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One of the best canon lenses

Started May 25, 2017 | User reviews
Maxim Levitsky New Member • Posts: 13
One of the best canon lenses
1

This lens really deserves 'L' status, since it is sharp, focuses fast, is is light, it is quiet, pretty much all good things said about this lens are true.

Manual focus on this lens is a bit tricky until you understand how it works. Manual focus only works when lens is awake, and that is about 4 seconds from last metering.

On canon 700d, the eye sensor also awakes the lens which mitigates the issue greatly.

Also I love that this lens will adjust the focus when zoomed, making it an 'emulated parofocal' lens.

It has wonderful IS (I can get sharp picture at 1/4 of second at 135 mm sometimes), which makes its even compete at night well against fast primes which lack IS (unfortunately most wide angle/normal lens, except EF 35mm f/2 IS which I really want to buy).

The only thing I really hate about this lens is that there are no distance scale and no even marking on direction of rotation of focus ring - I still sometimes forget which direction makes focus closer and which farther. I solved this issue with small stickers, which I will remove when I finally learn this.

This lens never zoom creeps which is also nice + you have lock to lock it to 18 mm.

 Maxim Levitsky's gear list:Maxim Levitsky's gear list
Canon EF 50mm F1.4 USM Canon EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM Canon EOS 700D Canon EOS 7D Mark II Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II +1 more
Canon EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM
Telephoto zoom lens • Canon EF-S • 6097B002
Announced: Jun 8, 2012
Maxim Levitsky's score
5.0
Average community score
4.8
Canon EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM Canon EOS 700D (EOS Rebel T5i / EOS Kiss X7i)
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jwilliams Veteran Member • Posts: 6,395
Re: One of the best canon lenses
1

Agreed.  I have this lens and it lives on my SL1.  Nice general purpose setup. I have a 6D and also some m43 cameras.  I recently bought the Olympus m43 12-40/2.8 Pro zoom for my m43 setup.  I tested that lens against my 18-135 and was very surprised that there was no discernable difference.  The Oly zoom constantly receives rave reviews so that is quite a feat.  I have had a couple of different superzooms for my m43 setup and the 18-135 gives better results.  Somewhat of a hidden gem in the Canon system.  It appears that the newer nano-USM is not as good optically.  I'm holding onto mine.

-- hide signature --

Jonathan

dave_bass5
dave_bass5 Veteran Member • Posts: 7,342
Re: One of the best canon lenses

Couldn't agree more (although the Nano version is even faster).

Ive got both these lenses and its a lens that stops me giving up my 80D. I just wish there was something this versatile and reliable for full frame cameras.

 dave_bass5's gear list:dave_bass5's gear list
Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM Canon EF 35mm F2 IS USM Canon PowerShot S110 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon EOS M50 +10 more
HosseinG
HosseinG Regular Member • Posts: 288
Re: One of the best canon lenses
2

Great Lens indeed, but only FF lenses can get the 'L'.

 HosseinG's gear list:HosseinG's gear list
Canon EOS 400D Canon EOS 7D Canon EOS 7D Mark II Canon EF 35mm F1.4L USM Canon EF 135mm F2L USM +4 more
jvc1 Senior Member • Posts: 2,202
Re: One of the best canon lenses
2

I don't doubt that it's a great lens but I think you're getting carried away with "deserves L status" . Sorry but no way, there's more to the L designation than IQ.

 jvc1's gear list:jvc1's gear list
Canon EOS Rebel SL2 Canon EOS 90D Canon EF 85mm F1.8 USM Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM +10 more
dave_bass5
dave_bass5 Veteran Member • Posts: 7,342
Re: One of the best canon lenses

jvceac wrote:

I don't doubt that it's a great lens but I think you're getting carried away with "deserves L status" . Sorry but no way, there's more to the L designation than IQ.

Just as well, as there are many non L lenses that can beat some L lenses in IQ.

 dave_bass5's gear list:dave_bass5's gear list
Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM Canon EF 35mm F2 IS USM Canon PowerShot S110 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon EOS M50 +10 more
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