Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L
Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L Review
The Canon RF 85mm f 1.2 L USM is a lens that makes a bold first impression and not just because of its size. It's big, chunky, and built with one purpose in mind: delivering the best portrait results possible. While the design and heft may not appeal to everyone, once you start shooting with it, all of that fades into the background. With its ultra-wide f 1.2 aperture, incredible sharpness, beautiful bokeh, and rock-solid optical performance even on high-resolution bodies like the EOS R5 and R5 Mark II, this lens proves that it's not about being versatile, it’s about being the absolute best at what it was designed to do. It’s a highly specialized tool that serious portrait shooters will appreciate the moment they shoot their first picture.
LENS SPECS
Release Date: 2019
Format: 35mm Full Frame
Mount: RF
Filter: 82mm
Aperture Blades: 9
Aperture Range: f1.2 - f16
Min Focus Distance: 0.85m
Weight 1179g
Optical Design: 13 Elements in 9 Groups
Weather Sealing: Yes
Lens IS.: -No
APS-C Conversion Approx.: 136mm
Price
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Design and Build Quality
The Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L is built like you’d expect from a high-end RF L-series lens. It’s big, heavy, and made of plastic. It’s funny that plastic housings have now become the standard for Canon lenses. The RF 85mm f1.2 L is definitely not a lightweight lens or something you’d want to carry around casually all day. Perhaps the size and weight are intentional to make the lens feel more substantial in your hand and thus help you cope with the hole it leaves in your wallet. Here is a picture of the original FD 85mm f1.2 L on the left, beside it is the EF 85mm f1.2 L II, then we have the current day RF 85mm f1.2 L and on the far right is a prediction for the size of the next iteration of the 85mm f1.2 L. Ok perhaps i’m being too facetious. I wanted to illustrate the point that Canon keeps on increasing the size of their lenses and I’m sure I'm not the only one who finds that frustrating. The advantage of mirrorless is that cameras have become lighter and smaller which is great and in turn for some odd reason Canon has decided to compensate by building larger and larger lenses. Maybe they feel that the bigger the lens the more they can charge for it? Who knows, but this is a topic I'll look into in another post, for now let’s get back on track.
The body of the RF 85mm f1.2 L is mostly made of high-grade plastic with a nice easily scratchable matte finish. The lens is also weather-sealed, so it can handle some rain or dusty conditions without worry. The front filter thread is a wapping 82mm. When buying this lens keep in mind the hidden cost of buying 82mm filters to go with your lens. There are two switches on the side of the lens. One lets you switch between manual and autofocus and the other limits the focus range of the lens to 1.5 meters to infinity. In effect preventing the lens from focus hunting for subjects that are closer than 1.5m. The control ring is a nice touch, although depending on how you have your camera set up, you might not end up using it much or ever at all. It would have been a lot more functional and visually appealing to have an aperture ring instead. Overall, the build quality feels good for a plastic lens. It's weighty in the hands and easy to grip. Unfortunately it’s bulbus and large, attracting a lot of attention when shooting in public. Also worth mentioning is that this lens makes your camera front heavy so a grip or good wrist strength is recommended if you plan on using this lens for long periods of time.
Special Features
I know when it came to design and build quality I was a little critical of this lens. However, when it comes down to what matters most this lens might just be one of the best portrait lenses ever made. That being said, let's talk about the special features of this lens.
One of the standout features of the Canon RF 85mm f 1.2 L is obviously it's insanely wide f 1.2 maximum aperture. Lenses this fast are pretty rare, especially modern autofocus lenses and it opens up a lot of creative options. Shooting at f1.2 gives you an incredibly shallow depth of field, which makes it easy to isolate your subject and get that creamy, almost dreamlike background blur that’s hard to replicate with slower lenses. It’s also a huge advantage in low-light situations, letting you keep your ISO lower and your shutter speed faster without needing extra lighting. This is why this lens has been such a valuable tool in wedding photography. Very few lenses today, even in premium lineups, offer true f1.2 performance, so this lens definitely gives you a unique look that you just can’t easily get with more common f1.4 or f1.8 lenses.
The Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L is also packed with some pretty serious optical tech to actually make that f1.2 aperture usable. One of the biggest things is the Blue Spectrum Refractive element (BR). Fast lenses usually struggle with chromatic aberration (that purple or green fringe around high-contrast edges), especially when shot wide open. The previous EF 85mm f1.2 L II really struggled with this. The BR element in this lens specifically targets that issue by bending blue light wavelengths more effectively, which helps the lens control fringing a lot better than most other fast primes I’ve used. Along with that, Canon included an aspherical element to improve sharpness and minimize distortions, and a UD (Ultra-low Dispersion) element to help manage color shifts and maintain clarity. The lens is also coated with Canon’s Air Sphere Coating (ASC), which is designed to reduce flare and ghosting when shooting into strong light sources like the sun or bright stage lights. In real-world use, all this tech means you can actually shoot wide open at f1.2 without the image falling apart. You get sharpness, good contrast, and minimal color fringing even in tricky backlit situations. It's clear that Canon wasn’t just trying to make a "fast" lens, they wanted a lens you could actually trust to deliver at its maximum aperture, which isn’t always the case with ultra-fast glass.
GEar Shots
Focusing
The Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L focuses a lot faster and more reliably than you might expect for such a large and heavy piece of glass. If you were used to shooting with the previous EF 85mm f1.2 L on a DSLR body you’ll be blown away by the focusing speed of the new RF 85 mm f1.2 L on a mirrorless body. In photo mode, autofocus is quick and accurate, easily keeping up with fast-moving subjects. When shooting portraits even wide open at f1.2 this lens is reliable. Pro Tip: If you’re shooting subjects at f1.2 set your camera's AF mode to Servo so it never loses focus of your target. You can also consider using rear button AF. More about that here in this post.
In video mode, the autofocus is still very responsive, but one of the nice features is that you can actually adjust the focusing speed through the camera’s menu settings. This lets you slow down the rack focus transitions for a smoother, more cinematic look, instead of the quick snap focusing you typically want for stills. Overall the focusing ability of this lens is a welcomed improvement over the previous generation of lenses.
Optical Performance
The optical performance of the Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L is honestly stunning. Images come out incredibly sharp, even wide open at f1.2, which is something you just don't expect from most ultra-fast lenses. There’s a real "clean" look to the files, colors are rich, contrast is strong without being harsh, and fine details are rendered with almost clinical precision. When you pair this lens with a high-resolution body like the Canon EOS R5 or R5 Mark II, both of which have a high resolution 45MP sensor, you really start to see just how much resolving power the lens actually has. It holds up incredibly well, even when you zoom way into the image, no softness, no weird artifacts, just a ton of fine detail. Personally I feel like this lens was designed to resolve detail on a 100mp sensor. Perhaps in the future we’ll see Canon unveil an ultra high resolution 100mp sensor camera like they did with the 5DSr back in the day.
That said, the lens is so sharp that it can sometimes be too revealing, especially for portrait work. It picks up every pore, every tiny skin texture, and every minor blemish, which might not always be flattering for your subject. Pro Tip: If you're aiming for a softer, more forgiving look, a lot of shooters (myself included) recommend using diffusion filters like the Tiffen Glimmerglass or the Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8. They gently lower the contrast, bloom the highlights a little, and soften up skin tones without completely killing the sharpness or ruining the image quality. It's a small trick that can make a big difference if you're working with this lens in beauty, wedding, or cinematic portrait work.
Versatility
The Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L is definitely not what you’d call a versatile lens. It’s big, it’s heavy, and it’s really built for one purpose, portraits and subject isolation. But the thing is, it does that one job better than almost anything else out there. The way it renders subjects against a blurred background, combined with the insane sharpness and beautiful falloff, makes it feel like the ultimate portrait tool. You’re not going to want to carry this lens around for casual street photography or landscapes, it’s probably just too bulky. But if your goal is to shoot portraits with the absolute best image quality and the most dramatic separation possible, this might genuinely be the best portrait lens ever made.
Sample Photos
User Experience
Honestly, when it comes to using the Canon RF 85mm f 1.2 L, I’m not in love with the design language or the size. It’s a big, chunky lens, and it’s a bit of a brick compared to other 85mm lenses out there. Hopefully Canon finds a way to miniaturize it a bit when version two rolls out. But at the end of the day, none of that really matters as much as the results, and the results with this lens are just incredible. The image quality is on another level. The bokeh, the focus fall-off, the sharpness, the contrast, it all just comes together, even in really tricky lighting situations. Every time I look at the final client deliverables photos or videos, it’s hard not to be impressed. It’s one of those lenses that just makes beautiful images, plain and simple. If you’re serious about portraits, it’s pretty hard to imagine anything better than this in the Canon lineup.
Final Thoughts
While the Canon RF 85mm f1.2 L might not win any awards for portability or design, the images and videos it produces are nothing short of stunning. It’s almost too sharp at times, revealing every little detail, but that just speaks to the level of optical performance Canon achieved here. Thankfully, tools like diffusion filters can easily soften things when needed. In the end, it’s hard to imagine a better lens for portrait work, from the gorgeous focus fall-off to the flawless rendering even in tough lighting, this lens delivers results that few others can match. If ultimate image quality is your top priority, the RF 85mm f 1.2 L earns its place in any serious photographer's kit.