SAL135F18Z
4.8
5
17
18
De facto Standard?
Ok, just so you know I?m one picky bas?! Having sold my Leica gear including my Leica super-primes I know a thing or two about quality glass. When I decided to buy the A900 and this wonderful lens I knew I was buying the very best combo for portraits. I can say without any hesitation this is the pinnacle of the lot.
Some will list the size and weight as a ?con? but that?s like saying that gold is too heavy for the shelf in your safe. To be fast, it has to have a large enough surface area to gather light. To produce quality with precision it takes time and raw materials. Please, if you want to list a ?con? then try and come up with something more meaningful.
Personally, I don?t like the fit-up between the lens hood and the lens body. Love the metal hood but the connection is flaky (like all Zeiss lenses) as the hood falls off easily during typical street use.
In the end it?s an excellent choice for low-light venues or stunning portraits. It will increase in value if you ever decide to sell it.
September 2, 2012
Zeiss is the Best
Listen, what makes a lens great? Simple, optic quality that can produce fantastic photos. I'm so tired of people saying dumb things like" It's heavy", It's not a ssm lens", or "it uses 77mm filters".
It is heavy, it's one of the best designed and best built lens on the market. It produces some of the best bokeh you can imagine. Your main subject is sharp, even wide open.
So if you want a lens of legendary quality and preformace, this is it. If you want a lens that produces sharp images with perfect contrast and color. This is it.
Could SSM, weather sealing and even a tripod collar be nice. Sure it would, but all that stuff won't make it a betterr preforming lens, and that's what counts
I've owned the Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 "L" lens and the Nikon 135mm f/2 DC lens. This is better than both of those
January 25, 2009
A great one!
I am using this lens on a55V. This lens generates incurably sharp images and very quiet and fast AF. However, it has a typical problem for a large diameter lens, CA. If it is OK condition, CA can be controlled but under high contrast very bright conditions, it is clearly visible on the images (please see my butterfly pic).
Other than this, it is a great lens. Even this is 135mm focal length, since minimum focus distance is 72cm, my other macro lenses has been replaced by this one. Manual focusing is very smooth but there is a bit of initial "play".
Again, this is a great lens if you can carry it.
July 3, 2012
The Lens to Get
I own most of the best Sony lenses now, including the Zeiss 85mm 1.4, the 70-400G and the Zeiss 24-70, which are all outstanding (see my reviews on this site), but THIS is the lens you should save for first for outdoor portraiture. I find the focal length to be more useful than the 85mm for outside, as long as there's plenty of room to maneuver. The telephoto compression opens all sorts of creative possibilities, while the long focal length makes background blur very easy. And the blur (or bokeh) is very, very smooth. The sharpness is outstanding, with a sweet spot around f/8, but at both extremes, images still look terrific. This lens feels tough, right down to the metal hood. Its weight is hefty but fine, and coupled with my a77, feels very well balanced. The only downside is we're still using a screw drive to focus, which is noisy and not as fast as SSM. Sony dropped the ball on that one, but it does not affect image quality and has only a minor effect on functionality. If I were starting my lens purchasing adventure over again, I would get this lens as my #1 for shooting people outdoors.
March 27, 2012
