Sony 135mm f/2.8 [T4.5] STF

Awesomely Unique It will be an understatement to say that this lens produces an impressively smooth bokeh. Be it foreground or background, this lens does the job, and so well that there is no other lens I’m aware of to match it from any brand. And while this is the king of bokeh, it is worth pointing out that it is also one of the sharpest lenses around and that involves a corner to corner sharpness. The build quality is as expected, come with a nice hood with black lining and wrapped in soft leather case. It has not one but two apertures (and individual control for each). This is a specialty lens with minimum focusing distance of about 87 cm or less than three feet and can serve really well as a portrait lens, and especially on full frame cameras. It works well on my Sony SLT-A55 as well as Sony NEX-3. It has a magnification ratio of 1:4, making it a pretty good pseudo macro lens, given the sharpness and silky smooth bokeh. To achieve the qualities, this lens incorporates a special element that has a downside. This reduces the transmissive properties of the lens and consequently, wide open, the lens permits an equivalent of f/4.5 aperture even though the opening itself is f/2.8 (hence the designation, f/2.8 [4.5]. But this is a non-issue for most practical purposes, and if you’re looking for a faster lens in this focal length, Sony’s Carl Zeiss 135mm/1.8 will be a better choice. Another downside is that there is no focus confirmation much less auto focus. To me, those are actually upsides since I prefer to engage with my composition and the equipment instead of relying entirely on them to do the job. With Sony’s manual assist features (either via viewfinder electronic magnification or focus peaking, and in many cases both), manual focusing is a snap. Overall, a great lens.

Awesomely Unique It will be an understatement to say that this lens produces an impressively smooth bokeh. Be it foreground or background, this lens does the job, and so well that there is no other lens I’m aware of to match it from any brand. And while this is the king of bokeh, it is worth pointing out that it is also one of the sharpest lenses around and that involves a corner to corner sharpness. The build quality is as expected, come with a nice hood with black lining and wrapped in soft leather case. It has not one but two apertures (and individual control for each). This is a specialty lens with minimum focusing distance of about 87 cm or less than three feet and can serve really well as a portrait lens, and especially on full frame cameras. It works well on my Sony SLT-A55 as well as Sony NEX-3. It has a magnification ratio of 1:4, making it a pretty good pseudo macro lens, given the sharpness and silky smooth bokeh. To achieve the qualities, this lens incorporates a special element that has a downside. This reduces the transmissive properties of the lens and consequently, wide open, the lens permits an equivalent of f/4.5 aperture even though the opening itself is f/2.8 (hence the designation, f/2.8 [4.5]. But this is a non-issue for most practical purposes, and if you’re looking for a faster lens in this focal length, Sony’s Carl Zeiss 135mm/1.8 will be a better choice. Another downside is that there is no focus confirmation much less auto focus. To me, those are actually upsides since I prefer to engage with my composition and the equipment instead of relying entirely on them to do the job. With Sony’s manual assist features (either via viewfinder electronic magnification or focus peaking, and in many cases both), manual focusing is a snap. Overall, a great lens.Read full review

Best in class Sharp, great color and bokeh. Almost no color fringing wide open. Has that Zeiss 3D look or snap. Great build quality and finish. Balance on camera fairly well when used with Sony a99. Metal lens shade. Heavy and a large. Focus is a tad slow on older Sony cameras on a77-a99 it has decent focus speed. Its fairly quiet for a screw-focus lens but a update to SSM drive would be better. I really enjoy using this lens. Its great for portraiture or shooting at low light events. Sharp, great color, and boken its my go to lens for shallow depth of field. Its a little long for some peoples taste but I love the images it can capture and try to find a photo to use it for. Downside is that its large and heavy with the hood attached some people think its a 200mm. Manual focus with focus peaking, is the best way is use this lens.Read full review