Dusting off my 85 1.2

Yesterday I took the 135mm lens I borrowed out for a walk with the dogs today I took the 85 out at about the same time of day. Unfortunately the light was not as nice but the goal was to see how the two compared when attempting to shoot about the same subject.

This is going to be a tough choice. The 85 reminded me how sharp it is and while a bit heavier and slightly bigger I'm not sure there is a huge difference between the two lenses other than focal length. The only difference is that all of these images were shot at an aperture of 1.2 vs the 1.8 of the 135 lens. I guess I should have tried using it at 1.8 to judge the focus fall off as having shot at 1.2 at first look clearly drops off much quicker.

I think next I'm going to shoot some indoor subjects that don't move in an attempt to directly compare the two. At the moment I'm leaning toward the 135 but really want to convince myself it's based on the merits vs a shinny new toy.

Photographing a couple of my favorite subjects today

On my way back from a coaches meeting in Lansing today I stopped by the local camera store and they were kind enough to lend me a lens I've been lusting over for a couple years now. When I bought this latest camera I convinced myself that I would have a lot of fun with the 85 1.2 as I loved the images I could get from an 85 1.4 I had with my prior system. Unfortunately that fun has not yet happened. I do like the images it creates but don't find myself using it much and have been thinking a lot about replacing it with the 135 1.8. For two years now I've been thinking about selling the 85 to fund the 135. I don't use it much, it's heavy, and frankly is too big for my camera bag. But I know I'm going to loose a lot of money selling it and I just might find an amazing use for it one day so I continue to sit here staring at on my desk while it collects dust. 

In hopes of convincing me to trade in my 85 towards the 135 and ultimatly making money on both sides of the transaction the fellow at the store was kind enough to let me use their 135 for the next week. Also he might have been tired of handing it to me to fondle every time I visited the store :). 

I have to say based on my first use of it I really like the focal length and the pictures look really good! I hope to get out using it every day this week and really compare the two to see if its really a good fit or just one of those things that we all think would be nice to have in the back of our heads. Either way my goal is to finally make a decision and maybe some additional room on my desk ;) So keep an eye out for some more posts/pictures this week. Note: All of these are with the 135.