Excellent lens. Should be in very bag.

This is probably IMHO one of the finest lenses ever made.  Why anyone would purchase the 1.2 is beyond me.

i have now been using this lens,  purchased new,  for about a year... And frankly it's changed the way I work...   it's light,  unobtrusive,  fast,  and stupidly sharp.   By far the best lens in my bag.... And in comparison to my 70-2002.8,  or 24-70..  There is simply no comparison... it blows them into the weeds.

at circa £300 the lens is unbelievable value.

The only bad thing is the lens breathes quite a bit....  Which if your doing a focus pull when shooting video can be a bit  a bit of a pita...    But I am willing to forgive this as its such a stunning portrait lens.

buy one.  Now.

proudfather wrote:

I'm sure it's a very good lens. But I really like my 1.2 for natural light portraiture because it provides such a shallow DOF and smooth bokeh.

-proudfather

The 1.2 is a very good lens...  I had one a few years ago.... But there is this obsession with that 1.2 that is unwarranted imho...   It's a very heavy lens...  And I found that whilst that 1.2 was a neat trick in portraits... It wasn't really that useful...   combined with the cost I think the 1.8 is vastly better value... And actually I think the one I have is sharper than the 1.2 I had...   For me it comes down to the fact I sold the 1.2,   There is no way I would get rid of the 1.8 now...

But,  the 1.2 is a excellent lens,  and if you like it then that's not a bad thing!   If OTOH you don't have £1200 to drop,  spend £259 like I did and get optical nirvana!  

NottsPhoto wrote:

This is probably IMHO one of the finest lenses ever made. Why anyone would purchase the 1.2 is beyond me.

i have now been using this lens, purchased new, for about a year... And frankly it's changed the way I work... it's light, unobtrusive, fast, and stupidly sharp. By far the best lens in my bag.... And in comparison to my 70-2002.8, or 24-70.. There is simply no comparison... it blows them into the weeds.

at circa £300 the lens is unbelievable value.

The only bad thing is the lens breathes quite a bit.... Which if your doing a focus pull when shooting video can be a bit a bit of a pita... But I am willing to forgive this as its such a stunning portrait lens.

buy one. Now.

I agree that this is a good, super affordable lens that I still keep in my car trunk. I used to shoot basketball with it in dismal HS gyms when cameras had lousy low light performance. These days I just use my 70-200. (Not interested in bokeh.)

Super fast glass used to be worth (and cost!) its weight in gold back in the film days or in the early days of digital. A third or half a stop extra speed often made the difference between getting a shot and missing it entirely. Today, it is more targeted to the bokeh fans.

NottsPhoto wrote:

This is probably IMHO one of the finest lenses ever made. Why anyone would purchase the 1.2 is beyond me.

i have now been using this lens, purchased new, for about a year... And frankly it's changed the way I work... it's light, unobtrusive, fast, and stupidly sharp. By far the best lens in my bag.... And in comparison to my 70-2002.8, or 24-70.. There is simply no comparison... it blows them into the weeds.

at circa £300 the lens is unbelievable value.

The only bad thing is the lens breathes quite a bit.... Which if your doing a focus pull when shooting video can be a bit a bit of a pita... But I am willing to forgive this as its such a stunning portrait lens.

buy one. Now.

I would imagine that the only similar value is Canon's 100mm f/2.

I've come to the 85mm party late as I had the 100mm macro and the 135mm f2L.

How I see why everyone likes it so much.  Sharp, fast, not too long, good isolation.

I'm hoping Canon gives it and the 50mm the same treatment as the 35mm IS.  A short squat 67mm filtered 85mm f1.8 IS would be a perfect companion to the new 35mm, as is the 100mm IS macro.   But if it turned out 58mm and a similar size to the original, like the 24mm IS, I wouldn't complain.

I find zooms incredibly useful and fun.  There's also something visceral about using a 35/85 or 24/50/100 prime combo.

Did you mean to say "zoom", or "prime" in your last paragraph?

Despite the PF problem I am considering getting the 100F2 as a light two-punch companion to the 35IS on the 6D.