Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: 28-135 USM IS
Summary: 4 Stars
First off this is a very nice lens for the money. I have had mine now for about three months and love it. It is a great walk around lens the 28-135 is just right for most pictures of kids and landscape pictures. It has a fast focus and sharp clear pictures clear up to the 125 range gets a little soft at 135 but easily fixed with a little post editing. I have taken most of my pictures hand held and the IS works great. I even recommended it to a friend. I am using it on the 30D and it spends most of its time there. I am not sorry I purchased this lens and will be taking a lot more pictures with it in the future.Digital camera Review: 28-135mm IS as good as they say it is.
Summary: 4 Stars
Finding unbiased, reasonable, reviews of camera lenses can be more difficult than one might imagine. A large percentage of the reviewers deem anything that does not live up to the quality of the highly esteemed "L" class of Canon lenses to be, frankly, inferior.
I almost didn't buy this lens because so many members of a forum that I frequent bashed this lens and recommended the 24-105L as the only really "good" choice in the focal range I wanted. Fortunately for me good sense pevailed and I bought the 28-135 anyway. The fact that the 24-105L was three times the price ($1200) certainly weighed heavily on my decision.
SO GLAD I DID.
This lens is well built, has a very usable focal range and (at least my copy) is RAZOR sharp. I expected good quality of a lens this price, but I was not at all prepared for the stunningly sharp images that it renders. Color and contrast are very good. The other good "walkaround" lens in this price point is the 17-85mm. I tend to prefer a longer focal length and the 28-135 qualified me for Canon's generous triple rebates so the choice was clear. F3.5 is fairly fast and the IS does allow hand holding in lighting conditions that would otherwise necessitate a tripod, but for very low lighting you may want to try the 50mm F1.8 prime (They're only $80, buy one).
So if you are hesitating to buy the 28-135mm for any reason please don't listen to the "L" snobs, it's a great great lens.
Digital camera Review: A Great All-Purpose Lens for a SLR Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this lens for my Canon 20D digital camera and have found it to be a great all-purpose, everyday-use lens. Here are the best features from my perspective:
1. The range of telephoto zoom is adequate for 90% of photo opportunites. 28-135 mm telephoto in digital photography translates into 48-230 mm in SLR film photography. Since a standard camera lens is 50-55 mm, the starting range of this zoom lens equals that and then has the added versatility of zooming up to 135 mm (or 230mm in old style camera figures). In my opinion, this added range of framing a shot gives the photographer so much more creativity, as well as being able to bring objects into closer, more intimate range. I mentioned that this lens is good for 90% of all general camera shots; the missing 10% are those pictures that require a better zoom (more telephoto zoom), and those pics that need a wider field of view. You may find that for group photos in close proximity, you want to take a step backwards to get everybody in the frame. This is not a problem unless you simply don't have the room to take that step back. I solved this problem by switching back to the original 18-55mm lens that came with the camera. For the more distant shots that can't be drawn into the 135mm zoom of this lens I purchased a better telephoto zoom.
2. The lens has autofocus and IS stabilization technology. For one used to manual focus lenses in SLR film photography, the addition of a fast autofocus lens is a terrific feature! I used to miss those spur of the moment shots because I was trying to achieve focus. With this lens, you make those shots, because within a milisecond of depressing the shutter down halfway, the picture snaps into focus! I absolutely love this feature! The focuser has many points of potential focus, so it adapts easily to virtually all focusing situations. For the really difficult focusing shots, there is the option of manual focusing. While nice to have, I rarely use this option. The Image Stabilization feature is a handy one in the longer shots. "IS" lets one get away with a bit of camera shake without too much out-of-focus smear on the picture. Canon does not recommend using the IS feature on tripod shots, so there is a switch to turn off the IS if desired.
3. The lens takes sharp clear pictures. I have not been disappointed with the quality of the lens at all.
Drawbacks
1. While there are not too many drawbacks to this lens, I think the major one is that the lens is bigger and heavier, in fact, much bigger and heavier than the standard 17-55 mm lenses that come with SLR cameras. For me this is not a problem, however, for one that wants to have a lighter-weight camera, this could be considered a serious drawback. On the other hand, a SLR camera like the Canon 20D or digital Rebel is not designed to be a smaller pocket-sized camera. It is a larger format camera and of course the lenses will be larger (and heavier) as well.
2. Cost. At just over 400 dollars, this lens is an investment. Again, one has to weigh the obvious financial outlay, but the 28-135 mm lens is so superior to the cheaper 18-55 mm lens, that in my opinion, it is well worth the cost to upgrade.
With this product, Canon made a great everyday camera lens. From my perspective, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages and I do recommend this lens to be your everyday standard camera lens.
Jim "Konedog" Koenig
Digital camera Review: A Jack Of All Trades, And Master Of None.
Summary: 3 Stars
I have had this lens now for three years. It is my second lens. My first (serious) lens was the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro. This lens was intended to be everything the macro prime wasn't. For a while, it was.
It's a good lens, no doubt. Useful, versatile, fast and pretty sharp for the price. Not super sharp, though. Beware of amateurs claiming sharpness when they haven't seen anything better. The 100 mm Macro kills this lens for sharpness.
That said, I've sold framed prints at 11 x 17" and 12 x 18" from this lens, no sweat. But there are a couple of areas where this lens shows it's weaknesses.
I shot a wedding with it - my first. I chose it for the versatility in a high speed situation and it was the right choice amongst the two lenses I have. But it struggled to keep up (and outright failed) without the flash, even when I was shooting at ISO 6400 at the mainly candle-lit reception. Even with IS on. With flash (580 EX and a diffuser) it performed very well. I managed to get a couple shots of the newlywed couple entering the reception hall without the flash hand held at 1/2 second. Yes, they were motion blurred - but that was them moving. And the contrast between the relatively sharp areas around them, and their movement, worked well. The IS works.
But upon processing the images from the wedding, I noticed that in several shots, there was such bad CA that I was literally forced to go in and clone it out. Lighting was a cross between natural light through the windows, candle light, and incandescent. The CA was visible even in 4x6 prints of those images! And those were the "I do" shots. The most critical of all. That really put a bad taste in my mouth concerning this lens.
So, in the end, yes, I use this lens. It's a good one. Not my favorite, but it is too versatile to pass up until I can replace it with a 24-70 f/2.8L and a 70-200 F/2.8L II.
Probably more than adequate for amatuers. If you're going to use it for weddings, it's a decent lens to get started with, but you'll probably want to replace it with the above two lenses asap.
Digital camera Review: A MUST HAVE Lens ! my all time favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
Great Lens, Highly Versatile and with impressive Quality. (it keeps impressing me !)
I have had it for like 5 months now and this is the lens i keep most on my EOS 350D.
Just like the 50mm f/1.8, it's a must have lens in the lens portfolio. You just need a 70-300mm to complement the series ! However i am skeptical about the 70-300mm IS as some reviews say it gets blurry in portrait.