CANON EF 85MM F/1.2L USM II

A legend in its own lifetime, Canon’s classic 85mm lens is a tough act to follow

Designed as the definitive lens for portrait and fashion photography, the original version of this lens was updated in 2006. The Mark II retains the oversized front elements of the original, seeking to enhance the quality of bokeh, while also reducing spherical aberration and increasing sharpness towards the edges of the frame.

The Mark II retains the ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system of the original, unusually with an electronically coupled manual focus ring, but the CPU is upgraded to boost autofocus speed. Even so, autofocus is still pretty sluggish, despite being nearly twice as fast as in the original lens. Updated Super Spectra coatings have also been added to reduce ghosting and flare.

Despite being widely regarded as a big and heavy lens when launched, this is now the smallest lens in the group, with a comparatively modest 72mm filter thread. It’s no lightweight though, at just over 1kg.

The availability of such a tight depth of field enables very defocused and blurry backgrounds, which helps with the quality of bokeh. However, axial chromatic aberration can be quite noticeable with this lens when shooting wide open, giving noticeable fringing around the edges of objects in front of and behind the point of focus. Stopping down a little helps, but then you miss out on the f/1.2 aperture, which is the main selling point of the lens.

Another issue with stopping down is that the diaphragm is based on eight rather than nine blades. As such, it’s not as wellrounded as the other lenses on test. The result is that defocused lights and bright spots take on a noticeable octagonal shape when narrowing the aperture.