'L' for 'Legendary'? Canon 50mm f/1.0 'L' USM (1989-2002) lens review with samples

A review I've been waiting to make for years. Manufactured between 1989 and 2002, this legendary 'L' lens still commands legendary prices wherever it can be found. It still holds the crown as the brightest aperture autofocus lens ever made, and the brightest aperture SLR lens ever made - yet, it's always had very mixed reviews (most saying that it's rather soft - and those were reviews from the film era). Well, let's see what this copy of the lens can do, at least.

A huge thank you to Park Cameras here in the UK, for their help in loaning me a copy of this lens for a couple of weeks for testing. Check them out:

By the way - I do acknowledge that there's a chance this is not a a great copy of the lens, optically - however, it's very difficult to tell, with so few of them around.

All pictures taken by me on a Canon EOS R camera (and adaptor). By the way, I did do a little sharpness test on my old Canon 6D to make sure that Canon's EF - RF mount adaptor wasn't causing problems with image quality, and the results were what you would expect, so, nothing wrong with the adaptor.

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Music:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[matthieurougerie]

6:46 You won't heard a lot of times "Stop down to 1.4" :)

[kian]

I think Canon made this lens to deliver a statement, rather than image quality.

[MathieuStern]

Congrats on 200K, you are an inspiration to me

[ΓιαχούδηςΧρήστος]

Finally. I was waiting so long for your opinion on this lens. Great job keep it up. You are one of the best reviewers out there.

[theizza]

Congrats on reaching 200k subs!

This lens image quality makes the Chinese 50mm f0.95 lenses look more appealing and they never were before... at least to me.

I really hope sigma continues their f1.2 lenses starting with their 35mm f1.2 for mirrorless.

[KSCuberOfficial]

That rear element is INSANE! I've been lucky enough to hold one of these beasts a couple years back.

[RFGfotografie]

Some lenses must be remade, and this is one of them...

[MrCochise]

Amazing. I've wanted this glass forever. It seems so hard too find in great quality. I have the 1.2 and love it. But this is pretty sweet.

[QippysChannel]

Always been in my list of dream lenses to own, I remember this lens from the time I was doing my ‘A’ Levels back in the day, legendary 1.0 was and still is quite and achievement from Canon 👍🏼

[federicodagostino]

This lens is awesome.
Great video too Chris.
Congrats for reaching 200k :)

[alanstanway]

The best lens tests on YouTube so congrats on your success. Da iawn! Having sold many many cameras from the 70's & 80's when I was in the trade, I always made buyers aware that super fast lenses were nearly all soft lenses. No doubt modern optics will be much improved but on this topic I'm afraid to say that this old dog won't be learning any new tricks!

[alb]

Just too much resolution for the old beast. Still, we needed that stepping stone in order to have the incredible optics we have today. Congrats on your success, great channel!

[caldera]

I would like to see you test out Canon FD L lenses before Canon went to EF mount. The 85 f1.2 L, 50 f1.2 L, 24 f1.4 L...etc are still commanding steep prices and I like to see how they stack up in your testing methods.

[nickurek]

Chris: I just wanted to congratulate you on hitting 200k subs! (still 1 of the most underrated yt channels)

[Slctve]

it does look that there is something wrong with this lens copy. 6:24 it does look that overall loss of quality across the whole image is uneven the right part of the whole image does look more blown out and has less contrast, looks like some haze effect there, particularly the upper corner. 6:46 interesting ghosting effect on those black stripes, actually does look like interference of a vignette effect. The center of the image looks like its not completely in focus. It could be due to short flange distance and adapters used, its 1, 0f the depth of field is razor thin at this aperture the sharpest point is probably less than 2-3mm wide.
Ken Rockwell has a review of this lens on his website and he states that this lens is the sharpest "fast" 50 lens ever made, his sample images does look pretty good, although those images were taken on ~20mpx camera.
This lens renders highlights in an interesting shape.
And of course the price tag of this beast is spectacular too... I wonder how well it would compare to a canons dream lens 0, 95f both of them are in the same collectible/dream like league, although dream lens does not have AF system.

[westyorksshutterbug]

Fab review - love the balanced way you do these videos- pls keep up the fab work 👍📸

[PhotoTubeUK]

The image quality reminds me of the Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS manual focus lens - soft wide open but great at f/2 and smaller but lots of character. Perhaps this Canon EF f/1.0 is more for collectors than photographers though.

[parkcameras]

Awesome video Chris :-) Congrats on 200K

[SunnySoCal]

I just noticed you finally hit 200k subscribers 🎊 i also see this lens sometimes on ebay & wondered about it

[ilovebohol]

Focus-by-Wire.... was the reason i opted for the otus 55 instead. Nikon version with manual aperture, 100% manual.