A nice fast short telephoto

Up until I acquired this lens 4 weeks ago, my 85mm f1.8 was the best lens I had (ref: http://www.epinions.com/content_109525700228). Now?? I am not so sure. The 135mm f2.0 is a very nice lens.

The lens has a true Ring Type USM motor so focusing is fast, quiet and (most importantly) always has full time manual focus. Its fast f2.0 aperture allows for shooting in low light conditions while still maintaining a reasonable shutter speed. Unfortunately, this lens does not have IS (Image Stabilization), so you really need to maintain shutter speeds above 1/125 second (1/250 preferred) to get good sharp results. The lens also provides a focus limiter to help the camera avoid hunting when performing AF operations.

Where this lens shines, however, is the image quality. It is simply outstanding. The designers have found a great balance between sharpness and contrast allowing this lens to provide very good results edge to edge even when shooting at f2.0. As you close down to f8.0 to f11, the sharpness of this lens goes out of the roof while still maintaining great contrast.

When shooting wide open, this lens provides very pleasant "bokeh" (Out Of Focus areas. For more info See: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-04-04-04.shtml ) with no hot spots or asymmetric highlights.

Sample Images:
Dog: http://www.pbase.com/image/31306401 (An ISO 4000 shot)
Landscape: http://www.pbase.com/image/31033166
Wildlife: http://www.pbase.com/snoyes/image/35955380