135mm Lens War
It just happened that I collected a whole bunch of manual lens, and plenty
of them are135mm somehow. Of course, I have the "serious" lens for
doing important shots (the legendary Canon 135 f2 L), but also a whole box
of M42 lens, some
of them legendary in
their
own
rights,
just
from a few years back.
So, how to they compare ? Is a Takumar better than a Carl Zeiss Jena ? Are
the Pentacon underrated ? Does the Canon lives up to the hype ?
Here are the contestants.
Believe me, that tray was heavy ! From top left to bottom right:
- Canon EF 135mm f2 L
That's the daddy here. fastest, meanest, sharpest and most expensive of the
primes present, by a LOT
- Sigma 18-200 f3.5-6.3 DC [disqualified]
My walk around zoom.
Best range of the lot. Unfortunately I had decided to do only one round of shots
with the AF lens, save for the 70-300 I don't trust that much. Well today
the 18-200 screwed up and the shots are OoF so they are not included.
- Sigma 28-135 f3.8-5.6 Macro
Got that one very very cheap on eBay, to get something that does "macro".
It's en entry level lens here, to see how it stands
- Canon 70-300 f3.5-5.6 DO IS
Expensive zoom thing. A bit imprecise on the autofocus, I shot two rounds
with lens, and one was completely off; I'm rather used to that with this
lens. It might go on the selling stand fairly soon
- Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 MC 'S'
Excellent reputation, excellent results, this is a contender for "second
place" behind the 135L here. These lens are still available for cheap,
but I also noted that they are selling for a lot more than they used to.
Is the hype justified ?
- Hanimar auto 'S' 135mm f2.8 MC
Got this one on eBay for mostly the price of the postage for it. In my previous
tests it has not proven to be a great lens. The mechanical construction
is weird; the front of the lens is nice and well built, and the back is
a mess, with an uneven iris etc. It's like someone was in a rush to finish
the design. Anyway, we'll see.
- Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f3.5 (1)
This copy I got for nothing, "faulty" and took it apart completely
to fix it. So it might mean good things (cleaner) or bad things (lame because
I messed the alignments)
- Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f3.5 (2)
This is my "mint" copy, with hood, box etc. a beauty. I got it
after (1) because I liked (1) a lot and wanted a more pristine copy.
- Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f2.5
This is a recent acquisition, surprisingly cheap ($50) in mint condition.
This is also a beast of a lens, very heavy and built as the usual "takumar
tank" level.From my tests beforehand it can be very, very sharp, but
has a lot more CA and
fringing
than other
fast
135
I've
seen.
How does
it compare
to the
Zeiss & Canon ?
- Pentacon Prakticar 70-210 f4-5.6 [disqualified]
I really don't know
why I got that lens. Must have wanted to play with a really cheap zoom! Anyway,
it's disqualified because it's "auto" only so I can't stop it
down; I haven't "fixed" it to jam the system and allow manual
operation.
- Pentacon 135mm f2.8 Preset
I got that one because it was very very cheap. It was also very very old
and looked like the original Sonnar lens for Pentacon 6 etc. So I got
it and I really like it, it might not be the sharpest lens in the box (we'll
see!) but it's a very nice lens, with a 15 (!) blade beauty of an iris.
Optically it's a "bokeh monster", it is absolutely fantastic.
- Pentacon 135mm f2.8 MC Auto (1)
Here is the "modern" version of the previous one. Gone is the gorgeous
iris. In fact, it looks exactly like an upgraded CZJ 135mm f3.5; all metal,
same
hood construction etc. Optically it also behaves very much like the Zeiss,
same excellent bokeh, warm tones etc. This copy I got supposedly faulty,
but it was in perfect shape and the problem was a matter of 2 minutes with
a screwdriver.
- Pentacon 135mm f2.8 MC Auto (2)
Same as the Takumars, I got that one for "mint" & box, documentation
(!) and all. For about $15 or so. Unfortunately it arrived faulty, and with
some mould (not fungus) in the elements. And a faulty iris etc. So my "faulty"
copy turned out to be good, and my "mint" copy turned out to
be faulty. Doh. Anyway it was cleaned, fixed so it might impact the results
here :
I spent some time cleaning the elements to pristine condition.
So the test was made on tripod, Canon 350D back, mirror lockup and remote
control. I used compensation to ensure the exposition was similar between the
shots by checking the histograms,
but
otherwise these
100% crops
here are direct from the camera. I even did the crops using "jpegtran" that
doesn't recompress ("lossless crop").
I did 2 series of shots per (manual) lens. I defocused them before refocusing
them again, using my Haoda
focusing prism screen. I have published the two
sets of shots for comparison. ISO100 for everyone. All the lens had hoods on.
Executive Summary ?
Well, nope. Not really.
- Pretty much everyone is very sharp by f8.
- The cheap Sigma zoom is a cheap Sigma zoom !
- One of my Pentacon auto
is lame (I'm sure if I clean it it'll be better).
- The Takumars f3.5
are really, really good, even at f3.5.
- The Tak f2.5 appears to be a tad
softer at f3.5 than it's small brothers, but it becomes slightly sharper
afterward, to
"Canon
135" level even.
- Takumars are sharper than the Zeiss at f3.5!
- The 2
working Pentacon (preset and auto (2)) are very similar, and are very
similar to (surprise) the Zeiss too.
Contact
to email your comments about this page.You can also join my Manual
Focus Forum ! Plenty
of weird interesting lens to play with out there!
| Canon EF 135mm f2 L |
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Sigma 24-135 f3.8-5.6 Macro |
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Canon 70-300 f3.5-5.6 DO IS |
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Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 MC 'S' |
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Hanimar auto 'S' 135mm f2.8 MC |
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Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f3.5 (1) |
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Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f3.5 (2) |
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Super Multi Coated Takumar 135mm f2.5 |
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Pentacon 135mm f2.8 Preset |
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Pentacon 135mm f2.8 MC Auto (1) |
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Pentacon 135mm f2.8 MC Auto (2) |
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