Intern #1 – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
The Backstory
I have a bit of history with 85mm lenses. I dreamed of owning the EF 85mm f/1.2 for ages. When I eventually got my paws on one, back in 2015, I loved it and used it for everything, even the stuff it wasn’t particularly well suited to, (like Astro Photography).
Mum & Dad – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
Timeline
Over time successive bodies began to highlight the EF f/1.2’s few shortcomings, primarily chromatic aberration and corner softness, I also missed a few key shots due to its slow focus.
In a fit of peak I swapped it out for the then brand new EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, which I tried to believe in even as it consistently underwhelmed.
The f/1.4L IS got traded for a Sigma 85mm f/1.4, which liked to focus all over the place and drove me to distraction. I gave in and bought the EF 85mm f/1.8, pocketed any residual value and made a deal with myself to wait until I could go mirrorless.
This is where I remained until earlier this year, when I noted some aberrant behaviour from the R5’s IBIS when shooting the EF f/1.8 with an adaptor. Reluctant to shell out the the £3k required to secure an RF f/1.2, I bought the RF f/2 macro, a snip, (in comparison) at around £700.
The 85mm f/2 Macro next to the 85mm f/1.2
Originally intended as a stopgap, I’ve been impressed with the RF f/2’s overall performance, the f/2 aperture is shallow enough and its short minimum focus distance is really useful. This leaves me wondering.
Do I really need the RF f/1.2.
The RF 85mm f/1.2 is a big lens, and it’s heavy too. This is understandable as there’s a lot of glass that needs to be moved around quickly and 85mm/1.2= 70mm, that’s a sizeable light path.
Over the last year or so I’ve had some issues with my wrist, this has been exacerbated by moving to the R5 and using the RF50mm f/1.2 as a daily driver (which weighs 950g). Adding another weighty prime to the kit bag is unlikely to help, (although the physio is).
Chris – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
This is not a test
Canon offer test drives of their gear through their CPS scheme and while I could have tried to do some actual testing (charts and stuff) I didn’t.
People have done side by sides all over the internet and the consensus is that the f/2 is great value, and that only we the buyer can decide whether what separates the f/2 from the f/1.2 is worth the £2500 difference in price.
Half – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
The Set up
The first thing I wanted to do was see what this lens could do at f/1.2. It might not be something I’m going to do an awful lot of, but it is one of the things that sets this lens apart from the 85mm options available to me at the moment.
I set up a strobe with a beauty-dish and experimented a little. In order to overpower the ambient light in the studio at f/1.2 I added a 6 stop filter to the front of the lens. (The R5 could still auto-focus). I then set about taking selfies via wifi which was edifying, but there are only so many you can take though, (or at least there are only a few one might be inclined to share).
Thinking About Sushi – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
Intern #1 – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Lee Little Stopper / Canon R5
Paul – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Canon R5
Suocero – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Canon R5
The resulting headshots are really striking. The very shallow depth of field is reminiscent of large format portraiture, the advantage of the eye-detection autofocus in the R5 keeping the bulk of the images sharp at the eye, and the fall-off is smooth and attractive.
George – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Canon R5
Working
Outside of the studio I continued playing with the lens wide-open. It is deliciously sharp and accurate even in the wild. The shift from in focus to out of focus is pleasant, smooth and yet defined.
Then the time came to use the lens for actual work. Last year I made some rollover headshots for Ecrubox Digital and they wanted me back this year. As luck would have it their shoot fell towards the end of the RF 85mm f/1.2’s stay. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the lens doesn’t get worse when you stop down. It remains sharp without being unforgiving, and paired with a gripped R5 balances a little more evenly.
So it does great work, but so does my RF 70-200 f/2.8 IS USM, a lens I love, a lens I balked at buying, and a lens that goes almost everywhere with me.
Rafia & Geoff – Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM / Canon R5
With a dearth of extended family and/or contractors to hand, this bore another monster selfie session, (although intern #2 did join in for a few).
From a depth of field perspective, there isn’t much in it. A rough check on an online depth of field calculator says that f/1.2 offers 10mm of clarity at 85mm at a 1m subject distance, whereas f/2 offers 20mm, hardly front to back in comparison.
The ability of the f/2 Macro to get that much closer does however offer coming useful to the equation, you can get that much closer in camera, rather than cropping in later.
Selfies & Selfie with Intern #2 – RF 85mm f/2 IS STM / Canon R5
Conclusions
While at the photography show this year I was confronted with my past. A very nice secondhand EF 85mm f/1.2 wandered past, making eyes at me, and I have to admit I was very tempted. The fact that I haven’t liked any of the subsequent 85mm lenses I’ve bought as much as the EF /1.2 doesn’t mean that the problems in our relationship would have gone away. I was strong. I was brave. I let someone else buy it.
I now find myself in an interesting position. I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see myself with an RF f/1.2 in the future, but if I do buy one, it won’t make every trip, because I won’t need it that often.
The RF 85mm f/1.2 is lovely. Sharp, and contrasty, imposing and characterful, it offers delicious bokeh and LF style headshots, fantastic clarity when stopped down, and it looks really cool.
The 85mm f/2 does everything I need it to do and it does so in a small light package that is moderately priced, and is already bought and paid for. The results are adequate, my clients are happy, and I can achieve the results I need to get the job done.
After years of prioritising image quality over everything else, after years of treating the expense and cache of my gear as part and parcel of my identity as a photographer, this puts me in a quandary. I’m often guilty of lusting after the big one, the best one, the one that will show everyone, but with this lens, that’s a harder case to make.
Its performance, size and weight are all commensurate with its price, and I can either buy one or not. Normally this would be easy, I would just get one, briefly feel a bit bad and crack on making pictures with it until I got over it. This time it would however pay for a new Mac, a bigger drone, a holiday, or a chunk of my mortgage.
There’s a good chance that one day I’ll be linking back to this post because I’ve bought a Rf 85mm f/1.2, or a Samyang AF 85mm RF, or because I’ve traded my as yet unpurchased Samyang AF 85mm RF for an RF 85mm f/1.2, until then, thank you Canon, it’s lovely.