Fast lenses 117
Many portraits required exposures of several seconds. Portrait
studios propped their subjects into straight-backed chairs and
even used metal braces hidden behind the subjects to help steady
the head. Try this fun experiment: ask your favorite photo subject
to sit still for a one-second exposure, a two-second exposure,
perhaps even a longer exposure time. It should be fun to see who
moves fi rst, causing image blur: the photographer or the subject.
The spontaneity of the moment certainly is lost in this kind of
situation. Today, we photograph in a different way. We want to
capture action, motion. Life moves faster and we must capture
it without using braces and straight-backed chairs.
Enter the fast lens. “Fast” is defi ned at f/2.8 and wider. f/2.0,
f/1.8, f/1.4—and yes, even f/1.2. Lenses with these maximum
apertures provide the freedom to stop the action and produce
beautiful photographs once we’ve exhausted ISO and shutter-
speed limits. This solution to our low-light problems does come
with a price tag. Literally. There are many drawbacks to using
fast lenses, including purchase price, weight, and size.
If your wallet is able to stand up to the fast-lens challenge, let’s
move on to the next obstacle: size and weight. Camera manu-
facturers should include a membership to the local health club
with some of these fast lenses, because you need to be in good
shape just to carry them around. Canon’s 85 mm f/1.2 L lens
weighs in at 2.25 pounds, but their 85 mm f/1.8 lens weighs only
14.9 ounces. Although that may seem like an insignifi cant dif-
ference, after a full day hanging around your neck or on your
shoulder, your body will notice the difference of the extra
pounds. You’ll really need the strong arms for the long glass,
too. Canon’s 400 mm f/2.8 weighs in at a whopping 11.7 pounds,
whereas the smaller, lighter f/5.6 is a mere 2.8 pounds. The dif-
ference between these two is 9 pounds, which is heavier than
the average baby’s birth weight. The backbreaking benefi t is a
full two-stop difference in maximum aperture and is essential
for night sports photography. The price is right if your livelihood
depends on capturing the moment for the client. The same holds
true for the weight. It may not seem like much, gaining only one
or two f-stops of light with these fast lenses, but that difference
will make or break an assignment.
Case study: canon’s 85 mm f/1.2 L lens
For some time, Joe’s favorite portrait lens has been Canon’s
EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM, but now his new favorite is the Canon EF
85 mm f/1.2 L II USM. The superb optics of Canon’s L-series
lenses are designed for the most demanding professional
photographic applications—and if you want one, you gotta
pay for that lack of compromise that’s refl ected in its $2000
price tag.
