Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM Pro Reviews

This lens isn't for everyone, that's for sure. It's a unique lens in more ways than one. The bright maximum aperture allows depth of field to be reduced creatively, isolating your subjects from the background, which this lens renders incredibly smoothly. Sharpness is good from maximum aperture in the centre of the frame, but the performance towards the edges isn't in the same league. If your intended use requires good centre sharpness, and the ability to reduce depth of field to the minimum, not much else comes close. However, if you're after superb edge-to-edge clarity, and low distortion for general purpose use, or more critical applications, such as copy stand work, then this lens may not be for you.

Given its L-class designation and lofty(!) price, we found the 50mm f/1.2 to be a bit of a disappointment. While the center-sharpness and shading (vignetting) are excellent over the full aperture range, the wide-aperture corner sharpness, the chromatic aberration, and the distortion performances were all subpar. Could it be that our sample was not one of the better ones? We'll ask Canon for another one, and report here whether it tests better or not. If the results hold true though, it's hard to find a justification for spending $1,400 to $1,600 for a lens with this one's optical characteristics. (It's blur profile is somewhat better than that of t he Canon 50mm f/1.4 wide open, but $1500 or so strikes us as a lot to pay to get only reasonably good performance at 50mm and f/1.4)

Canon continues its tradition of optical excellence with a new EF lens - the powerful EF50mm f/1.2L USM lens. The new Canon lens is a valuable addition to the EOS arsenal for professional wedding and portrait photographers as well as advanced amateurs - expanding the range of current Canon EF lenses to more than 60 selections

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 USM L left rather mixed feelings here at Photozone. It was able to convince in the APS-C scope but on a full format DSLR its weaknesses became much more obvious. The good news is that the center resolution is generally fine across the board so shallow depth-of-field lovers may not be disappointed. However, when looking at the whole image frame the results are generally less than thrilling.

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens is going to be purchased by those who want the best image quality they can get from f/1.2 to f/2, by those needing a more-pleasing background blur quality than the other two 50s deliver, by those requiring the least amount of lens flare in their results or by those who need/want the best quality (build) lens they can get.

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 USM L is a specialty lens for those requiring the maximum in depth-of-field capabilities. At large apertures the lens produces the beautiful, buttery bokeh which can be expected from such a lens. Technically the resolution results are very good to excellent but not really superior to its cheaper cousin - the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. The center performance is generally stellar but the borders can´t quite follow although they remain easily in very good territory beyond f/1.2.