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Since the day I bought the Canon RF 50/1.2L lens - i have not used the older, Canon EF 50/1.2L - until the other night. Realizing - that yes, it still has it's place among lenses.
Now, the expensive, hyper sharp Canon RF 50/1.2L lens, optically simply superb at every level. Albeit I do find the vignetting to be a bit weird, and not so easily corrected in a way, where it still preserves a "flair", a sort of character in the lens. The vignetting in the older Canon EF 50/1.2L is better distributed, even when you correct it partially, so that the corners are not so dark - but just a little bit. The transition there is much nicer, than with the new one.
The character of the older Canon EF 50/1.2L is actually lovely in many aspects. And it is pretty sharp as long you don't use it in the closer area. Color fringing, which it has at times quite a lot, can be corrected - so it isn't a problem in today's world with many corrective tools we have today.
Also nice for a change: the older EF 50L is smaller and lighter.
I did appreciate it the other day, when i had the lens + camera combo in my small backpack with me at work. The RF 50L is just humongous, and heavy with its 1 kilo weight alone. It has its strength in being supported by inhouse Image Stabilization, and superb sharpness at wide open ƒ1.2 aperture.
I have taken images of the night sky, without tripod - and got away with razor sharp stars. Below "sundogs", but i should call them "moon dogs" instead. There was both water dropet based clouds present, as well ice crystal based features, creating the very interesting night phenomena with help of the moon light.
Canon EOS R6 + RF 50/1.2 L
Quite a feat to be able pull this off without tripod, with "today's" photo tech... for the sheeples.
But yeah, it is awesome (when needed) to be able to do this, nevertheless.
Nicer signature in portraits
I tend to think, that the older EF 50L has a nicer draw in portraits... And given that when you put the older lens on a mirror less Canon EOS camera, with help of a simple adapter - the autofocus is SO MUCH BETTER compared to when you connected it with an older mirror flappy EOS camera. There, the 50L and the 85L where notoriously unreliable, constantly changing mind regarding where the set the exact focus. Sometimes right, sometimes back focus, sometimes front focus.
Very disappointing to say the least. But on a mirrorless R type of EOS camera, they work simply superb ! Which made the older lenses highly useful, often even better.
Something to think about. There is absolutely nothing wrong with adapting Canon EF lenses to Canon EOS RF mount cameras. The older lenses work stellar, right though. Many times the optics are great, if not even stellar, and they are much more affordable than the new RF "L" lenses. Some of the RF lenses are a bit questionable in terms of "superior optical performance", but hey - your mileage way vary.
Canon EOS 6D + EF 50/1.2 L
Note - about the tree photo above
It appears that the corner were not sharp. Well it is a tree, a three dimensional object, which means not all branches where in focus at ƒ1.2 - because the tree was mighty. Therefore it gives the illusion that the corner sharpness was "off". But that's because the tree was so large in depth, sitting outside the ( narrow ƒ1.2 ) focus place. |
