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Product Reviews:

   
One of the best Canon lens for about $1000, December 1, 2004
Reviewer: Roy
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.
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One of the best lens in it's class, August 23, 2005
Reviewer: Jayesh Sukumaran

Man. what a lens!!! It's not cheap, and I dont' find the 135mm to be a particularly useful focal length with my 20D but after seeing glowing reviews of this one both at [...], I decided to buy one and try it for myself. It's not cheap at $900, but it's worth every penny. This one is an absolute stunner. I cannot believe my eyes at the sharpness at f2 and it improves very little when stopped down. The bokeh is unbelievable!!! I dont' hesitate to shoot at f2 and I don't find it necessary to stop down just to increase sharpness. The size and build is perfect although I don't like Canon's hood design. Why can't they simply make the hood with the same crincked finish of the lens?? Then they would not so easily scratch. It's beyond me. But that's not a problem with the lens itself and whenever I use this lens, I know I have one of the best lenses ever designed. It forces me to excel myself knowing that now,the only limitation is me, the photographer and not the camera or the lens. An absolute beauty. Go try it yourself. I try to shoot with this as much as possible and the results are stunning. I just wish it came with weather proofing and Image Stablization like Canon's modern lenses but that's just nitpicking. I love it as it is.
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Surprised, April 5, 2006
Reviewer: Neil Bruce Dinces "Ace man"

Despite reading glowing reviews about this lens, I was still surprised to see how well it performed. The lens is SO sharp you can get very good cropped pictures of running athletes, from a distance of three quarters of a Football field away, shooting hand held, with late afternoon light, which will print a 5x7 and still look like a Pro took them!
If you want a tack sharp lens for indoor sports pictures and can't afford, or otherwise do not want another long lens for outdoor sports pictures, then you should give this lens your serious consideration.

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Quality lens - 135mm f/2L, January 9, 2006
Reviewer: Carlton Ward "redjelly39"

At a recent NYE event, I shot a lot of photos in a concert setting without a flash and am very impressed with the sharpness & clarity of this lens performance. Its so fast and the colors are vibrant. I am not a seasoned pro but with the 20D and this lens, it makes me look pretty close. I did shoot in manual and once I got my aperture & shutter speed dialed in, it pumped out a lot of great pics.
I have also shot some pics of waterfalls (slowing down my shutter speed to get that soft flowing image) and portraits of people and again, it oozed excellence. The 135mm focal range is not as convenient as a zoom, but the quality of this prime lens makes up for any incovenience.
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Super Sharp!!!, January 6, 2006
Reviewer: C. Stoudt

If you don't want to get hooked on canon L series lens, do not buy this one. I made a mistake of buying one and now all I want are L canon lens. It is super sharp, contrast and saturation is fantastic. No need to retouch any of your photos. So far, I've used it on candid shots of my kids and dance gigs. f/2.0 helps a lot to get the right shutter speed to freeze action. A very good buy. I got mine here at Amazon.

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