In article
>Servus, David.
> DR> The 135:2.8 AIS has a built-in hood and 52mm
> DR> filter size. If you have been a zoomy up until
> DR> now, the image on the screen will knock you down.
>Ouch :)
>Thanks for the hint, I'll have a look at it.
>But if it is such a great lens, why doesn't anybody know about it? D. Rue=
>ther rates no 135/x.x higher than the 85, nor the 105 nor the 180. There =
>is one 135 rated at 5, but only at 3 near minimum focus and this is the d=
>istance I really like when I photograph people...
>G.L. doesn't even mention it and Bob Neumann never said anything about it=
> within the past months. Can you please go into deeper detail - eventuall=
>y there are different versions of the lens?
The zoom hype has buried the little gem, the 135mm f2.8 AI/AIS compact lens.
And I put it in VERY good company (the 85, 105, 180mm)! (You must not have
read the wonderful literature that accompanies the number ratings....;-)
Here are my ratings for various Nikkor 135mm's (numbers in "()" indicate
the number of samples used) - lenses rated within 1/2 point are mighty
similar in quality:
- 135mm f4 short mount -- (untried) (1)
- 135mm f3.5 ------------ 4.5 (2)
- 135mm f2.8 non-AI ----- 4.5 (3)
- 135mm f2.8 compact ---- 4.8 (4)
- 135mm f2.8 E ---------- 4.5 (2)
- 135mm f2 -------------- 5 beyond 10', 3 at minimum focus (3)
(Anything "4" and over is professional-use quality, and I gave only a
few lenses ratings over "5" ("5" represents near state-of-the-art in
commercially available, affordable lenses). What more do you want?
Gold plating? ;-) The 135mm f2.8 is a superb lens at all apertures,
and fails a bit only near closest focus at wide apertures (in common
with the similar-design, similarly superb Nikkor MF 85mm f2, 105mm
f2.5, and 180mm f2.8). If you are concerned about that (some would
consider it an advantage for portraiture...), go to the very similar
FL lens, a 105mm Micro-Nikkor. BTW, for those who somehow missed it,
My "SUBJECTIVE Lens Evaluations (Mostly Nikkors)", version 5a, which
includes a listing of all Nikon SLR lenses ever made (with a
*subjective* evaluation of many of them, a general description of
Nikkor lens performance characteristics by lens-type groups, and
comments on particular lenses when the general descriptions plus
the subjectiveevaluation numbers are not sufficient to describe
performance), can be found at these sites:
-- Jan-jaap Aue: (nice text format)
http://www.phys.rug.nl/mk/people/aue/nikon/david.html
-- Quang-Tuan Luong: (nice text format)
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/35mm/nikon-neuman.html
-- Niklas Nikitin: (nice table format)
http://www.cs.hks.se/~nicke/private/photo/lenstest/david.html
-- Bo-Ming Tong: (plain text format)
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bmtong/nikon/c.html
(number 13 in table of contents)
Hope This Helps