Canon EF 135mm lens

EF 135mm f/2L USM

The Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM is a short or medium telephoto lens. The "135/2" is mainly used for portrait photography and for indoor sports, where the lighting is often poor. The "fast" f/2 aperture makes the lens ideal for both of these applications.

Among Canon photographers, the lens is highly regarded for its sharpness, contrast, and color rendition. The lens is also popular because it is very sharp at its maximum aperture of f/2, allowing the photographer to throw the background out of focus while recording a lot of detail on the primary subject. This gives the photographer fine-grained control over depth of field.

Specifications

• This is an internal focus lens; the length doesn't change while focusing.
• A maximum aperture of f/2 is one stop faster than Canon's brightest SLR zoom lens, allowing faster shutter speeds and shallower depth of field.
• This lens is compatible with the Canon Extender EF teleconverters.

EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus

The Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus is a soft focus prime lens introduced by Canon Inc. in 1987 designed for portrait photography.

This is the only EF lens that has soft focus capabilites, allowing the user to control the lens's correction of spherical aberration. This feature is controlled by rotating the soft focus selector which has three choices; 0, 1, and 2. On the 0 setting, it functions as a standard 135mm prime lens. Settings 1 and 2 adjust the amount of softness in the focus. This is done by rotating elements that are inside of the lens to create deliberate spherical aberration.

Due to its old design, the 135mm SF does not sport USM technology; rather, it uses arc-form drive technology. Despite this, focusing is quite fast and reasonably quiet and, since focusing is achieved with the rear element, the front element does not rotate or extend. The lens there supports all 52mm filters.

The lens can be use with any EF camera but cannot be used with Canon's teleconverters, probably because of the rear focusing.

The F/2.8 maximum apperture allows the depth of field to be controlled when used for head-and-shoulders photography and the design of the diaphram gives quite pleasing bokeh.

When used without soft focus 'dialed in', the lens is sharp with image quality comparible to the 50mm F/1.8. Although often overlooked, the lens therefore offers a very attractive price/performance ratio at this focal length.

Specifications

Attribute	f/2L USM	f/2.8 w/Softfocus
Image
Key features
Full-frame compatible	Yes
Image stabilizer	No
Ultrasonic Motor	Yes	No
L-series	Yes	No
Diffractive Optics	No
Macro	No
Technical data
Aperture (max-min)	f/2-f/32	f/2.8-f/32
Construction	8 groups / 10 elements	6 groups / 7 elements
# of diaphragm blades	8	6
Closest focusing distance	3.0 ft/0.9 m	4.3 ft/1.3 m
Max. magnification	0.19x (1:5.3)	0.12x (1:8.3)
Horizontal viewing angle	15°
Diagonal viewing angle	18°
Vertical viewing angle	10°
Physical data
Weight	1.65 lbs. / 750 g	0.86 lbs. / 390 g
Maximum diameter	3.2 in / 82.5 mm	2.7 in / 69.2 mm
Length	4.4 in / 112 mm	3.9 in / 98.4 mm
Filter diameter	72 mm	52 mm
Accessories
Lens hood	ES-78II	ET-65III
Case	LP1219	LP1016
Retail information
Release date	April 1996	October 1987
MSRP $	$1200	$450
Street Price $	$900	$279

See also

• Bokeh
• Canon L lens
• Canon EF lens mount
• Canon EF Portrait Lenses

References

• "EF135mm f/2L USM specifications". Canon Camera Museum. Retrieved 2008-05-31.

External links

• Canon EF 135mm f/2 L USM
• Sample photography from thee EF 135 mm f/2.0 L