Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

A brand spankin’ new Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L in hand today, the few shots I took show a lens that so far appears to be a stunning performer, at least in infrared (no shots in color yet, as I don't have a color-capable EOS body at the moment).

Never have I seen such outstanding performance at f1.2 with a normal lens, eclipsing the 58mm NOCT-Nikkor, though backfocus in infrared similar to the 85mm f/1.2L must be dealt with. The detail in the near-corner actual-pixels crop below can hardly be criticized for f1.2, given that focus probably wasn’t optimal.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L near corner, f1.2, Canon 5D-IR

Not convinced? Here’s a near-center crop at f2, handheld at 1/2000 sec; observe the exceptional fine detail, shot into a very strongly backlit sky. The very finest twigs are clearly rendered, with no evidence of flare:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L near center, f2, Canon 5D-IR, 1/2000 sec≠

I will be exploring the performance of the 50mm f/1.2L over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!