Why did you choose an f/1.2 aperture rather than f/1.4?

Satoshi: "Although one may think there isn't much difference between f/1.2 and f/1.4 when just looking at the numbers, there is nearly a half stop of difference in brightness. Nearly 1.4 times more light is taken in, resulting in a whole new level in terms of design difficulty. A half stop difference may not seem like much, but when designing large aperture lenses such as f/1.2 and f/1.4, this half stop makes a huge difference in terms of difficulty of design."

Kaishi: "The combination of stunning sharpness in the focused areas and the extremely shallow depth of field of f/1.2 delivers unmatched images. Portraits that use the shallow depth of field of f/1.2 have a unique beauty. The widest aperture setting on the RF 85mm F1.2L USM delivers a beautiful bokeh quality not found on other lenses, and amazing resolution, embodying a new type of imaging expression in portrait photography. That is why f/1.2 was chosen."





How is the bokeh different from that of its EF-mount cousin?

Kaishi: "In terms of bokeh, a key point is that the minimum focusing distance is closer than that of the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM. The strong bokeh created by f/1.2 can be used to create new types of imaging expressions such as close-ups of areas decorated with jewels."

Satoshi: "We try to ensure the bokeh shape stays round at the edge of the frame, and at such a large aperture the lens size needs to be considerably larger. I believe to a certain extent that users can see the improvements to the bokeh shape being cut out in the peripherals [compared to the shape on a DSLR]. That's because there is no mirror box on the Canon EOS R to block the light rays, which is one of the causes of this phenomenon."