Customer Reviews

Sony SAL-135F18Z 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera

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This lens focuses incredibly fast, delivers sharp shots and accurate color. For me it's a fast telephoto, as I'm using it on an Alpha 550, so the lens translates to 203mm, because the Alpha 550 is an APS-C DSLR. I can shoot sporting events at dusk and get superb shots. The f1.8 aperture, combined with the camera's image stabilization and shooting at ISO 6400 allows me to get sharp shots in situations I never could have imagined.

The lens is heavy, a little over two pounds, but you know you've got a professional piece of equipment in your hands and it feels perfectly balanced. I've used this at concerts and couldn't have been more pleased with the results. It's a good lens to use at indoor events as well as it reached across a good sized room and gives you crisp images. If you can afford it and can deal with the weight, you won't be disappointed with this incredible lens.

I am astonished by this lens, as well as its sibling the Sony 85mm f1.4 lens Sony SAL-85F14Z 85mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss Planar T Coated Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera. Each lens is razor sharp at its widest aperture. An excellent discussion of this lens may be found at the Photozone web site.

I have been shooting dual systems, which seems to have become the norm to some extent. I have had my eye on the Canon 135mm f2.0L for a while especially after buying and using the 200mm f2.8L II. My most frustrating focal range was the 24-70mm until I acquired the Sony/Zeiss variant. That got me hooked on the Zeiss lenses so I took the plunge and bought the 135mm f1.8 Sonnar T* for my A700. What an incredible lens!

The more I use this lens the more impressed I am with its ability to make magic. I look at recent portraits with this lens and straight away I see "Zeiss Eyes." This lens produces images that are clear and crisp with excellent detail down to the eye lash yet has an abundant control of color and contrast.

The concept is: full-tilt nuance. You get sharpness, color and amazing contrast control. Most lenses give you two of the three (color, contrast or sharpness) few give you all three and even fewer make you stop in tracks in post thinking there is nothing to do but print it! This is the only lens that makes me think - just print it!

I like this lens and my only regret is now I want Sony & Zeiss to step up to some ZA wide angles! For what it is worth I highly recommend this lens.

I'm an amateur hobbyist. I'm heavy into nature and the world around me. I've had good lenses before but never before have I had one that would allow me to enlarge up to 200% and still remain crystal clear. The focus is fast as all get out for keeping up with the flash too. Lens hood, protective carrying case and lens cover are all included with the lens. Such is the Zeiss SAL-135mm f/1.8Z. It must be good. There's only one used lens for sale and it's only $4.00 cheaper than new. I'm still getting used to the DOF(Depth Of Field) on f1.8. I took a picture of a Pitcher Plant 4" long and the mouth of the plant was in sharp focus while from half-way down to the end was not. Amazing. If you're as picky as I am about your pictures, THIS is the lens for you.

I have used the 135mm f/1.8 Sonnar on the A900 for over a year now - portraits, general purpose pictures and also landscapes. I am just stunned - stunned ! - at what this lens+camera combo is capable of delivering, even when blown up at 100% and beyond. This lens is just sheer magic. I have shot extensively in the past with the Canon 135mm f/2L USM (one of Canon's sharpest lenses) and was impressed with how it performed on the 1DS, the 1DSMKII and the 5D (Version 1) but in comparison to this Zeiss, the Canon is just a shabby wannabe !

Having said all of that, be aware that the f/1.8 (that lets in nearly 25% more light than an f/2 version) that comes with this lens, also makes it a large and heavy beast. This lens is significantly larger/heavier than an f/2 alternative but if you can work around that, there is nothing that is optically better in the marketplace.

Sony's Zeiss Sonnar 135mm/1.8 lens is sharp and fast. It's simply a beautiful lens. When paired with the built-in sensor stabilization in the Sony a900 and a700 cameras it's perfect for hand-held low light photography. Not only is this lens faster than Canon and Nikon lenses in this focal length, it's sharper and built like a Swiss-watch. It joins the Sony 85mm f1.4 lens <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JE5CQO/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk">Sony SAL-85F14Z 85mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss Planar T Coated Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera</a>

It is all true, this lens performs with all the characteristics that you have already read about, now you have to see for yourself.

Over the past few years Sony and Zeiss have had a most successful series of collaborations, producing some of the finest digital still cameras currently available in the Sony CyberShot series. Now that collaboration has brought forth several high performance lenses for the new Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera. I was fortunate to hand hold this autofocusing 135mm f1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* lens, using it with a Sony Alpha SLR camera in early November at the annual Photo Plus East photography and digital imaging show held here in New York City. I was most impressed with how fast this lens focused accurately, even under relatively low light conditions (Better yet, there is an excellent opportunity to use this lens at a slower shutter speed than normally possible due to Sony's proprietary digital image stabilizing technology.). Optically this is a brand new design which owes nothing to previous manual and autofocus Zeiss telephoto lenses which were made for the late, lamented Contax SLR systems by both Zeiss and Kyocera (under strict Zeiss supervision). But I have no doubt that the images produced by this lens are absolutely stellar, judging from the superb performance I have seen from Zeiss lenses embedded with the most expensive Sony CyberShot model cameras (I have used Zeiss lenses for years and have always been impressed with the superb contrast and resolution of images made using them, due not only to Zeiss's superb optical designs but also to its superior T* multicoating.). Those interested in close-up/macro photography will find the lens' close focusing distance of approximately 3 feet quite useful. My only regret is that Zeiss hasn't produced a manual focusing version of this lens for its Zeiss ZF Nikon F Mount series; hopefully one will be forthcoming.