Céilidh: Canon 85mm f1.2

f4, ISO 1600, 1/60

f5, ISO1600, 1/250

f5, ISO1600, 1/4000

I rented Canon's 85mm, f1.2 lens for an engagement shoot I was doing. Various reviews I read stated this lens is great for portraits and weddings - they were right! This lens is increadably fast - once you have it set up. It's the set up that takes a bit of getting used to. Also the fact that it has one focal length takes getting used to if you are used to using a lens with a range. For the most part this lens does really well with the apature fully opened to 1.2 f-stop and I set my ISO at 400. If it was really bright I either changed my f stop so it was a smaller opening (usually around 5.6) or changed my ISO to 200 or even 100.

This lens is weird to focus and I found I had to back up at times to get my objects in focus before moving back in for a closer shot.

When I first rented this lens my only subjects available were my two cats. I was actually able to get shots of them play fighting and the lens kept up with them. I found when focusing on a person's face, it was important to increase the f-stop to 1.8 or slightly higher, or I ended up with an eye in focus and the rest of the face blurry.

This lens takes REALLY sharp photos! I was deeply saddened when I had to return this lens after four short days! This lens retails for $2600. I will be renting it again - that's for sure!

Here are some photos I took while playing around with the lens.

Paper clips - f1.2, ISO 400, 1/50