have i mentioned how much i love the 85mm lens?
so, my favorite, yet most persnickety, lens i shoot with is Canon’s 85mm f/1.2 lens. its a beast to haul around and when opened up full blast, the depth of field is exceedingly narrow. it borders on being a make or break lens in the sense that one wrong move or ill-timed inhale/exhale can ruin the shot. the more i’ve worked with it, though, the better i’ve gotten with it and its a coin flip in between that and the 70-200mm f/2.8 II IS lens as our next major gear purchase. for now, it remains a constant piece of gear in our rental list for every wedding we shoot because of its super-powered abilities and its seemingly magical qualities. its one major weakness is chromatic aberration, and when it shows up… well, its fixable to a degree, but it always stings a little bit.
anywho, this last wedding we shot, Carrie & Alberto’s, we had the 85 in tow (two of them, actually). one of the big recurring design themes throughout the day was the peacock feather. it really showed up when we got to the reception and as we are wont to do, we started shooting all the different decorations around the reception hall. i made especially sure to get pictures of peacock feathers, but didn’t think too much about it until we got home and started unloading pictures.
jac was sorting through and she got to this particular shot and she kept zooming in. and again. and again. and again.
i freaking love this lens. the more you zoom in, the more that CA i wrote about earlier shows up (its the purplish tint around the very fringes of the smaller feathery bits). i suppose its a “deal with it” scenario, as its barely even there… unless you’re looking for it. like i was. ha.
anyways, i’ve yet to see a lens anywhere that can capture as much as the 85 does. Canon really knocked it out of the park with this one and it continues to absolutely astound me the more i use it.
