Canon EF 135mm F/2 L USM Lens

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Canon lens for about $1000
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Sharpest Prime Lens I have ever owned.
Review: This lens is the best in its class. I wish every lens I had was this sharp. This thing is top notch.

Rating:
Summary: Sharpest Prime Lens I have ever owned.
Review: This lens is the best in its class. I wish every lens I had was this sharp. This thing is top notch.