A rare find -- but is it a GEM ????

EVERYONE knows the 1998 vintage 28-135IS , it's a classic lens, many know the 35-135 of 1990 F4-5.6 USM which is horrible optically but holds the record for the fastest ever AFing lens (YES 300-F2.8 IS owners, even faster) a few know the old 1987 pump zoom 35-105 F3.5-4.5 which is a nice find for lowball money but VERY few have clapped eyes on the subject of this review ------- the rare 1988 vintage 35-135 F3.5-4.5 Pump ..

The 28-105 when it went to Ring USM and twist zoom maintained its F3.5-4.5 aperture but the old 35-135 Pump's transition to the Ring USM twister slowed down in aperture to F4-5.6 - this was carried along in its replacement the 28-135IS (which happens to be F4-5.6 at 35-135mm) so it makes the ancient and rare 35-135 Pump the fastest in its class for a Canon EOS lens...

There is a pic below of the lens alongside the 35-105 Pump and the lens's replacement, the fastest coke bottle in town - the F4-5.6 USM but it's basically a similar design to the 35-105 Pump with the same build as the venerable 100-300L but a WAY faster AF motor, My guess is that the AFD setup was taken from the fast 28-70 F3.5-4.5 MK1 of the previous year and it's just as nippy, just as noisy too - not quite the coffee grinder the 100-300L is but getting there, it whips from "macro" to infinity in no time..

Image quality was tested on a 1DS wide open at 35, 105 and 135mm and in the centre it's tack sharp wide open, sharper than the 35-105 version and the 28-105 also by a margin, in fact at 135mm at F4.5 it even beats the 28-135IS at F5.6 by a small margin. CA is very well contolled indeed (far better than the 35-80 cheapo or the horrible 35-135USM which fringe like mad in this weather) , Contrast isn't super-high but there is no dreaminess and Bokeh is on a par with the 28-135IS.

So where does it fall down? - the answer is at the corners on a FF Digital SLR anyway, the results at 35mm wide open remind me of my S45 or other Canon Digicam with soft corner issues, it doesn't seem to have any of the "left side syndrome" which plague most plastic mount Canon 28-xx 35-xx lenses or the 35-135USM however but it'll be fine on a 1.6X cropped body and the issue even full frame goes away stopped down a dit and when you're talking a relatively fast lens to begin with, that's no issue.. the 135 end fares better which is nice. It MAY not be as bad on film however....... The biggest downer (even than the floppy zoom) is AVAILIBILITY - this is the First one I've EVER seen and given that I make a point of rooting out old gems like this, it Must be pretty Rare (in the UK at least), the 50-200L is rare but I've used Three of the things to give an example..

This lens IF you can find one is CHEAP, offers 56-215mm effective on a 1.6X body so is an excellent cheap addition to a 17-40L or whatever as it behaves like a 50-200 area lens does on FF and is compact too, fast accurate focussing, excellent reliability (AFD again), tough build and way way way better than the sorry Ring USM model which followed..

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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist