Hey everyone!I'm John Sison and today
We're taking a look at the Sony 135mm F1.8 G Master lens
for the Sony E-mount system.
So the 135mm has been a popular focal length among portrait photographers
along with the 85mm F1.4
In saying that, I am glad that Sony did go with F1.8 aperture
because it would be a lot heavier, more expensive
and of course, larger as well.
I have been taking this around the Philippines
I've shot with it in Makati, Manila and I did take it to Cebu with me and Bohol too.
Just so I could get a proper feel of it, especially when I'm travelling
and to get some really nice portrait and street photography shots with this lens.
But before I go into more detail about it, lets take a closer look at the lens itself.
Alright, so this is what the lens actually looks like with the 135mm attached to the Sony a7 III
As you can see, its not a very small
lens. Obvioulsy it is large considering the aperture and the focal length
That is a lot of glass that you can see. It is
an 82mm filter thread so just keep that in mind.
I would recommend using a filter in this case mainly because
I would want to protect my investment and prevent any scratches.
Although, using filters is definitely up to the user
You don't have to use it but for this one I would really recommend it.
Actually, I would recommend it for all your lenses just in case
or the worse were to happen.
The focus ring is nice and smooth.
It doesn't offer too much resistance and it isn't too loose.
This feels pretty nice. I would say
the Loxia lenses from Zeiss
are pretty much my gold standard. That is my
perfect focusing ring in terms of dampness but in saying that
this is quite smooth and
would be precise for manual focus, if you were to use it.
It does have an aperture ring with the de-click and clicking option
The switch is just at the bottom here.
So you can just easily turn that off or turn that on
And this is what it sounds like when you're
switching between the apertures. If you don't know
what the A stands for, that's basically automatic.
So the lens and the camera is doing all the thinking for you when you're using it.
As you can see there are two buttons.
One on the top
and one on the side. Those are actually
customisable buttons which you can select the
functions in the menu.
As you can see there are two switches so you've got your
automatic and manual focus switch which you can quickly
select between on the actual lens itself.
And over here you do have the focusing limiter
which will change from your full autofocusing range
or if you want to limit it,
you can use it between 0.7-2m
or if you wanted to
change the range even more its 1.5 - infinite.
Now taking the lens off the camera, you may
be able to see rubber seals on the gasket of the lens
which will prevent any dust and moisture from getting in.
This also comes supplied with a plastic
barrel type lens hood. Great thing about this
is that there is felt lined within to prevent any reflections
from getting inside the lens
and also it does reduce
any flare from occurring in your photos.
I didn't really use it whilst travelling because
it just got too big so it was a bit cumbersome
so I just it primarily without it.
But that's really up to the user. I did get some flare in the photos
which I would say did add to
the flavour of the lens.
I will show you an image that I took of my friend Marc
he's another YouTuber in Melbourne. There was some rainbow effects
on his shoes. He is a shoe vlogger
You can check him out in the link below.
I was using this primarily to get some good travel shots and portraits of
people but it did also add too much weight to my kit
at times because the lens is heavy weighing in
at 950 grams.
Now this can be a hassle but you can also get some pretty unique
shots using this lens.
I would highly recommend it for weddings, events,
portraits but given at this focal length, it can
sometimes be a bit difficult to use this lens for different applications.
Eye AF for both humans and animals worked perfectly with the
a7 III.
So you shouldn't have any trouble taking some decent portrait shots.
Minimum focusing distance is 70cm so given the
focal length of the lens, you can get up real close to
a subject like this little spider that I took a photo of
and it really helped isolate the subject from
the background.
I honestly can't stop raving about this lens.
The colours and contrast were pleasing compared to
other lenses I was using and the photos were extremely sharp.
Thanks to the 11 aperture blades, the bokeh was smooth
and I did get some cat eye effect actually wide open.
Now it didn't really bother me so much but stopping it down to about
F2.8 will get you those nice smooth
bokeh balls.
I didn't really notice an chromatic abberation
and vignetting was well controlled.
All of these photos were shot straight out of the camera
without any post processing with the Sony a7 iii.
Also shoutout to my friend Theresa!
She is another YouTuber. Check out the link
to her channel in the description below.
So after using this lens, I can honestly say this is one
of the best lenses I have ever used in terms of
image quality, focusing speed
it is extremely fast to focus. A lot more faster than the 85mm
F1.4 G Master.
In saying that, it is heavier and larger, especially
when you have the lens hood attached. It does make it a bit more
cumbersome to hold, especially if you're travelling around with it.
But the images I got out of this have been phenomenal.
PHENOMENAL!
Pairing this with the a7 III, it was extremely fast, especially with the
eye autofocus. That can
bring anyone's photography to another level because of
how sharp the photos can get. I mean you do have to be
careful because it is a very shallow depth of field
with the focal length and the aperture combined but in saying that
you can really isolate your images.
The price does put it out of the reach for many photographers
but I will say, its definitely worth saving your pennies for.
In terms of the handling though, the focusing ring is
a bit damp which is great for more precise focusing. The aperture ring does have
the click and de-click option just some like of the other
G Master lenses and the focus hold button which
can be customised for different settings does
come in handy as well. What can I say,
I highly recommend this lens but if you have any questions,
please feel free to leave a comment below. If you enjoyed this video,
give it a thumbs up!
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them out cause not only do I do photography,
there's also a lot of food, a bit of travel and a bit of my day to day life.
But yeah, that's basically it
Until then happy shooting
and thanks for watching!