The Canon 50mm f/1.2 L lens is big, expensive, a little heavy and not the sharpest. So why is it one of my favorite lenses?
The big f/1.2 aperture!
So.. what is the big deal (pun intended)? Canon, uniquely offers three 50mm lenses – the f/1.8, the f/1.4 and the f/1.2. The f/1.2 gathers about twice the light of the f/1.8. That means you can shoot in a darker venue and at a lower ISO and high shutter speed.
But that is not the key difference to me. The biggest difference is the F/1.2 delivers great photos wide open. The other lenses are not very good wide open so they need to be stopped down a bit to produce something acceptable. So the real difference is not twice the light – at acceptable quality the difference is 3 or 4 times the light!
The shot above was taken at f/1.2 and just sings! Beautiful colors, acceptably sharp and not too much noise!
That’s why I love my Canon 50mm f/1.2 L lens!
