Chip Louie wrote:
>I've rented one, and an EF 85 1.2 L and once was enough > for me for both of these lenses. This is a very sharp > lens if stopped down two or three stops. It's big and > heavy, not a big deal actually IF it offered some > advantage to the shooting situation, but it's so > slow focusing that I missed a lot of shots > (that could easily been captured with the EF 50 1.4), > I wanted and due to the very, very shallow DOF > when used wide open there is ZERO room for error. > This can be a problem if you are trying to shoot a > model that is moving around. The EF 85 1.2 L has > all of the same problems and image quality of the > EF 50 1 L. I can't believe that Canon thought they > could actually sell many of these given the painfully > slow AF performance and cost but they ARE both very > sharp lenses if used under just the right conditions. > >Regards, > >Chip Louie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Chip, A lens that fast is designed more for available light shooting than shooting models walking around. I would speculate that the mass of the lens and large internal elements are the reasons that contribute to the slow AF speed even with USM motor. It always amazes me how people believe that because a lens has a USM motor it is automatically gains faster AF. This is silly. Like saying because a car engine has 8 cylinders instead of 6 it will be faster. There are many other elements to consider. Aside the lens looking cool on a camera (dare I say ostentatious?) shooting at F1.0 will not give you the depth of field you will need to get the eyes and the ears both in focus. The majority of portraits and modeling work is not shot wide open, that is the sign of an amateur. If you go to F5.6, more the typical aperture for many applications, the 50mm F1.4 is far and away sharper (Photodo shows the F1.4 lens to be .86 at F8 compared to .81 with the F1.0L lens). This goes for F2 on up. Yesm the 50mm F1 is a sharp lens, but complete sharpness is not the goal of the lens design, it is speed so you have to compromise a bit. For these reason, few own the 50mm F1L. Peter K * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
