Review on Sony SAL-135F18Z: High-performance 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera by Ada Diak ᠌

Name: Sony SAL-135F18Z: High-performance 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera
Item: Sony SAL-135F18Z: High-performance 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera
Rating: 5

December 08, 2022

Valuable purchase, nothing but pluses!

It combines two characteristics that are incompatible for conventional lenses: razor sharpness and image plasticity, for which we pay. The bokeh is unsurpassed, perhaps the best I've ever seen. Gives magical shots due to the ultra-shallow depth of field and at the same time is very sharp across the entire field. Autofocus is not very fast, but tenacious. Very rarely, AF works with strong "soap" in the viewfinder, but this is immediately noticeable. There are no autofocus micro-misses, which is very pleasing. Doesn't keep light sources in the frame very well - "hares" and "puffs" may be present. The hood is metal and very heavy. When the hood is installed and careless handling, you can loosen the front element with the lens. It is especially dangerous to carry a lens in a case with a hood installed backwards. In this case, a heavy lens in a horizontal transport position rests only on the front lens element and all shocks are transmitted to it. For some acquaintances, the front element worked from this - only service. The cost of the lens is clearly underestimated, given its basic optical qualities. For this money you get a dream that you will never part with.

Pros

Sharpness across the entire field at an open aperture, beautiful bokeh, aperture, plastic, metal, excellent lens hood and a case that can be put on the lens mounted on the camera.

Cons

Weak, delicate design of the front element, on which the lens hood sits, in the autofocus mode on the camera, the focusing ring can break the kinematics of the AF lens when twisting (there is no at least manual unlocking like Tokin), no ultrasonic motor, slow autofocus (on Sony a 850) , autofocus can in some cases drive back and forth and focus inaccurately, which was never the case with cheap zooms on the same camera. Light sources in the frame can give ghost reflections and halos. Attracts the attention of others.