Canon 50mm f1.2

I recently found a good deal on a Canon 50mm f1.2 lens, so I bought it, and I’m very pleased I did for a couple reasons. First, I love the way it looks. It is absolutely the most beautiful lens I’ve ever seen! Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but it is beautiful.

One of the other things I found is something I hadn’t seen for quite a while – ever since I’ve been using smaller aperture lenses, especially zoom lenses, is the narrow depth of field. When I first started taking pictures professionally, I was using shorter, prime lenses, with fairly large apertures (f1.8, f1.4) and I remember the control I had over depth of field. Notice in the photos below how the depth of field is very shallow, and I love how the background is blurred (bokeh effect) in the Christmas light photos.



This shot, at f4.5 shows the sharpness the lens is capable of. It’s a wild lens, and if you can control it, you can get some awesome results.

All-in-all, I love the flexibility I get with a super-fast lens like the Canon 50mm f1.2. But you have to be careful when shooting at f1.2 because your depth of field is so narrow if you hand hold your camera at close ranges, you could move the camera enough to take your subject out of focus!