New 85mm 1.2 II owner

Pulled the trigger and just received it. Haven't tried it much, but is it practical to use as a overall purpose lens? I own zoom lenses but I feel as tho a prime lens is much more fun to use than a zoom lens (50mm 1.8 use) Well, hopefully I don't have buyers remorse.

I would not say that I think of a short telephoto as much of a general purpose lens.

When you need 85mm, the 85L II is excellent. But you will probably want a wider prime or a zoom for general purposes.

I have never considered my 85 1.2 II an overall purpose lens. Quite the opposite. Specialized portrait lens for me. Maybe I should be more open minded

Be sure to post your opinion about it, as I too am looking to buy that Lens in 2-3 months

I have found the bokeh to be wonderful and the lens to be difficult to work with. The slow AF I think is 90% of it as I use the 135L with excellent results. I prefer the 85mm focal length for certain portraits. I heard there is a steep learning curve with this lens and that is what I am finding out. I also found out that I have to take several shots to find the one in perfect focus. I found out that AI servo with the 135L produced 90% sharp focus and not so with the 85L. The focus is too slow to respond so I shoot that in one shot and I was using upper right focus point to focus on the eye without recomposing but I have since been told to use center point and either refocus or crop for better results. I havent gotten that far yet
I would love to hear other thoughts on this
Here is a one of my first shots with it just trying it out

So far after 1 night of using it, I'd have to say that I enjoy using it and has been worth every penny. People are not kidding when they say it produces a unique look. I suppose I could use my 16-35 as general lens and carry the 85mm when I walk around and need the bokeh/blur in my photos. I had heard that the 50 1.2 is not all that great for an L lens and that is the reason I went for the 85mm instead. I normally do not take portrait photos and am into Automotive / Landscape photography but after the purchase, I wouldn't mind getting into it. Overall happy with the purchase and I look forward to getting nice images. Will be back with sample images later. PS: Lovin' the thin depth of field on this lens, like the image you posted.

I prefer owning a 85+200 over a 70-200, in fact I owned 3 Canon versions and sold them all. Just don't like zoom lenses, super heavy and slow aperture speeds.

85L2 is a specialty lens, for general purpose maybe add a 35 prime.

24-70 f/4 IS is probably the best value out there for all-rounder.

If you are a prime guy then both the Art 35 (heavy, but f/1.4) and Voigtlander 40mm f/2 are awesome IMO

Personally, I would not say the 85 has been a "specialty" lens for me. I think it works just fine as general purpose... Depends how and what you shoot.
Yes, it's my go to lens at the start of every portrait session, no doubt, but depending on where I'm walking on my photo walks ( museum, park, cultural show, etc.) I've found the lens to be just the right choice.

Now, personally, my all time favorite use for it? Video. Buttery smooth manual focus, ultra quiet. Sadly it's not quite long enough for outdoor venues, but stellar for small theaters, moving plays and such.

I have the 85mm f1.8 and I love it. I can only imagine the f1.2L is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Not only is it a good sharp lens but it looks good too!

I've had this lens for just over a month, also on a 6D, and I've found that it gets me exactly the shots I want from it, provided I focus it manually. I found it a little bit frustrating the first week I had it, because the 6D's AF points are not precise enough to get high keeper rates at f/1.2, which is of course where I want to use it much of the time. The center AF point is better than the rest, but even in an ideal test setup with tripod and B&W checkerboard MFA target, I found that the 6D+85L combination would focus in front of and behind the target. It front and back focuses equally often and by the same amount, such that MFA wouldn't help (MFA is an offset, so it can only correct lack of accuracy and not this lack of precision). Also, I found that this is only true for close subjects like my test target at 5 to 10 feet; AF consistently front-focuses by a large amount with very distant subjects, those that are hundreds rather than tens of feet away. Using live view autofocus has none of these problems, but this is rarely practical when I'm shooting outdoors. It's slow, and the screen is difficult to see in bright sunlight.

So, I use this lens as a manual focus lens, with very few exceptions. I found that I had to install the Eg-S focus screen to make this workable, the 6D's factory screen (Eg-A II) just showed everything being too much in focus for me to clearly see where the critical focus areas were.

I don't consider this a general purpose lens. I would not personally choose it for moving subjects. I'll be using it mostly for portraiture and landscape, where I have time to focus carefully and get things right. If I need a similar focal length but require fast, accurate AF, I'm going to use my 100L, this lens gets a high keeper rate in seemingly every situation, without any of the effort I have to put in with the 85L.

It depends on what you shoot. If you normally frame subjects that are full sized people or larger, at that short telephoto range, then you'll use it a lot. If you're always indoors shooting head and shoulders you'll find wide open the DoF is way to thin without stopping down into the fast zoom range of apertures.

My 85 II is a very sharp lens but I wouldn't consider it a general purpose lens. It focuses slow, has razor thin DOF wide open and the focus by wire system does not lend itself to quick shooting IMHO. It's also not an AI Servo lens but a One Shot lens. I'm sure some will chime in to say different but the lens was designed for portraits on a tripod where quick shooting is not the norm. I have also found that focus and re-compose with the lens wide open always gave me OOF shots along with the quick tap on the shutter button in AI Servo method for static subject focusing.

A better all purpose lens would be a good zoom like the 24-70 II or the 24-70 f4 IS. If 85mm is important, the 85 1.8 focuses faster and costs less. Regardless, the 85 II is a beast and looks great. I'm always cringing when I mount it because of the rear element.