It just doesn't get any better than this! You're right, but a headshot is exactly where I want to see all those megapixels I bought put to use! Also type the lens you are interested in into the search window on Astrobin to see examples shot with that lens. It could really use an update to its coatings. SharpStar Askar ACL200 200-mm f/4 astrographic telephoto lens, Astrotrac 360 tracking platform first impression, FIELD TEST: CARL ZEISS APOCHROMATIC & SHARPEST (CZAS) BINOVIEWER, Deus_Ex_Mamiya and Michael Covington like this. Then you should have tried the 180mm nikkor ED, the old one, which is the favorite tool of a lot of astrophotographers. http://www.radiantlite.com/2009/01/canon-135mm-f2l-usm-mini-review.html I enjoied the use of this lens many years before the DSLR. Read on to find out which you should be using and why! 645 lenses such as the mamiya apo line and pentax edif can operate within these conditions without vignetting on apsc sensors. Over the years, Ive shot deep-sky targets at varying focal lengths from 50mm to over 1000mm. One of the prime examples of such a design is the "nifty fifty"the 50mm F1.8 lens construction that many lens manufacturers provide. One very popular lens for bokeh fiends is the Canon 85mm F1.2it can produce extremely creamy out of focus backgrounds. That is why when SLRs came along the 200mm became the big seller and the 135 was largely forgotten. +1 for the 135mm lens. However, when my Canon "L" lenses are used at f8 they are all very sharp and the 135L does not blow the others away. Another drawback is the focal length. if you really want to get the best gym photos that can be taken, use it and enjoy what you will see. Still, what a time to be an enthusiast/photog, so many nice options. Your first serious portrait lens should be a modern stabilized 70-200 f/2.8. Excellent color and saturation, a virtually perfect lens. Several functions may not work. Otherwise, on FF body this lens is wonderful. One of Canon's best lenses for a reasonable price. You won't get the excessive background blurr -- which for the beginning photographer may actually be a good thing. But you couldn't have because you don't know even as much as this guy. This is great news if you like to photograph small things up close. Another lens to consider at this focal length (at maximum zoom) is the Rokinon 135mm F/2. If you have a more appropriate portrait lens like an 85, 90 or 100, the 135 does not bring you very much. I don't know about other photographers but I do not have many applications for this focal length. And now important part: This lens can be stopped down if desired effect is not required and no, with 85/1.8 you will never get this effect. (purchased for $1,000), reviewed February 4th, 2010 The Japanese word "bokeh" can be translated into English as "blur". For my purposes, this is a spectacular lens. Here are our top picks for the canon lenses for astrophotography. Prime means that this lens is fixed at 135mm, it is not a zoom lens that allows for focal length adjustments. Based on my handful of experiences with this lens in the backyard, I have found these traits to hold true. You don't have to worry about shopping for a better lens anymore. Of course, when it comes to astrophotography, this can create some challenges as well. This is one of my all time favourites. You will get perfectly round star images if you use an aperture stop in front of the lens made of a series of filter thread step-down rings. 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. The lenses I selected are all affordable prime lenses, easily available on the second-hand market, and adaptable to the EOS system. When stopped down to 37mm, at F5.4, it also produces perfect, small and round star images across the entire field. These lenses go about as close as you could get without a dedicated macro lens. The main problem with the old lenses is spherical aberration and colour error, especially pronounced on digital sensors. Touching the telescope, even ever so slightly, will introduce vibrations which will ruin the photograph. Sharp but smooth at the same time. The lenses I listed are certainly not the ONLY exceptional lenses made over the years. My canon is clear modded and I use a an Astronomik EOS-clip L filter to block the uv and ir. The Rokinon 135mm F/2 ED UMC. Over the last ten to fifteen years excellent apochromatic telescopes have become available for visual use and photography. If you buy a nifty fifty or a 100mm macro lens you simply cannot go wrongyou will get a great and handy lens for your money, with great image quality. (purchased for $800), reviewed March 15th, 2010 But you are talking more than 2x crop (cut half by width and height) and that leaves you to twice smaller resolution == quarter of the Mpix count.So now your 42Mpix A7rII is only a 10.5Mpix. 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. All content, design, and layout are Copyright 19982023 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. I have the Sony SaL 135F1.8 Zeiss Lens and think that is excellent. It requires the Contax-EOS adapter for attachment to the camera. reviewed August 2nd, 2017 Typical L construction. I've been using a vintage FD 135/3.5 on my A7R IV as a compact tele option, often alongside a tiny Samyang 75/1.8. Of course headline central sharpness is great, that is what grabs headlines, always shot at f2: any 135mm lens is going to give similar results. Nevertheless, it performs excellently on most star fields, and is too cheap not to acquire. Perhaps this impression of unreal sharpness is strengthened by the contrast to the extremely creamy bokeh you typically get in the same photo. (purchased for $899), reviewed December 9th, 2006 I also tested 200 f/2.8 tele and it is one of the most perfect lens in existence, as well as the 135. The author's recipe for a good photo is:1) Just shoot blindly, with no regard to what's in the frame, because the lens will blur away everything on the background.2) If (1) does not work, just head on to https://www.bhphotovideo.com, download a jpg of the lens you were using, and photoshop it on top of the taillaits of the passig car that didn't get blurred out enough.3?) Could use a few updates. Your images have a chance at remaining sharper once critical focus has been achieved, but now you have lost the extra light-gathering power you wanted. With todays huge variety of digital sensors, each with their own characteristics, in-camera and post-processing etc., much depends on the given combination of your photo gear to create a certain effect. The one and only 300mm lens I tested is the Zeiss Tele-Tessar 300mm F4. Using the lens's diaphragm interferes with the light path and results in diffraction spikes which I find unattractive. The 70-200 f2.8 L2 and he 400f5.6 will however set you back way more than $1.100. Just plain black plastic (no interior felt as in newer lens hoods). With a rounded 9-blade diaphragm, shallow depth of field imaging will be rendered with pleasing out-of-focus highlights. Adam007,"a headshot is exactly where I want to see all those megapixels"No thanks. Neutral yet very nice colours. The best 200mm lens is precisely the older 200mm F4 SMC Takumar, which comes with the M42 camera thread, and requires the M42-EOS adapter. Do I wish it were manufactured with metal? Im so new to all of this so thank you for your insightful and educational posts. sigh, overdone bokeh and centre sharpness bear little relevance to the art of this hobby. If you have the 1.8 version, way to go. Do you expect me to gawk? 24/28mm, 50mm, 100mm, 200mm. Perfect lens on the same level as CZ! Most small refracting telescopes start in the 300 to 400 mm focal length range, and even these are classed as widefield telescopes. the lens is built strong, very strong. The lens came in a handsome box, with core specifications and a lens construction diagram printed on the side. 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 closest Ive been to the 135mm range is 105mm on my Canon 24-105 zoom. Canon 135 mm is really E X T R A O R D I N A R Y lens. In an effort to save money, Id like to start using a Canon 80D that we already own to start picking targets and imaging. KevinS, in my experience stopping down dramatically improves image quality in terms of chromatic aberration, coma and astigmatism. Interesting. Crazy fast AF! (purchased for $1,625), reviewed January 27th, 2010 Here's what I see from the photographs:#1: Woman in traffic. Chromatic aberration is almost eliminated in narrowband, so lenses with that problem may be fine performers. Bokeh == Visual character of the lens optics to render light and color mixing together. DPReview March Madness, round one - vote! He's better than I am on BS, I got to give him that. In the right hands this lens really does have "magic pixie dust", as a friend once described. The rest are relatively uncreative, and just seem lame to me. AF ring feels loose compared to my other L lenses. If you want the best possible image quality, and you must have autofocus, and you don't care if it is a bit heavy (maybe you need it for studio use), buy the Sigma. This lens flares easily and the flare can be especially ugly if a sun or flash are in the frame. 2 Dielectric Diagonals. Super sharp from f2. Some people may disagree with the vignetting being a good thing or not, but thats a matter of taste I guess. Preaching to the choir! Available Monday. This is huge for me, as it allows me to be much more nimble with getting the right composition and angle. The thing is, on my APS-C body the 100mm is challenging enough. (purchased for $899), reviewed March 19th, 2012 This lens is one of canons finest lenses i have ever used. Agreed. Manually focusing a lens for astrophotography is nothing new, but the manual aperture ring adjustments may feel a little strange at first. You may need to refocus your subject as the temperature changes throughout the night. I do not like this. Canon EF 135mm f/2 L USM (72mm filters, 0.9m/3' close-focus, 25.0 oz./708g, about $1,035.) With weather sealing this would be a 10. All of them are extremely sharp and produce mouth-watering bokeh, and all of them are reasonably priced for what you get.". . The OP admits he limited experience with lenses other than what he has. And it's not the one problem from my L lenses very sad =(, My favourite lens, hands down. These capable cameras should be solid and well-built, have both the speed and focus to capture fast action and offer professional-level image quality. An h-alpha filter would still be useful for your D500, but much more so if it were modified! It allows to push your main subject matter into abstraction wide open and get very detailed images stopped down. Prime lenses are typically lighter as they do not need the additional glass and mechanics required to zoom at varying magnifications. 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. Got it! 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. The North America Nebula captured using the 135mm lens with a clip-in Ha filter. But I hardly used it in the 30+ years. Image quality is great, it is tack-sharp wide-open even though for partraiture, a little bit of softness is needed. I bought this lens after reading your great review for my Nikon D5300. Better than nothing I guess, would depend on how much it raises the price. But in the rush to make hybrids why are aren't we giving video shooters the tools they need? It actually makes my eyes water as I try to resolve how bad the blurriness 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. There is no agreement about what Bokeh means. 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. In this post, Ill share my results using an affordable prime telephoto lens for astrophotography, the Rokinon 135mm F/2.0 ED UMC. How's that for an endorsement? Heh, it's amazing how far Samyang has come since this article (I'm loving their 45 & 75 f1.8), and kinda amusing that they ended up delivering exactly what you asked for Kinda reminds me of that article by Roger Cicala about how long lens development takes. Stage photography is another good use for the 135 L. This lens provides all of these requirements. I do not think telephoto lenses would be suitable for use with your modified camera. Exposure uniformity (vignetting) is also really excellent, reaching a maximum of 1/4 EV (on a camera with an APS-C size sensor) at f/2, and dropping to well under 1/10 EV at f/2.8 and above. But like a glitch in the matrix, an anomaly that shouldn't exist, you can get the Samyang/Rokinon 135mm for as little as $430 brand new. I think prime users get too used to the idea of bokeh as the only answer. Everyone assumes their definition is the "true" one. The diameter of the lens is 77mm, with a non-rotating filter mount on the objective lens. It would not surprise me if modern lenses were useable at full aperture. Proper composition, light and retouching are much prefferable to crazy gooey bokeh. Over the years, I have tried more than two dozen telephoto lenses, until I finally found three or four perfect solutions. Astrophotography is one of the ultimate tests of lens quality, as long exposure photography of deep-sky objects in space can highlight issues that are hidden during daytime photography. My tests on it are described on http://pikespeakphoto.com/tests/canonlens135.html, i have never been a prime lens fan, just seems to leave you feeling trapped in a single dimension. By the way, I still enjoy using my very sharp Sears 135mm, PKA mount lens. It is good to know that the 200/4 SMC Takumar is good. As you'd expect though, distortion and light falloff are both higher with a full-frame image circle, but perhaps not as much as you'd normally expect. The optical design includes one extra-low dispersion (ED) lens element to control chromatic aberration, and ultra multi-coatings (UMC) to both improve light transmission and reduce flare. Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8. USM works so quickly and accurately, it puts my 24-70/f2.8L to shame. I mount it on my APS-C camera and the focal length literally becomes 216 mm, which is too tight. I use it to photograph highschool basketball in poor light. Not only does it let you travel light, but impressive wide field projects are often more successful when captured under a dark sky. (purchased for $700), reviewed June 13th, 2009 This way you get both lenses with only one! Besides lack of IS, the only major issue I have with this lens is flare. Add To Cart. The 135mm f2 is by all accounts one of their better and more reliable lenses however I believe the chance of a defective lens is lower with the Canon. I own a 135 since the film days (because you "had to have one" and could not afford much else), still have the zeiss Jena f3.5 M42 and even jumped for the zeiss f2.8 for my yashica when they were sold for next to nothing. I cant decide whether to clean it up in processing or let it be. I have taken some of the coolest photos with this lens on a canon mark III which shoots ten frames per second. Oh and it's stabilised. 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. I hear great things about the Canon 200/2.8 L but do not have one. Built quality is wonderful, focus ring is well-damped. Now we have to read this kind of ignorant misinformation on DPR articles. Because it manage to do so. The Canon is about as sharp as the Samyang, but it has some very slight chromatic aberration. Overall, the lens feels very solid and well constructed. Its fast f/2.0 maximum aperture is effective in low light and enables shallow depth of field control. 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. if you compare images taken with this lens to those from a 105mm f1.8 ais or a cosina 125mm and you'll see what i mean. I love this lens, The Sharpest Lens available for Eos cameras IMO And they like circles (no ellipses or polygons) and smooth colour (no hard edges, no onion rings). This lens has a long focus adjustment ring, with great tension. You can also find him as @mwroll on Instagram and 500px. I disagree. I bought my lens in mint condition for $350 from Japan, but I see that some retailers are asking significantly more. You just panned the subject for his photos and then turn around and needle thematic for looking into Ericsson. Also Nikon DC 135mm f/2 is a great lens, a little better than 135mm Canon From far to near, the AF is instantaneous. 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. The following image was captured by Eric Cauble using the Samyang branded version of this lens. My questions, for deep sky pics, should I get the 135mm lens or the RedCat 51 APO 250mm f/4.9 which you mentioned here as well? Super Sharp.Super Fast AF. (on a full frame camera)Wonderful lens for some portraiture applications, sporting events and candids at a party or event. I almost bought one, but couldn't manage that focal length and DoF with moving subjects and manual focus. Do you have a link to Yuri's photo stream? If anything the argument in favor of even smaller and lighter 85/1.4s (like the 600g Sigma DN) is stronger than ever, and I say that as someone that loves shooting at 135-150mm. I have only owned my 135mm for less then a year, but already it is one of my top three most used and most fun lenses. 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. To prevent damage to the lens finish, apply nylon acorn nuts (or cap nuts) to the tips of the retaining ring's three alignment screws. http://www.astrovale-f-2/index.html, Hi Lord_Vader, My first photo of the night sky is of Comet NEOWISE, however I know its not the best photo I could capture. Not heavy like the white tele-zooms. Not too heavy. Include the Carl Zeiss in your research though, it might be an interesting lens for you, even if it is a bit pricey for what you get. Excellent build quality, fast auto focus, and its fast. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality. A Bargain, very competively priced $399 00. Whereas quality apochromats can be corrected with broad band filters, such as the Astronomik UV/IR cut filter or the CLS-CCD filter, telephoto lenses can not. Large hood. No, Mr. 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. Beautiful portrait lens. There have been a lot of Tele-Tessars over the years. Light falloff (vignetting) gets pretty high (0.73 EV wide open, but drops to 0.3 EV at f/2.8, and only 0.17 EV at f/4. To me it is a dead spot between 85 and 200. This article was originally published on Micael's blog, and is being republished in full with express permission. It's just "girl" in front of blurriness.#2: Plants on a pond.It's okay. But I would argue that a 135mm F2 lens produces even greater bokeh, thanks to the long focal length that compresses the background far more than the 85mm lens. 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? Since Eric was so generous to share his images with me, I had to include his photo of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex as well. What you need to know is the author is a hobbyist and hands his images over to px500, the bottom of the barrel so of course he is impressed, he doesnt use top flight gear day in, day out to earn his pay. Of the 150 images I considered fit to publish, only 4 were made with the 135. When you buy a lens with fantastic sharpness and image quality at all apertures, you typically expect it to cost $1,200 on up. And in their task to get that blurry background, they most often throw their main subject out of focus and/or to focus for anything else in the photograph that would make it, and end results are just "gear porn". Stuff I used to take the photos. Well, if you consider downloading a lens image from https://www.bhphotovideo.com, and photoshop it on top of my photos to cover mistakes, and demonstrate sharpness of a lens with a jpeg that is way oversharpened; if you call knowledge that "the long focal length compresses the background" , If you call blurr a bokeh just because it sounds better, and so on 1000 words would not be enough to point out what a mess this review is Then you are right, I absolutely do not know as much as he does. Although your target audience is beginning DSLR imagers, much of your advice also applies to using lenses with CCD cameras. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbrigham/284303834/. Juksu, your point is well taken. Really like the large focusing ring. @ Juksu - you're pathologically clueless. Image quality, weight and value for money. (purchased for $970), reviewed March 17th, 2011 Canon EOS 60Da with the Rokinon 135mm F/2 lens. Great looking lens, if you ever saw it from the front. This criticism refers to rare cases when your main subject matter is flat and completely inside the limited DOF range while the rest of the image is outside. The few occasions I use a 135 FL usually are landscape shots (where I have no use for f2) and childrens playing (where I need zoom and fast af). The Rokinon 135mm F/2 ED UMC lens. Try to have eyes and nose / lips all in focus. Because of some residual chromatic aberration even with the aperture stop, the best focus lies not where the star image is the smallest, but rather just slightly away from infinity, at the point where the star image barely begins to enlarge. Very sharp even at f2, build quality, price, weight, autofocus is fast, bokeh, No IS, flare, autofocus isn't quite as consistent as some newer lenses, focus speed, image quality, predictability, Image quality, build like a tank, focus ring, weight. Together they still weight less than any modern 135mm :>. I love the lens for my modified Sony a6000! here some information (sorry only in italian) http://www.astrovale-usm/index.html Manual focus on wide angle lens, for landscapes, ok, if you have a reliable manual focus system, which Samyang, at least in my mount, does not have. http://www.idyll.com/135. I am a complete amateur at photography in general and this is all new to me so thank you for all the information and videos. BTW, the 300-mm Tele-Tessar you describe -- what camera was it made for? If you can tolerate vignetting, there are many normal 35mm lenses that are great wide open. This allows for less aggressive camera settings for night photography such as using a lower ISO setting and shorter exposure. 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? I was expecting a lot more of an article that says "the best telephoto lenses for astrophotography". With the 135 I imagine I'd have to get up on the roof. As in all arts the client's likes influence the result up to a point. Also, I used to have a Nikon 180/2.8 ED IF AF and 300/4 ED IF AF. Star parties or dark sky excursions are another great time to use a camera lens in place of the telescope. I can tell you its a great performer for astro use. You currently have javascript disabled. Holiday Savings $50 . How good this lens overall and how sharp and color-free? The reason the 135mm lens was that it was the longest lens that would focus with a Leica rangefinder. The extremes are 2 and 22. A coupe of stage shows, one very recent, and a random collection using this lens exclusively I got this lens because of portraiture. At a local amateur soccer game using the 135 f/2 the action was almost always too close, or too far away. Amazing for portraits, easily fast enough for indoor sports. Check out some of the photos he took. AF is accurate and very fast. About 3 hours of exposures split between Narrowband, Broadband and short exposure shots to make an HDR image. I have found myself shooting wide open almost all the time. In the middle of the OM System lineup, the OM-5 promises yesterday's top-tier performance in a lighter, more compact body. http://www.idyll.com/laney2014 I've tested some of the old Pentax 6x7 lenses with a friend. Hi Thomas As far as I know, the Nikon D500 is not modified for astrophotography out of the box (it includes a built in IR cut filter that blocks much of the 656nm wavelength). for sample photos and video tour, This is simply the best Canon prime lens that I have tested. When attached to a DSLR camera with a full frame sensor, the lens offers a massive 15.5 x 10.6 field of view, or 18.8 across the diagonal. 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. At the other end of the aperture range though, the 5D's larger pixels actually help matters, as the softening starts later (it's very sharp even at f/16), and is noticeably lower at f/32. Valerio, Electronically Assisted Astronomy (No Post-Processing), Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights, DSLR, Mirrorless & General-Purpose Digital Camera DSO Imaging, This is not recommended for shared computers, Back to DSLR, Mirrorless & General-Purpose Digital Camera DSO Imaging, Buckeyestargazer 2022 in review and New Products. Photography is full of fuzzy concepts. I also find the other photos not very good. Another thing that makes people go "wow" over the 135mm F2 lens design is the bokeh, which can be so creamy that distant backgrounds almost render as gradients.

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