Canon 50mm 1.2L vs 85mm 1.2L

I want to play with some L glass. I've got a shoot coming up for a sweet 16 party (shots of the girl prior to the party, not the event itself) so I figured it;d be a good excuse to rent some glass.

I'm still working on a crop body, which tells me that the 50mm lens would work essentially like the 85mm is supposed to work on a full frame camera (tech 80mm), so I was initially inclined to lean that way. but I read some reviews and it said the 50mm could be a pain to work with and the 85L was a dream (specifically said it was the best portrait lens ever made). Have any of you ever worked with either? What are your thoughts? For what it's worth, I already have the 50mm 1.8 in my bag now.

 

those are wide open.
Don't know how great the quality is on the 1.8, since I'm not a Canon shooter.
85 sounds better and something you could use for other things, but amounts to an equivalent 125 and you're not going to be doing portraiture there unless you put her in a less accessible place (other side of a lake, push bridge pictures from a shore angle).

Hard to say, really. Or be completely impractical and take both on for that period of time and just dedicate yourself to shooting a crapload over that time.

 

those are great lenses. i've shot with both.

the 85L is fantastic. creamy bokeh, contrasty -- the works. you'll need to stop it up to 1.4 at least. it'll hunt for a while at 1.2 and that DOF is razor thin -- your pics will look out of focus unless you know what you're doing. beware of focusing and recomposing -- at 1.2, you're likely to pull it out of focus.

85L is fantsatic, though. it's a MASSIVE piece of glass. heavy. beautiful, though.

i shot QCH's wedding with it. here are some pics with the 85L -- on the FF 5D.

 

wow -- these are lo-res pics i pulled off zenfolio. i should send you the hi-res so you can see how sharp they really are.

 

they got married where my sister did.


Those pics are fantastic. And yeah, at 1.2 your DOF has to almost be to the point where you wouldn't have an entire face in focus to the same magnitude.

 

they were out of stock by the time I had to order, so I missed out. I'll try again for my trip to DC in August.

 

I remember those LD and they are excellent. I wish I could get a couple to turn out that good.

 

sigh. I want L series lenses <pout>

 

Canon 50mm 1 2L vs 85mm 1 2L

Hey everyone, I have a canon powershot a620 Basically an updated a95. I know its just a normal cheap point and shoot. I tried to take a few pics and they come out pretty crappy. Ive seen some nice pics taken with them online. I was wondering if anyone can recommend any settings or tips on taking better looking pics.Thanks