jessica: Such a rockstar lens! I used for a wedding and was very happy to have with me. It was heavier than I expected but thats the only negative thing I have to say, its worth the weight. You will fall in love. Great for weddings!
BDJ: Great lens, no doubt! Heavy, if you are shooting all day it can wear on you. DOF is amazing! This lens was a tough one to return. Well worth the rental.
Robert: Yes, they were right....I didn't want to send it back!
This is a great lens. The focus was "spot on" ...most of the time... let me explain: According to the specs, it's minimum focusing distance is 3.1 feet. If the light is good and you're patient, it will focus in a little under that distance, but it tends to front focus by about an inch (yes, 1 inch). The "sweet spot" tends to be at a distance of 4 to 10 feet, but it still is quite sharp at longer distances.
The depth of field is awesome! One of the first things I did after receiving the lens was to measure the DOF @ f/1.2. At 4 feet, the effective DOF is 1.25 inches. Yeah, essentially paper thin. So be vigilant about where you're focusing. Bounce your EF point off of the end of your subject's nose and their eyes will be out of focus (yup, I screwed up a great shot by doing that...). So, unless you really want that extremely narrow DOF, don't use it wide open. Use a smaller aperature like f/1.8 instead.
The only drawback is the weight. If you are going to carry this thing around for the better part of a day, be ready! Your arms will get tired. If you're able, set it up on a tripod...
One last thing. I used this lens on an APS-C camera with a crop factor of 1.6. It was great for some really tight shots of a single subject. The results were phenomenal! But since I was shooting a wedding, I spent a lot of time "back tracking" in order to get the couple appropriately framed. On a full frame sensor, I wouldn't hesitate to use this lens again. On a cropped sensor, I would definately go with the 50mm f/1.2 instead - or even a 35mm.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with this lens rental and my Borrowlenses.com experience. Two thumbs up!
