Introduction

Ease of Use

There's no getting away from the very obvious fact that the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM is a massive prime lens, weighing in at 1195g and measuring almost 12cm in length, making it slightly longer and heavier than the equivalent Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L USM DSLR lens (although you have to factor in the extra size, weight and cost of an adapter if you want to use that lens on an EOS R series camera).

When mounted on the Canon EOS RP mirrorless camera that Canon sent us for testing, the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM feels very front heavy indeed, requiring you to cradle it with your left hand. One-handed use isn't really possible.

Build quality is simply outstanding. The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM feels very solid in your hand, and it features an L-series level weather-resistant design that protects against dust and moisture.

A new feature for certain RF lenses is the Lens Control Ring at the end of the lens barrel, which can be used to control certain key camera settings (TV, AV, ISO and exposure settings). Although not a new idea in the wider photography world, this is the first time that Canon have incorporated this idea into their interchangeable lenses.

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM does not feature Image Stabilisation, so there's no control on the lens for this feature. With the current EOS R bodies also not offering IBIS, you have to be more careful with your hand-holding technique to ensure optimum sharpness.

There is a focus mode switch with the usual AF/MF settings. Note that this lens usefully offers full-time manual focusing even when AF is selected.

There's also a focus limiter switch that toggles between Full and 1.5m-Infinity settings to help speed-up the auto-focusing system when required.

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM lens has a generously sized focus ring with a ridged, rubberised grip band. There are no hard stops at either ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity.

Polariser users should be pleased that the large 82mm filter thread doesn't rotate on focus.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM zoom is a pretty quick performer considering just how much glass is inside it, taking around 0.15 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Canon EOS RP camera that we tested it with.

We didn't experience too much "hunting" at all, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing virtually all of the time, thanks to the superb low-light capabilities of the EOS R cameras (down to -6EV (EOS R) and -5EV (EOS RP).

The USM motor is very quiet, which makes this lens well-suited to video recording, except when focusing from near-to-far, during which an audible whirr is present.

The lens ships with a large round lens hood (ET-89) with a lock button and a soft case (LP1424).

Focal Range

At the 85mm focal length the angle of view is 24 degrees.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are very well controlled with this lens, so much so that we could only find a few very minor examples in our test shots.

Sunstars

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM produces fairly nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/16 or f/22, although be careful to watch out for flare effects when shooting directly into the sun.

Vignetting and Distortion

When using the lens wide-open at f/1.2, you can see some light fall-off in the corners. Stopping down helps, although to completely get rid of this phenomenon, you will need to use an f-stop of f/2.8 or smaller. Distortion is very well controlled.

Macro

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM isn't really a macro lens. The close-focus point is at 85cm from the film/sensor plane and Canon quotes a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.12x. The following example illustrates how close you can get to the subject.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

Canon have employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades on the RF 85mm f/1.2L USM for a very pleasing rendering of the out-of-focus highlights. Based on what we have seen, we can say that they have largely succeeded.

Below you'll find some examples, and you are also encouraged to check out our sample images.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.