Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

From all the shots I've seen from this lens, my conclusion follows: it's a ****ty lens to shoot rulers and boxes, and a super lens for people and low light

Manual Focus on the 50L-1.2 has always been fine, and if you shoot rulers and boxes or have time to have your subject say "cheese" it's the lens for you, BUT, IF you want to shoot lowlight candids at a party with AF assist the 35L and 85L are the ones you should own.

Funny, the DOF on my 35L-1.4 and 50-1.4 is shallower that the sharp shots that were posted here recently.

Maybe I should change my name to *Lucky*

fi20100 wrote in post #3094588
From all the shots I've seen from this lens, my conclusion follows: it's a ****ty lens to shoot rulers and boxes, and a super lens for people and low light

Absolutely.

I'll dig up some more and post them up for the archives.

Nice examples of the 50L on the pixel peepers web site.

http://www.pixel-peeper.com/lenses/?len​s=729

For the record, here is a test shot complilation of the problem folks have been talking about.

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You didn't bump up the ISO, because in most daylight, shooting @ f1.2 means 1/8000.

JaGWiRE wrote in post #3126674
You didn't bump up the ISO, because in most daylight, shooting @ f1.2 means 1/8000.

That's right. I now remember starting out the hike in the sun and wishing I could go to a lower ISO.

Nice catch on the composition..I like the bench leading up to your son

^ Wow. My shots look really oversaturated on my non-calibrated office monitor.

I got the lens that I could do my favorite photography- a la Noctilux, night shots in restaurants of friends, family, &c.

My lens has the far focusing problem, or at least it had it- where I'd focus quickly on the corner of someone's glasses to get the eye behind in focus. It was fairly reliable.

I retested last night, though, because more of my shots are out of focus, and now the lens doesn't seem to be misbehaving.

The only trouble I've had with it is that the focus can be best described as "inconsistent." It's a good lens otherwise.

jdos2 wrote in post #3164957
I got the lens that I could do my favorite photography- a la Noctilux, night shots in restaurants of friends, family, &c.

My lens has the far focusing problem, or at least it had it- where I'd focus quickly on the corner of someone's glasses to get the eye behind in focus. It was fairly reliable.

I retested last night, though, because more of my shots are out of focus, and now the lens doesn't seem to be misbehaving.

The only trouble I've had with it is that the focus can be best described as "inconsistent." It's a good lens otherwise.

Agreed. "Inconsistent" focusing is how I'd best describe it as well. Had some issues with it this weekend. It missed focus on a couple of shots of my son, while shooting outdoors. My keeper rate is still pretty good though. I'll continue to stand by this lens since it is optically equal to those in the trinity IMO. I just hope Canon comes out with a firmware fix soon, which seems to be the case since it's more apparent when using bodies like the 5D.

Thanks Lord for the fine examples of what the 1.2 can do. Your talent shines.

Imageshack is very slow at downloading your pics though. My 1.5 dsl feels like dial up when grabbing your shots. Maybe their server is having a tough time today.