Another Canon 5dmkII body or 85L?

Can't make up my mind. Already have a 5dmkII and two legendary 24-70L and a 70-200L IS II.
I'm a weddig photographer and I tend to find swapping lenses a bit annoying. I'm looking to fund a Prime 85mm but then again, I have a thought of adding another 5dmkII.... Any suggestion?

? Pro without a backup body

I have a backup body its my assistants 60D (we ALWAYS have it with us) But I hate it & barely use it!

Why not a 5D ii and a Sigma 85?

If that's not possible then I'd get another body in your situation

2nd body.

As soon as I can swing a 2nd, I'm going to just so I don't have to swap lenses all the dang time.

Go for the 85L all the way
And upload some beautiful shoots to sham prosumer, whom only know / talk about bokeh but nothing else

You have a backup, grab the 85L

Every time you use it though, an angel will get punched. It's the trade off with using that lens when it takes such good images.

2nd body. Then you can use the 24-70 and 70-200 back to back much easier and faster.

One other thing I'd look at is review your shots and try and decide at what focal length you really could use a faster aperture than f/2.8. At one time I owned 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 135mm primes. What I found was that the wider the lens (within this range) the more likely I was to want to use an aperture faster than f/2.8. So I found 35mm and 50mm to be the best place for me to have primes.

^Jeffrey is not big fan of 85L, but 50L

x_tan wrote in post #13586998
^Jeffrey is not big fan of 85L, but 50L

Well, I owned the 85L II for about 2.5 years and I loved the lens. It's a very good one.

When I first got it I was still in my 'Holy Crap! Shallow DOF is so cool!" phase and so I shot it wide open. After a year I finally got over that.

Once I started thinking a little bit about DOF, blur and composition I naturally started stopping down more when framing tighter. And so I found myself rarely using the 85L and 135L wide open because I typically used these longer focal lengths when framing more tightly.

So for me, the 85L was redundant with the 70-200/2.8.

If you are the kind of person that likes to use very long working distances (like more than 20 feet from the subject) while maintaining a very strong background blur, then the 85L is a killer tool for this.

But you gotta be careful to not walk to 'normal' portrait range of 12-15 feet, frame up a tight 85mm f/1.2 shot and think you will have enough DOF. You won't.

And while a lot of photographers will excuse totally smeared noses and ears because we lust for thin DOF, a lot of paying clients won't like it. I've heard (believe me, I've heard!) that some of my friends and relatives are not keen on this look.

JeffreyG wrote in post #13587029
Well, I owned the 85L II for about 2.5 years and I loved the lens. It's a very good one.

When I first got it I was still in my 'Holy Crap! Shallow DOF is so cool!" phase and so I shot it wide open. After a year I finally got over that.

Once I started thinking a little bit about DOF, blur and composition I naturally started stopping down more when framing tighter. And so I found myself rarely using the 85L and 135L wide open because I typically used these longer focal lengths when framing more tightly.

So for me, the 85L was redundant with the 70-200/2.8.

If you are the kind of person that likes to use very long working distances (like more than 20 feet from the subject) while maintaining a very strong background blur, then the 85L is a killer tool for this.

But you gotta be careful to not walk to 'normal' portrait range of 12-15 feet, frame up a tight 85mm f/1.2 shot and think you will have enough DOF. You won't.

And while a lot of photographers will excuse totally smeared noses and ears because we lust for thin DOF, a lot of paying clients won't like it. I've heard (believe me, I've heard!) that some of my friends and relatives are not keen on this look.

Ah. Thanks for the response. What would you suggest, have the 70-200L II for portraiture over the 85L or get another body and glue the 85L to it?

JeffreyG wrote in post #13587029
...And while a lot of photographers will excuse totally smeared noses and ears because we lust for thin DOF, a lot of paying clients won't like it.

Well say!

Pro need a right tool for the jobs!!

iluxa007 wrote in post #13586747
...I tend to find swapping lenses a bit annoying...

Then why would you want a prime?

timnosenzo wrote in post #13587089
Then why would you want a prime?

Beauty requires sacrifice

The 85L is a legend, you should get it. It's the only lens I've had strangers comment "Nice lens".