What is a fast 135mm good for?

[jtvang125]

I see that a fast 85mm is hugely popular for portraits and from all the examples I can see why. But what about the 135mm? Seems it's a little too long for portraits, no?

 

[Syborg1211]

Lots of people love the 70-200 lenses for portraits and spend a lot of time at the 200 end. Facial distortion and compression of backgrounds only gets better as you get longer. The thing you give up for this is working distance so you can't be as close or intimate with your subjects when you use such long focal lengths.

 

[iGas]

135mm work well on a full frame indoor portraits, and is a great length for crop & FF outdoor portraits. A fast 135mm is a great length for indoor sport photography on a crop body such as basketball and volleyball.

I own a FF body, and I use the 70-200L f/2.8 IS II almost the exclusive since I purchased it early this summer. While my old 70-200L f/4 IS was use at around 50% of the time. And, I have to say 70% of the shots from those lenses are at 160-200mm wide open. (200mm is a bit long for portraits but it gives great compression)

I have use my 100L f/2.8 IS for portraits in the past, but I rarely use it now since I own the 70-200L f/2.8.

I also have the 24-105L that I rarely use because I found that 105mm is too short of a focal length portraits and f/4 on this lens is too soft for my liking.

IMHO, each to their own, but I would love to try shooting with a 300-400mm lens at f/2.8-4 for portraits.

Full Frame

 

[jtvang125]

Thanks, that's a great example. 135 seems to be a good trade off of minimizing facial distortion and working distance.

Awhile back I was using a 10-18 for landscape and didn't want to switch lens for a few portraits. The arms of some of the subjects near the edges were as big as their head. lol

 

[Spoooon]

105 mm on full frame hasn't been a bad working distance for me, I imagine 135mm wouldn't be a problem either, especially for head shots.

On the hunt for a reasonably priced fast prime in the 85 to 135mm range to get this kind of subject isolation:

Carl Zeiss 135mm f-1.8 Street Girl Portrait by F1etch, on Flickr

 

[Paladin3]

Back in my film days I shot probably 80% of my stuff with either a 24/2.8 or a 135/2. The 135 was great for headshots, indoor sports like basketball and all kinds of stuff. I'd usually rock each lens on a separate camera and stick a strobe in my back pocket for the average assignment. My only other lenses at the time were a 50/1.8 and a 300/4.

When we got 80-200/2.8 lenses I didn't pull the 135/2 out much unless I needed the extra stop of light. On a crop body a 135/2 turns into basically a 200/2, and that's a damn fine lens. The old manual focus 135 lenses floating around are great deals and usually sharp as heck.

 

[shortylickens]

Nature and sports, where you cant get too close.