Canon 85 1.2L Focusing Techniques??? Help?

I have to agree. The 85L is easy to AF at 1.2. At least with the 5Diii. With others, it is not easy, but it not hard either.

So I did a shoot recently, using the 85mm 1.2L the entire time while using the back button focusing technique and using the center cross type focusing point on my 5D3. out of 700 photos I would say 95% of them are super sharp. Below are a couple shots from the shoot where I only used the 85mm

Shot at f2 1/200 ISO 300 with a flash

Quick question, when you say center AF point, did you do focus/recompose for some of these?

I did it for all of them.

Back button focusing allows you to lock your focus and recompose (which I learned recently) so yeah I took advantage of that.

^ Very good work on the photos.
I agree with all that others have stated.
Most important is to set the minimum SS to 1/125 this should clear up most blurry photos automatically.
While I do not have an 85L, I do own the 50L and got an ND8 filter to shoot at f1.2 all day.
I also bought an ND4 filter to shoot my 24L II wide open for street photography.
While not an offical technique, I often burst shot 3-5 frames when wide-open hand held.
Even manual focusing with the EEG-S screen and a fast shutter speed,
my natural breathing can throw my photo OOF.

By burst shooting 3 to 5 frames, I can insure that one is perfect 99% of the time.
This takes less time when shooting as I don't often stare and my LCD to review
Batching photos at home is a lot faster for me.

While i dont own the 85L and migth imagine its harder than the 50L, thats what i did to improve my thin-DOF pictures:

1. MFA if you have a body which supports this
2. using center AF point and focus and recompose yields in better results than outer AF points (at least on my 6D + 50L)
3. Have your shutter speed everytime at least 1/FL. For the 85L: 1/85s at least
4. Press the shutter as soon as youve locked the focus. You dont have to, but for me it works fine. The reason is, when you move 1 inch towards or away from your subject, it will be most likely OOF because DOF is so thin. It is most noticeable at closer distances as this is where DOF is the tiniest. When you shoot as soon as focus locked you have almost no time to move so you will get the focus where you want (mostly).
5. Practice!

I also like InfiniteDivide's technique with the burst. Good idea if its important to get the shot

Hope this helps!

Try Al-Servo mode if your subject or your camera focus-click technique have not found confidence yet with being ultra steady.

With my 5Diii, using the outer points produce better sharpness than focus-recompose. But its about the same with more distant subjects.

Making sure your camera is Micro-Adjusted to the lens is key.