE: In the interest of a fair review, I am posting 3 pics that display the beautiful bokeh this lens creates. I want everyone to understand that this is an outstanding lens despite its flaws(which are numerous).
These were all shot wide open handheld. I was able to(and required to) use extremely fast shutter speeds due to the large aperture.
1.
1/8000th sec
2.
1/8000th sec
3.
1/4000th sec
Bad news:
- The AF is quite bad. I knew this before buying it though, so it’s not that big of a deal to me. It was however worse than I expected. It is very slow and hunts a lot, even in good light. This lens is NOT suited for indoor sports/action photography, trust me on this one.
- It is quite heavy for an 85mm. This is to be expected for the speed of the lens though.
- It shows pretty significant chromatic aberration (my copy at least) in certain lighting situations. It seems to be especially bad when shooting reflective surfaces such as metal or high gloss plastics. It may be called purple fringing, as this is what it looks like to me.
- The "fly by wire" manual focusing system is garbage in my opinion. I don't like it at all, and I wish it was the standard type. This may be a necessity due to the large aperture and lens design, I don't know.
- It is scary to mount because the rear glass is about exactly flush with the mount. No quick lens changes in the dark for this one.
Questions:
- Is the chromatic aberration I am experiencing due to the very large aperture, or the 85mm 1.2 lens design itself?
- Is it possible that I have an especially bad copy?
- Do lenses of this large an aperture usually experience bad chromatic aberration wide open?
- Could an UD element or two fix the chromatic aberration, and if so why didn't they use them for this lens? It is expensive and L glass, so I don't see why they wouldn't.
CA Example Pics:
Attached are some images that show the chromatic aberration at its worst. The CA present in these images is not typical, these were cherry picked specifically to show the CA issue the lens has.
These pics were all shot wide open, and handheld. Stopping down some virtually eliminated the CA in these same shots.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Last edited: