Canon must feel like they simply can’t win. For the last couple of years, they’ve been too slow to innovate, and now, when they bring out a mind-blowing lens, everyone says that it’s too big, unnecessary, and far, far too expensive.
The recent announcement of Canon’s latest RF lens, the 85mm f/1.2, came with a handful of noticeable points. First is the insanely wide aperture. At f/1.2, the bokeh certainly looks remarkable, but this comes at a price — an incredible $2,699 if you get your preorder in today. There’s a chance that this will drop after a couple of months by a couple of hundred dollars, but as prime lenses go, that’s a lot of cheddar for a lot of lens.
Canon’s reluctance to enter the world of mirrorless cameras has led to the Japanese manufacturer receiving a lot of criticism over the last few years for being too slow to innovate and not brave enough in the face of dramatic progression from the likes of Sony. Suddenly, it creates a lens that could potentially be optically among the most exciting developments of late, and yet, Canon is taking flak for producing a piece of glass that no one needs and pretty much no one can afford. Even self-confessed GAS victim Manny Ortiz is finding this one a bit of a stretch.
You can understand why. Is the RF 85mm f/1.2 really going to offer more than a thousand dollars’ worth of performance over the EF 85mm f/1.4? Is the f/1.2 aperture really going to be useful when depth of field is so ridiculously shallow and given that the jury is still out on the effectiveness of Canon’s eye autofocus?
Something that immediately grabbed my attention was two of the sample images in the promotional video hosted by Rudy Winston and his rather wonderful mustache. The image of the guitar at 2:27 barely seems to have a sharp pixel in it. “That’s a little odd,” I thought, wondering why you’d demonstrate a lens’ sharpness with a load of motion blur. That was quickly forgotten when I saw the shot of the singer immediately afterwards. Is it me, or is the eye soft? Sure, that funky little box dances nicely around the EVF like a cat on a hot tin roof, but is it grabbing sharp images?
Hopping over to DPReview, I downloaded a few of the full-res sample images and did some pixel-peeping. The bokeh is wonderfully creamy, as you would expect. The sharpness is incredible, but f/1.2 can be tricky, as proven by this image.
100% crop of the high resolution image, downloaded from DPReview.com.
One eye is razor sharp, while thanks to a slight turn of the head, the other is soft. For April fools last month, I wrote a playful article about the insane bokeh offered by an imaginary f/.035 50mm lens; little did I realize that the daft images I bodged together in Photoshop were about to become one step closer to reality.
Pixel-peeping and jokes aside, this looks like it will be an amazing lens and the bokeh geeks will be falling over themselves with glee when they get their hands on it in the coming weeks. Canon will get some grief for producing something that no one needs and no one can afford, but you’ve got to tip the hat when it comes to innovation. If its Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics live up to the hype, you’d want Canon to demonstrate its performance on a piece of glass that’s really demanding, and 85mm f/1.2 is just that.
So, thank you, Canon. I will never buy this lens, and if you read the comments, neither will anyone else. I hope you sell a bucketful, because it looks amazing, and I for one appreciate the daft level of engineering that’s gone into it. As usual, please leave your thoughts in the comments.
Lead image is a composite using a photograph by Stefan Schweihofer.
Interesting.. if this lens had a red dot instead of red ring (without any auto focus then), people would change their opinion immediately and start drooling. Pointless debate.
Oh my gawd! This lens is too sharp. I don't like it. Oh my gawd this lens is soo big that everyone hates it. Who's everyone?
As I understand you never try this lens, you just download 2 pictures and make decision and text. Interesting approach
It seems our photography culture today to see the negative. I am amazed at how many critical articles are written about every brand, camera and lens coming out lately. We have become a generation of camera snobs and critical article purveyors. Having said that, there are a couple of points worth considering that I feel this article overlooked. 1st anyone who has used a 1.4 lens also struggles with one eye being out of focus with a slight head turn. Is this compounded with the 1.2? Yes, but likely would have been out of focus on a 1.4 as well. So beating on the lens for an issue that is found in all wide aperature lenses seems hardly fair. It was the photographers fault more than the lens fault. The lens simply did what it was told to do.
The 2nd point is that typically a lens is sharpest at double it’s widest aperature. A 2.8 lens is sharpest typically at 5.6 - 11. This is one of the arguments for buying the 2.8 version of lenses over the f4 version. This 1.2 lens should be crazy sharp at 2.4/2.8 which is where a lot of people do spend time shooting. 2.0 should be very good as well. Add a beautiful bokeh at that f-stop and it could be magical.
These are a couple of points to consider before completely bashing the lens. I do agree that the price tag is steep and that may be a turn off. However, if this is your bread and butter lens then it may be worth considering, and kudos to Canon for doing some innovation.
The criticism is more about strategy IMO. I find Nikon's approach to be releasing intermediate lenses much more sensible at this stage. This should not have been a priority and if they really think it will distract us from their lacklustre mirrorless cameras it's not working. Nikon is about to announce an 85 f/1.8s and given Canon's only 85 f/1.8 is 25 years old it would have been a much more sensible idea to give us a brand new RF version. Anyway Canon's strategy of small cameras and gargantuan overpriced lenses will not entice me to come back that's for sure.
I love Canon BUT this lens is about $700-1K overpriced. I wouldn't even think about making this purchase until there's a HUGE price cut. I'll stick with my EF lenses with the adapter until then. Nobody can tell the difference between the EF and RF image quality anyway.
OK, so you won't use the 85mm f1.2 and probably not the 50mm f1.2 either.
Oh wait a minute .... You switch over the Sony. Why do you even bother writing this article.????
Why even comment when you’re too scared to use your real name or show your work ?
A Stradivarius violin is completely unnecessary. If you play badly, they sound terrible. And nobody can afford them.
This price point means that the RF 85mm 1.2 L with defocus control ring will most likely be $3,000 or more!
Poor Canon. They get so much shit from the media. They make something awesome and everyone still shits on them.
While I’m sure this lens is sharp, fast, and amazing I can’t help but to cringe at $2700.
You have to admit that these recent prices have either confirmed your choice to buy into the RF mount or blow your head off because all this new glass is for those who have incredibly deep pockets.
I’m waiting for the holy trinity to be released so the final pocket score can be tallied.
Somebody up above just said that Canon's 85mm is the first new iteration in 25 years... so, we go through a body every, say, 5 years for $2000+ dollars but $2700 for a lens that can last you 20+ years is priced out of whack? Further, that's its MSRP today... it will be $2300 or less on the street in a year.
A lens like this exists because we keep screaming about BOKEH! and fast primes because BOKEH!
Canon pulls out all the stops to give us state of the art and we whine because it is expensive, large and heavy.
F1.2 lenses (specifically Canon's EF 85 f1.2) have long informed us of the cost, mass and micro DOF that the lens delivers. Now the new version is sharper at 1.2 across the field IF one actually wanted something sharp at 1.2 which the fanboys never seem to look at. Instead their eyes are riveted on the OOF areas.
People can make snarky remarks all day long but it is the noisy market that got Canon to deliver this item. Canon will survive as they start shipping a crap-ton of these lenses over the next few months.
"If its Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics live up to the hype, you’d want Canon to demonstrate its performance on a piece of glass that’s really demanding, and 85mm f/1.2 is just that."
BSR Optics has been available in the EF 35mm f/1.4 L II since it was introduced in 2015. Axial CA (purple fringing) is virtually non-existent, even when shooting into strong backlight.
Ta.
If Canon would have put out a pro-spec mirrorless camera for $2800-3000, they'd surely sell a lot more of those than they will this ridiculous f/1.2 lens. Everyone seems to be asking for the pro-spec mirrorless body from Canon, but they opted to give us something nobody asked for and few will be able to buy.
Wow, some crazy comments about F1.2 lenses. Shooting super shallow DOF creates a look that makes money. The RF 50mm and 85mm F1.2 lenses will be readily purchased by pros shooting weddings and portraiture as they make the switch to mirrorless, especially when Canon releases a pro body with IBIS.