Canon EF 135mm f/2 L USM

52 Comments By Rick Nunn

Before we start let me warn you this isn’t going to be an unbiased review, I will not be being objective, I am here to declare my love for this lens.

Self

It took some doing to convince myself to part with the amount of cash that an L series lens costs. I was eyeing up the 100mm f/2 USM (not the f/2.8 macro) and I probably would have been happy with that lens if I hadn’t tried out some L series glass in LCE. After that I knew I wouldn’t be settling for anything less.

Kym Through The 135mm F2.0 L

I am SO glad I did make that jump, the Canon EF 135mm f/2 USM is an exceptionally sharp lens, I thought my 50mm f/1.4 USM was sharp, but it is blown away by this. Even wide open at F/2 it just blows my mind with the level of detail it picks up and the depth of field gets silly small. I took the shot below at f/4 and uploaded the full size image to show off the detail picked up, you should definatly check out the face area, you can see the texture in the paint, every speck of dust, all of it! Take note that this image is 2922px x 4386px and about 2mb eek, still go look at it.

Gel'd Fortress

This lens suites my style of shooting so well, if you have ever ventured onto my flickr you’ll have seen low DOF portraits with a healthy helping of bokeh, this lens is already helping me take that to the next level. I’ve only had it week but it has quite possibly ruined me for all other lenses. Telephoto Primes Rock My Socks!

Messy Hair Is Good

52 Comments By Rick Nunn Tagged — , , , Category — Photography, Review

Comments

Kym Ellis

The lens wins in a hawt contest for sure, that thing is sexyyyy!

It produces the most amazing bokeh, you are going to take some killer shots with her for sure, including this one (even though it has got my face in it).

Good work fuckface!

Fuzzy_Orange

The sharpness of that lens is insane

Comparing this to your old shots is like suddenly getting a high def TV

Beautiful shot – and im massively jealous of the lens mate :)

Toby Howarth

Wow I almost cut my eyes that thing is sharp !

Awesome shot mate, can’t wait to see the other photos you take with it !

Ashley Baxter

WOW. I’m bokehed oot mah nut (okay, enough Scottish). It doesn’t look over-processed to me. In fact, it looks really natural. Giez me yer lens!

Rick Nunn

Thanks everyone! This lens makes my 50mm 1.4 USM look soft :( So now I need the 50mm 1.2 L right? Someone buy it for me!

Branden these are them, I got them from ebay. They are amazing.

samwilson.

this is nice rick! what is it like shooting at such a long focal length? do you have to change your lighting setup at all? further away from kym? i bet f2 at that length the dof is amazingggg on anything!

Rick Nunn

Yeah it takes some getting used to but I love it. It makes a real difference with the background.

Lighting stays more or less the same really.

kylesteed

They make a 50mm 1.2? Damn that’s crazy, and crazy expensive. To bad it’s all manual focus though. Anyways, the shot is great. I don’t see a problem with any over processing. The bokeh is excellent.

Kym Ellis

Woah that is badass. Definitely worth sharing.
I mean, I’d never put my face on Flickr full size!!!
Did I ever mention I think you are hawt? I think I might have, but here goes, Rick, you are hawt ^___^

Toby Howarth

It certainly is one hell of a shot !

And because of you and miss Ellis I really want a canon 500D now damn you both !

Rick Nunn

Thanks everyone.

Matt, yep — it is now my profile photo everywhere. :)

Ash, Yep. I need every lens to be L now!

MrQwest

Holy fuckerino, that detail is immense! Another quality snap from yourself Rick & you’re right, you get what you pay for regarding that 135mm lens!

@mrqwest

Kym Ellis

My mind has melted. LOOK AT THE DETAIL ON HIS NOSE!
And the dof is insane, ƒ4? Say whaaat.

Really like the pink in the background too!
I’m a fan Rick, I’m a fan.

Rick Nunn

Thanks peoples.

MrQuest! Snap?! I should kill you! I’m not sure any photo that takes longer to set up than it does to shoot can be called a snap :P

Toby Howarth

Very nice show mate the DOF is insane its crazy ! does the world even exist behind your subjects !

The gels look good and I look forward to seeing what you have planned for some outside shots !

Rick Nunn

Ha, I actually shot this at F/4 I could have dropped it down to F/2 and really done some damage but I wanted enough DOF to get the whole head in focus. :)

Adam

I still can’t get over the pure image quality of this lens.

Will Rick now be switching everything to L primes?

Rick

I wish dude, but they are not cheap. I’d love the 35mm f/1.4 L but it’s about £1200! Not I wont be picking that up anytime soon. Next for me is a new bag, I upgraded to one that I thought was HUGE about 5 months ago, now it’s way to small for all my kit. :( I need one roughly the size of a house.

Adam

Yea true, they aren’t cheap. You looked at any of the f-stop bags? Some of them seem to be huge, they look awesome too!

Rick

Chris, don’t be silly. No one likes my face!

Adam, I hadn’t heard of them but I’m not into the style. At the moment I’m looking at some of the big Crumpler bags. I’m gunna go to the store and check them out in a couple of weeks, you can’t buy a backpack with out checking it out first!

Andy

Crumpler Muffin Full Photo bag is awesome dude, I’ve got one and its massive.

Dunno if it’ll be big enough for all the gear you got though, you can fit a 15″ lappy in it too. Theres enough space for about 5 lenses, 1 flash, body and some other smaller lenses (50mm’s).

Just thought I’d drop that by. I can wack up some pictures on flickr if you want cause I know crumpler have no idea how to describe their products.

Andy

Rick

The Muffin is one of the ones I have been looking at, picks would be awesome dude. Thanks.

Guido

Hey Rick,

Would you say you love the bokeh of the 135mm f/2 over your 50mm f/1.4? What are the differences in your opinion? (I know, I’m a Nikon boy and your comparisons won’t be accurate to my lenses, but still…)

Guido

Rick

Guido, there is no comparison, the bokeh is so much more dramatic from the 135mm, it brings the background much closer, it’s much smoother, makes the blobs of light much bigger and the quality of images through the 135 the lens is hugely better, I guess thats why it’s 4 times the price of the 50mm.

@Mitchy79

Just looking through your blog posts and found this older post. The quality of this lense is really amazing!
I bought my first DSLR in April this year and got a 50mm f/1.8 in July. Compared to my kit lense the sharpness of this cheap 50mm is such a big difference. But the quality of your 135mm is just amazing!
Anyway: at this moment I love my 50mm (maybe until I can afford a new love) ;)

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