Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens, What does NIKON have?

[vipgraphx]

So been looking at this Canon EF 135mm F/2 USM lens. Seems like it is a great lens. I don't seem to find anything from Nikon that is current and can compete with this lens.

I have seen the nikon 135mm f/2 dc and the nikon 105mm f/2 dc. Both these lens have that Defocus ring and seems like perhaps you need a lot of experience to work it and they are both older lenses.

Does nikon have anything else in a similar focal range? Seems like next best thing would be the Nikon 85mm.

I was wanting to get something like this for portraits as I here that this is great focal range for portraits.

Also those that have used either of these lenses could you give your feedback.

Thanks!

 

[robbins.photo]

So been looking at this Canon EF 135mm F/2 USM lens. Seems like it is a great lens. I don't seem to find anything from Nikon that is current and can compete with this lens.

I have seen the nikon 135mm f/2 dc and the nikon 105mm f/2 dc. Both these lens have that Defocus ring and seems like perhaps you need a lot of experience to work it and they are both older lenses.

Does nikon have anything else in a similar focal range? Seems like next best thing would be the Nikon 85mm.

I was wanting to get something like this for portraits as I here that this is great focal range for portraits.

Also those that have used either of these lenses could you give your feedback.

Thanks!

Closest thing I could think of off the top of my head would be a Nikkor 105mm F/2.8 AF-S VR. I don't own one myself but maybe someone who does could weigh in on it.

 

[Derrel]

I shot my Canon 135mm f/2 L and my Nikkor 135 f/2 Defocus Control for a whole day the summer my son turned four, using the Canon 5D and an adapter for the Nikon. I switched back and forth, back and forth all day long, then brought the .CR2 images into ACR and made conversions and looked at the whole day's shoot in slide show mode on my 30 inch Apple Cinema Display. It was basically impossible to tell which lens took which images, since the file names were not displayed, and both lenses render things very similarly.

The defocus control is something I really do not use much. Both lenses have really nice, smooth, rapid defocus. both are about the same physical size and weight. Again, in a side-by-side, same camera comparison, it's VERY difficult to pick either lens out by look.

What is nifty about a 135mm f/2 is that it is long enough that it magnifies things quite a bit, and the out-of-focus zone in front of the subject plane transitions into the focused zone very quickly, and then the out of focus zone transition behind the plane of focus is very quick, so it gives this feeling of "isolation of the subject" on full-frame to a very good degree. THe lens is also long enough that it "magnifies" the background objects' physical size. I've owned the 135 f/2 Ai-S Nikkor since 1985; BOTH the AF-D D.C. and the Canon are better "prettier" imagers than the old manual focus Nikon is. I've owned a number of pedestrian 135mm f/2.8 lenses from Yashica, Nikon 1960's,Nikon 1970's, Nikon 1990's, and Canon, like the new Canon 135/2.8 Soft Focus, and both the 135 DC and the 135-L are much better lenses, with much more of a visual "impression" on the images they make compared to the slower 135's.

As I understand it, the new Zeiss manual focus 135mm is "to die for", and might be one of **the** best lenses made. The Sony 135mm f/1.8 is also supposed to be amazing too. The new Zeiss is truly apochromatic; neither the Nikkor or Canon 135/2-L are truly free of color fringing, but the Zeiss examples I've seen in two reviews are amazing--right up there with the 200 f/2 VR-G Nikkor as best lens I've ever seen files from.

I think the new Nikon 85/1.8 G might be the "sharpest" lens made for under $4,000, but the bokeh is not all that pretty; it's very clinical, but the lens is like $450 or something last time I checked, and it's reallllllllllllly sharp.

 

[vipgraphx]

Darrel - do you still use that Canon 135mm? I was thinking about getting it for the A7. They sell a metabones canon to e mount adapter that allows for auto focus and should be able to use other features. Its a little pricey about $400 plus the lens.