A
asabet
Guest
I sort of have a thing for fast 135mm lenses as weird as that may sound. I've enjoyed using the Vivitar Series 1 135mm f/2.3 on my OM-2n, and the only thing keeping me from the Canon 135L and Nikon 135 DC is the price tag. I just don't shoot telephoto often enough to spend a lot of money on this length. When I found an inexpensive copy of the 135/2 AIS, I jumped on it. It's a pretty sweet lens. Sharp wide open. Very little CA. I really like the bokeh characteristics, which are for the most part neutral with some "swirliness" presumably due to optical vignetting of the rear element. 9 blades, so OOF points stay round. Building, handling, and focus ring action are excellent. The one negative I'm seeing is susceptibility to flare, and the built-in hood is not very effective.
A few examples from today (all taken with lens wide open):
Gettin' swirly with it:
Below you can see the flare causing contrast washout in the bottom left part of the picture. It was a pretty harsh test, shooting into the sun.
Eventually I'm going to have to spring for the AF DC version .
A few examples from today (all taken with lens wide open):
Gettin' swirly with it:
Below you can see the flare causing contrast washout in the bottom left part of the picture. It was a pretty harsh test, shooting into the sun.
Eventually I'm going to have to spring for the AF DC version .