Although the Canon EF 135mm f2 L USM lens has completely automatic focusing capabilities, you can still take advantage of its manual focus function, even while the camera is in AF mode. The two UD glass elements help to correct residual chromatic aberrations, giving your images outstanding sharpness and color. This lens is great for shooting under low-light situations such as indoor sporting events or portraits where you want a blurred background. The EF 135mm f2 L USM lens is compatible with extender 1.4x and 2x; these can increase your camera's focal length to 189mm f2.8 with extender 1.4x or 270mm f4 with extender 2x while still using the AF function.
1 My Favorite Lense
This is my all time favorite lense. Eat your hearts out Nikon, Olympus & Pentex, because this baby alone is reason enough to go with Canon. I cannot begin to tell you how sharp this "L" lense is. Words fail me. On second thought, no they don't. Use this lense and you'll wind up with photos shaper than an lightening blade, clearer than a ghost's eyes, crisper than a new dawn on an uncharted island.
I shot the portrait on two book covers with this lense. Did the wedding photos for my best friend's wedding and every one turned out better than the ones they paid the wedding pro hundreds of dollars to do. I'm documenting the growth of my child with this lense and I've caught hundred's of my girl's smiles with it and yes, sometimes even a tear or two.
You cannot go wrong with a Canon "L" lense. They are the tops, they really are.
Jack Priest, Sailor Home from the Sea
2 One of the best Canon lens for about $1000
I believe this is one of the best lens for about $1000. Forget about zoom lenses even if they are L. This lens is far better than 70-200L in my opinion. It is very sharp at f2 and even more sharp at f2.5. With zoom lenses you have to set to f/5.6 for better result and f/8 to match this lens. It is very well built but not excessive heavy, come with hood and bag, but unfortunately, Canon have decided to remove the hard cases for all the L lenses.
Combined with a Tamron 1.4X teleconverter this lens provide very good optical quality on par with any zoom L lenses at 189mm focal length. Yes I know I lost the convenience of a 70-200 zoom lens. But I am really happy that I decide to change the plan of buying a 70-200IS to 135/2L+1.4X. This not only saves me the money but also let me to get better pictures, especially at wide open. Better portrait lenses, like 200/1.8 and 300/2.8, would cost several thousands of dollars. Trust me, once you play with primes, you will not like zoom anymore.
I am also using a 24-70L to shoot my small kid. After using this lens, I don't like it anymore and thinking about change to primes someday, the only reason preventing me doing that is the 1.6X crop factor of digital camera. A 35mm/1.4L will become 56mm which is really not good.
Order from Amazon with free shipping even though it says not in stock. They shipped mine in 2 days and this happened before even though item stated "in stock soon".
Pros:
Very sharp at f2 and super sharp start from f2.5.
Very fast lens with f/2
Very good bokeh (background blurring).
Overall extremely good picture quality with good contrast/color.
Smaller size, less weight and black color compare to those white 70-200s.
It is a L lens: best build quality, fast/quiet ring USM AF with FTM.
Cons:
No hard case.
No inexpensive.
Effective focal length is 216mm on 10D/20D/Rebel/300D which is a little difficult to use for portrait.
3 Sharpest Prime Lens I have ever owned.
This lens is the best in its class. I wish every lens I had was this sharp. This thing is top notch.
