However, I find the process tedious, and prefer single, manually guided, long exposures which seem to have deeper colors. There is no such thing, in my opinion. To shoot indoors under typical gymnasium lighting, you often need f/2.0 or wider to get a shutter speed high enough to stop the action. After a three-year hiatus, we've been at the return of the CP+ camera show in Yokohama, Japan. The 135L is half the weight of the 70-200 2.8IS. The lens is so crisp that the diaphragm blade pattern is visible on point light sources shot at large aperature. Canon 300/4 ED IF AF (non-IS) 135mm and 200mm lenses are suitable for wide angle star-field views, and comet and asteroid hunting, while 300mm lenses serve very well for the Andromeda galaxy, large emission nebulae, open clusters, and even larger globular clusters. Stuff I used to take the photos in this video:- The Canon 135mm f2 lens: https://amzn.to/346Paz7- Sony A7III Camera: https://amzn.to/2xM776q- Sony Grip exten. If I got this lens, would it make more sense long term to get the Canon mount with a E mount adaptor so I could fit it more easily to a dedicated astro camera later? The inset picture is a magnified view of the bottom right corner of the frame. Could use a few updates. It focuses within a blink of an eye, instantly. When you shoot a 135mm F2 lens at F2, your subject will stand out in this beautiful way, often without much work needed from you as the photographer. In this configuration, the lens is still a very fast F3.4. I have just acquired my astrophotography set up thanks to all your videos and doing some research. @ Juksu - you're pathologically clueless. You can use Stellarium to preview the image scale with the 135mm lens and your DSLR. Im currently shooting with a Canon 60D. If they could make 135 f2 lighter version with AF for Sony and price is slightly under Sigma 135 /1.8 and obviously Batis 135 2.8 it could sell like hotcakes. So now your 42Mpix A7rII is only a 10.5Mpix. Only con I can think of, and that may be a big one depending on how you plan to use the lens is the lack of weather sealing. That's why I really enjoy shooting portraits with it. The criterion I used in evaluating lenses was optical perfection with no reservations. I do not presume to further decorate the universe, and perceive them for what they are: interference. sigh, overdone bokeh and centre sharpness bear little relevance to the art of this hobby. The Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC lens is a fantastic companion for the Canon 60Da, as it offers a useful "mid-range" focal length for a variety of deep-sky projects. (on a full frame camera)Wonderful lens for some portraiture applications, sporting events and candids at a party or event. The Sadr Region in Cygnus, including the Crescent Nebula by Eric Cauble. Not too heavy. I can only guarantee that the TSAPO65Q would work very well. Seems to me that with your gallery and website of images you should refrain from passing judgment on who is and isn't a photography master. Several functions may not work. (For Nikon users there's the new 105mm too.). My 24-70L needs to be stopped down to f5.6 to begin to match the sharpness of my 135L at f2.0 (the test shots were of the portrait of Andrew Jackson on a $20 bill). If you aren't completely set on the 135mm, the 200mm f/2.8L is a fantastic lens and i think its less expensive than the 135mm f/2L. Second of all, the incredible sharpness of the photo: I have owned many lenses, most of which I bought because they were supposed to have world-class sharpness, but the Samyang 135mm still stands out to me. The 5D's larger pixels also make chromatic aberration somewhat lower at most apertures. From the moment I reviewed the first sub-exposure on the display screen of my camera, I feel in love with the mid-range magnification of a 135mm lens. However, all the reviews were made by nature and sports photographers, and I would like to find out more about their performance in astrophotography. (purchased for $845), reviewed November 16th, 2005 Check out I almost bought one, but couldn't manage that focal length and DoF with moving subjects and manual focus. When the aperture is stopped down to 37mm using step-down filter rings, this lens produces incredibly tiny pinpoint star images from edge to edge. Bye KevinS, in my experience stopping down dramatically improves image quality in terms of chromatic aberration, coma and astigmatism. But that 10Mpix is more than enough to make a very good A3-A2 size print, but your technique needs to be very good as even slight misfocus is even more visible and the rendering faults as well. Ive been using kit lenses for the past year, favoring the Nikkor 50mm 2.8. At f/32, it's pretty soft, but less so than a lot of lenses at that aperture. Ive set the f-stop to F/2.8, to sharpen up the stars a bit. Sure, not all 135mm lenses are lightweightSigma's new 135mm F1.8 is rather heavy at 1130gbut if you look at the Samyang 135mm F2, which is pretty much flawless optically, it weighs only 830g. And yet this review is on front page of DPReview prompting me to go and buy this lens -- so surely it must be a professional , well grounded review, right? This lens is simply lighter, cheaper & faster (f/2.0 vs f/2.8). Still, what a time to be an enthusiast/photog, so many nice options. The EOS R6 II arrives in one of the most competitive parts of the market, facing off against some very capable competition. You just panned the subject for his photos and then turn around and needle thematic for looking into Ericsson. Definitely now on my to-buy list. Testing on an EOS-5D, we see that it's sharpness is almost as good wide open in the corners as on the EOS-20D with its smaller sensor. Family moments are precious and sometimes you want to capture that time spent with loved ones or friends in better quality than your phone can manage. The flat lens hood is great for taking flat frames after a night of astrophotography. The Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens makes an excellent indoor sports lens. Youll never have to worry about losing your position just by touching the lens, but you can always tape the position down to be sure. Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC LensCheck Price (Amazon): https://amzn.to/2MOUFeOExample Images: https://astrobackyard.com/rokinon-135mm-f2-astrophotography/I've . Wonderful image quality, lots of detail, contrasty, subject separation, fast and accurate AF, bright viewfinder, solid construction, unobtrusive in use, No weather sealing, makes all my other lenses look poor (even the 'L' zooms that, when I first got them, imagined could hardly be improved on). However, as I have no actual experience with the Baader filter, I would suggest that you consult other members on the particular APO - Baader filter combination you have in mind. Diffraction from the cheap EF-s kit zoom lens was uneven. I've owned nice SLR gear since 1976, and am normally a wide angle shooter this is my favorite lens, of all time. 135 mm. Beautiful portrait lens. The Bokeh includes as well all that is in the focus, but mainly talked about how it comes visible in out of focus areas. I use it to photograph highschool basketball in poor light. The first telephoto lens of choice, especially recommended for beginners, is the 135mm F2.5 SMC Pentax. It must not be confused with the much cheaper SMC Takumar, often deceptively advertised as SMC Pentax Takumar, which has the M42 camera thread, and is plagued with unextinguishable blue chromatic aberration. The lens hood is not petal-shaped, which is great news for those using this lens for astrophotography. Also, when used as recommended, and properly guided at full camera resolution, they are all comparable to a field-corrected APO, producing perfect images from edge to edge which can be easily cropped 25% with no evidence of aberrations. Sigma 105/2.8 DG EX Macro (very sharp at infinity) The first example is good to show that you can take photos of persons in front of an ugly background without completely ruining the shot (important for people shooting events), the last one is the only one I really like (because of the color) but you could shoot this with any lens with short MFD. Fit and finish are first-rate as well, with very smooth manual focus operation, and very fast autofocus on the camera. Does the bright star reflection bother you? For those of you that like to pixel-peep, have a look at the single image frame captured using the Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC at F/4. No more inside shooting with flash! Aperture ring. Sharp without being harsh. What I see is a photographer who should maybe instead stick to the kit lens, and learn composition first. (purchased for $800), reviewed March 15th, 2010 All content, design, and layout are Copyright 19982023 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. Fast focus, Super sharp, Well built, Awesome for low light. [emailprotected]. 2. Of my last 3500 shots only 62 were made with the 135 f/2. This makes me feel I shall take the Zeiss 85F1.8 off my A6000 or maybe NOT, it's just another hype article about "A" lens. 645 lenses such as the mamiya apo line and pentax edif can operate within these conditions without vignetting on apsc sensors. When stopped down to 37mm, F5.4, it is almost identical to the Takumar except that on highly enlarged images it shows a hint of coma in the distant corners. Zoom lenses are entirely unsuitable for astrophotography due to prominent aberrations of every kind. It disagrees completely with the definition that you give! I got mine for $60.00 on Craigslist but seen them on eBay for $100 and less all the time. Also, as creative as the wide-field 135mm focal length is, its not practical for smaller DSOs and most galaxies. enlarge. I'm enjoying the Sigma Art 135mm - it's notably sharper than the Canon (which I owned at the same time), and it's f/1.8 instead of f/2. Never before (nor after) have I seen a lens with this level of sharpness wide open. I bought my lens in mint condition for $350 from Japan, but I see that some retailers are asking significantly more. Is there a reason why a 135/2.8 or even 135/4 would provide significantly different images? This is huge for me, as it allows me to be much more nimble with getting the right composition and angle. I see that many commenters did not get what this lens can do. The flawless image quality is only half the story though. Your first serious portrait lens should be a modern stabilized 70-200 f/2.8. I dont mean to be rude, but I fail to see any photographic comparison or test to display the quality of this lens against others, concerning coma or anything else, except considerations on the manual focusing, its shape and ergonomic. While they provide a very large flat field we noticed some CA. The focuser adjustment ring on the Rokinon 135mm F/2 is excellent, but fine-tuning your critical focus on a bright star at F/2 will take some trial and error to get right. No rubber sealing against the camera body tend to give me the creeps when shooting in the wet. The 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC Lens for Canon EF Mount from Rokinon is a manual focus telephoto prime lens useful for portraiture and all medium telephoto applications. But for me, the reason to get this lens is the Bokeh and DOF control. This new, affordable wide zoom for L-mount is capable of some excellent landscapes. I had of course heard that this lens is supposed to be very sharp, but I had never before had such a full blown "wow" experience when reviewing the sharpness of a lens. The thing is, on my APS-C body the 100mm is challenging enough. See the full-size version on Astrobin. Unfortunately I haven't more the Canon lens. Begun in 1975, the Pentax K-mount legacy continues to this day. A Canon 70-200L IS II at 200mm at f2.8 has all the same characteristics of the Canon 135L. When I was on my way home after purchasing my first 135mm lens (the Samyang/Rokinon one) I took a few quick snapshots just to try out the lens. The full name of this lens is the Rokinon 135mm F/2 ED UMC, with "ED" standing for extra-low dispersion, and UMC referring to the "ultra multi-coated" optics. Amazing colours, contrast, bokeh, everything! If you own an EOS Camera - It's a no Brainer, Buy one The difference between modern and old telephoto lenses is probably similar to the difference between my APO and an old Jaegers 5in F5. Hi Trevor, ", I'd no problem with that. They just wanted to increase their joy from photography. I seems many people he are confused about the meaning of the word. Smooth but contrasty. As in all arts the client's likes influence the result up to a point. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a0721c0ca7d0974fd27b5d0ceb81918a" );document.getElementById("cfd2c22fe2").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Your email address will not be published. I therefore reduce the aperture at the front end of the lens (as an aperture stop) by screwing in a series of step-down rings into the filter thread. Colour and contrast is great. Orion nebula shot with Canon T3i and Rokinon 135mm @ F2.0 150 shots with dark bias and flats stacked and edited. Hey Trevor, great article! Now I have only the Nikon but I can try to take a photo of the same subject fully open (purchased for $900), reviewed April 15th, 2011 I already did some trials with the Samyang 12mm lens. Otherwise I might not achieve focus? Amazing for portraits, easily fast enough for indoor sports. It's just "girl" in front of blurriness.#2: Plants on a pond.It's okay. The 135mm Rokinon with the Canon Rebel seems like a pretty good setup. Explore the sky, try frame some targets and see what works well with your DSLR and lens combination. 30-35% diameter reduction is usually necessary on "good" lenses. The Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 includes a lens hood, lens pouch, front and rear lens caps, and a 1-year Rokinon manufacturer warranty. The image is a 90-second exposure at ISO 400 using a Canon EOS 60Da. In the past, Ive covered a number of different lenses, from the Sigma 24mm F/1.4 to the Canon EF 300mm F/4L. No telephoto lens can be used with cameras modified by the removal of the internal UV/IR cut filter and anti-aliasing filter. I recommend the author change the title of his article from "The Best Telephoto Lenses." to "Some Inexpensive Telephoto Lenses I Have Tested" The original title generates a claim and expectation in the reader that his article can't support that leads to reader frustration and just more questions; why didn't you test this one or do this etc. This is one of my all time favourites. best lens, blur, sharp-super, no CA, minimal shading. Since i am totally new in this field, i would like to start with astrophotography but using my existing camera (Fuji XT-30). Thanks! (purchased for $890), reviewed July 17th, 2006 Nice image, andysea. But If you want the "look" you get with a medium telephoto at f/2, hen all those negatives become irrelevant. For DPReview, it's also an opportunity for a good old-fashioned camera fight. The combination of a wide aperture and very little light lost in transmission makes very high shutter speeds possible. And because you can shoot between F/2 and F/4, plenty of light reaches the sensor in a relatively short exposure. A lot of lenses today are better than anything money could buy in 1980. At 135mm, you can get really creative about the object or objects you shoot and where you position them within the frame. A single, 90-second exposure using the Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC at F/4. I used this lens quite a bit years ago as my main working lens. I think youll find that this lens is behind some of the most amazing wide-field astrophotography images online! I should mention that I have only tested this full-frame lens using my astrophotography DSLRs, all of which are crop-sensor camera bodies. Nice article for beginners.It's all in the eyes of the beholder. Round one of polls are now open, pick your winners and share your voice. This lens is very sharp, corner to corner wide open. This is the EF-M series version. If You can afford it, buy it! Every different lens design has different "bokeh" even when the lenses are by specs same, like Canon 135mm f/2 vs Samyang 135mm f/2 are both same, but both render differently, even when both have same DOF. Typical L construction. This lens is one of canons finest lenses i have ever used. In fact, in my test shots, I noticed that the red channel was a little softer than green and blue. Now - THAT's a lens everyone should have ;). It's small, light, cheap and extremely wide but is it any good? Yes, each can produce different results (And that's why I keep and use several different lenses), but my point is that sharpness or bokeh are not the only factors for portraits -- sometimes it just comes down to convenience or price! But even better BOKEH is the SAL-135F2.8F4.5 STF (Smooth Trans Focus ) which has even better BOKEH, albeit a manual focus lens. Due to the weight, at times I didn't move my shooting position and just zoomed to a composition that worked. They create a beautiful, mesmerizing dreamscape in their photos, and their secret weapon, besides an impeccable sense for aesthetics, is the 135mm F2 lens. The lens came in a handsome box, with core specifications and a lens construction diagram printed on the side. don't get me wrong; this lens will take great photos, but the 'flatness' i was getting in my photos nearly had me give up 25 years of hobby photography. Lens hood - when I bought this lens years ago the included hood was rather cheap (perhaps Canon has updated the hood) by comparison with other hoods. Focus end stop. D8XX cameras, subject isolation and quality of bokeh.Zoom lenses can not hold a candle to such primes. Bokeh == Visual character of the lens optics to render light and color mixing together. Particular properties of modern 135/2 lenses are resolution with e.g. It is by far the fastest focusing, best bokeh, and lowest light lens you will ever find. But the Rokinon f/2 version fits into a different market. They're heavy, and expensive, but you can carry one lens instead of three, and can vary the compression and field of view to a significant degree - from nearly normal, to long portrait focal lengths. f/2! Pentax seems to have put more emphasis than others on keeping the resolution uniform all over the field. However, these APOs have a couple of drawbacks. (purchased for $970), reviewed March 17th, 2011 The Rokinon 14mm F/2.8 was the first lens I had ever used like this, and these aspects do not hinder the astrophotography experience whatsoever. Trully sharp accross whole frame from f2 on 5d. You are entitled to your opinions, and I respect that! I think they are an outstanding value for any wide-field astrophotographer, and are particularly suitable for newcomers. Flip on through what we found, and see how the lens performs in the real world in our sample gallery. That means that it doesnt require a robust equatorial telescope mount as a larger, heavier telephoto lens would. I used Canon's 135 f/2 for ten years. Simple as that! He loves photography, and runs a YouTube channel with tutorials, lens reviews and photography inspiration. Here's what I see from the photographs:#1: Woman in traffic. Stick to Andromeda, and skip the Whirlpool. One of the prime examples of such a design is the "nifty fifty"the 50mm F1.8 lens construction that many lens manufacturers provide. The image below was captured using a DSLR and 135mm lens on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount. The lens has 14 stops when turning the aperture. This is actually worse than just plain obsession with blur. There is no doubt that the 135L deserves it excellent reputation for image quality. Some reviewers have listed lack of IS as a "Con". Digital sensors are roughly 5 times as sharp as 400-speed film. Also type the lens you are interested in into the search window on Astrobin to see examples shot with that lens. Now, I have to admit that up to this point, it sounds a little too good to be true. Backwards compatible (film). I got this lens because of portraiture. In between interviews with executives of the major companies, Dale Baskin took to the show floor to bring you this report. I will say that at F/4 this lens is extremely sharp corner to corner when used on my 60Da. Read on to find out which you should be using and why! Great post; thanks for the detailed information. I think the bokeh won me over with the cat, as well as the fact that I like animals; the case for the duck was the same. Large focus ring. EF-mount only, this packs more megapixels, a bigger sensor, and a high max ISO. modest cost for "L" series, wonderful optics and fast speed, nitpicking, but not a circular aperature and no weather sealing. I thought I would miss shooting at 200mm, but 135mm is long enough for most portraits and gives a decent amount of compression. Then you should have tried the 180mm nikkor ED, the old one, which is the favorite tool of a lot of astrophotographers. If you want to preview the image field you can expect with a particular camera sensor and lens combination, Stellarium features a useful tool. Second night out with mine right now and I am here in the comments looking for the part number or link! But will live with it as it provides good protection of the front element. The image shown below covers 4.96 x 5.98 degrees in the constellation Cassiopeia. The 200f2.8 L is excellent - I am using it right now. The original poster is right that it was a compromise though and stopping down was necessary for critical sharpness and a better image. Dear Trevor, The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex by Eric Cauble using the Samyang 135mm F/2 lens. The rest are relatively uncreative, and just seem lame to me. It actually makes my eyes water as I try to resolve how bad the blurriness is.