85mm f/1.2L, any experience on this len, worth to buy it?

[HKFEVER]

Anyone have the experience of 85mm f/1.2L?

Is it good or just a piece of glass.:p

[cmM]

unmatched bokeh, L build quality, slooooooooow focus. I don't own it, but I wouldn't pay that much money for it. Many people think it's the ideal portrait lens. Check out fredmiranda.com for reviews.

[blackviolet]

if you have unlimited funds (or you only want Lglass), don't mind s l o w focus, and you want extremely small dof, then it's a great lens. in my personal opinion, the 85 1.8 is as sharp as you're going to get (in non L glass), is perfect dof at 1.8 or 2.0 for portraits, has great bokeh (8 blades, not 5, like the thrifty fifty), has fast focus, and is also great for indoor sports. oh and by the way, it's like 1/3 the price. obviously it's not weather sealed for your 1 series and there is no red stripe...

try both if you can and judge for yourself. you can also look at the samples on pbase (i think chenkiller has some great 1.2L examples and king liu has some great 1.8 examples) or some of the sites which compare the two.

[ChrisKolb]

Pekka likes it. :-)

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25789&highlight=1.2

[Pekka]

It's an awesome lens. Has the most accurate manual focus ring there is, bokeh from outer world and great balance. But mind you, do not try to think it as anything else than a portrait and art lens. In those areas it delivers fabulous quality. The dilemma in other applications like candids is that you want to use aperture 1.2 but AF is too slow to track movement well (you'll really need absolutely exact focus with 1.2) - so the results are based often by luck and good timing, it can be done (even using MF) but it requires a LOT of practice.

The main feature of 85/1.2L is 1.2. If you really do not want 1.2 (and use it often), and want a fast AF lens then 1.8 version will do well.