135

The 135 mm focal length is one of my absolute favorite focal lengths, and has been since I first received one as a gift from my parents at Christmas in 1979 (A Vivitar brand with a mount for Olympus)!

When I first received it I thought it was kind of an odd choice but as I used it more and more over the years, I found it to be the perfect focal length for so many things.

News, documentary, portraits, sports, and weddings are all seen beautifully through this focal length especially in low or marginal lighting.  And it's been that way for me more decades now.

When I was a young photographer working the late shift at The Chicago Tribune in the mid 80s I shot a lot of society events and sports events.  It seemed like for weeks at a time (especially in winter) the only lenses I used were the 135 f2 and a 35 1.4 (back in the Nikon days).  That and a trusty Vivitar 283 with a bounce card made out of a small envelope or white card were about all I really needed.

And it's funny how that with my Sony's (35 1.4 GM and 135 f1.8 GM) it brings me right back to that time.  They simply work for how I see and frame the world and the work I do.

Here's a photo I made back in the Tribune days with the 135mm focal length. 

Michael Jordan slams a dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers during his rookie season at the Old Chicago Stadium.

It's from Michael Jordan's rookie season from a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

I was the "early guy" shooting b & w and getting it out quickly while taking the "color guy's" film (that was Chuck Cherney) that would be then replace my black and white in the final edition.  We had very similar images and the change worked well.  He was closer to the basket shooting with an 85mm and I was on the corner with the 135.

When I switched to Canon in the late 80s, they made a 135 f2 in their FD mount which was a huge chunk of glass though very good.  The 135 f2L lens that I bought when it came out in 1996 for EOS was one of the sharpest lenses that Canon made, IMHO and one of the very last lenses that I sold in 2014 when I moved to Sony.

At that time, Sony had an A mount 135 lens (the old Minolta mount that Sony used when they first got into the still camera game in 2006 after buying the assets of Konica/Minolta). That lens was a Zeiss design and had a maximum aperture of f1.8 and it was superb. 

I never bought it because I wanted E mount for everything (I believed A mount would eventually be supplanted by E mount) so I waited until Sony remastered that lens in their E mount.  And boy has it been worth the wait and about 2 years ago the 135 1.8 GMaster came out.

The Sony 135 f1.8 is a stunning lens that is probably the sharpest lens that I have ever used, of any make.  When coupled with the speed and focus accuracy of the a1 there is simply no better tandem for low light indoor sports on the planet.

Last night I used this combination as I shot our Lake Mills HS Girls Basketball team and it is the workhorse.  Shooting jpegs (21 megapixels) gives me still a large file and I can punch in to the aps-c crop using one of two buttons that I custom programmed for that (rear dial center button and focus hold buttons).  The quality is superb even at 12,800 ISO which is WAY better than 1600 color neg film from the ancient 80s.

Sophia tries to score against Lake Country Lutheran during action from the first half of Tuesday night’s game in Lake Mills, WI. Photo made with a Sony a1 and 135mm f1.8 G Master lens (10,000 ISO; 1/1600th at f2 with APS-C cropping engaged).

It also is a stunning combination for indoor prep volleyball. 

The 30 fps speed might seem like overkill (that Jordan photo above was made in 1984 on a Nikon F3 and an MD-4 motor that went 5 fps with a rechargeable battery) but having that extra speed gives me just a few more cracks at having the ball in the photo in a fast-moving sport like volleyball. 

Here's a strip of an example of a back court play from the fall that I simply could not have made with any other camera because not only did it grab focus (I literally just pointed to the action and fired!) it gave me four images with the ball as the player moved out of bounds. 

Do you have a 135mm lens?  If so how does it fit into your style?  What do you use it for most?  Portraits, sports or weddings or something else? Do you prefer it to the 70-200 f2.8 zoom? 

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this interesting and helpful.

Paul