Carl Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 Lens

Zeiss is the Best

Pros: Razor Sharp, Great color & contrast, perfect "buttery" bokeh

Cons: I would like a tripod mount to balance it better

Listen, what makes a lens great? Simple, optic quality that can produce fantastic photos. I'm so tired of people saying dumb things like" It's heavy", It's not a ssm lens", or "it uses 77mm filters". It is heavy, it's one of the best designed and best built lens on the market. It produces some of the best bokeh you can imagine. Your main subject is sharp, even wide open. So if you want a lens of legendary quality and preformace, this is it. If you want a lens that produces sharp images with perfect contrast and color. This is it. Could SSM, weather sealing and even a tripod collar be nice. Sure it would, but all that stuff won't make it a betterr preforming lens, and that's what counts I've owned the Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 "L" lens and the Nikon 135mm f/2 DC lens. This is better than both of those

De facto Standard…

Pros: Great for Low-Light with Smooth Bokeh

Cons: Lens Hood fit-up is weak

Ok, just so you know I’m one picky bas…! Having sold my Leica gear including my Leica super-primes I know a thing or two about quality glass. When I decided to buy the A900 and this wonderful lens I knew I was buying the very best combo for portraits. I can say without any hesitation this is the pinnacle of the lot. Some will list the size and weight as a ‘con’ but that’s like saying that gold is too heavy for the shelf in your safe. To be fast, it has to have a large enough surface area to gather light. To produce quality with precision it takes time and raw materials. Please, if you want to list a ‘con’ then try and come up with something more meaningful. Personally, I don’t like the fit-up between the lens hood and the lens body. Love the metal hood but the connection is flaky (like all Zeiss lenses) as the hood falls off easily during typical street use. In the end it’s an excellent choice for low-light venues or stunning portraits. It will increase in value if you ever decide to sell it.

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Best lens in my collection

Pros: Amazing sharpness, bokeh and contrast

Cons: 1. Focus ring - could have been better - very slight wobble / 2. SSM and weather sealing would be nice.

WOW is the word that can describe this lens. As soon as I got this lens home, took a test shot and was amazed by picture quality. Attached the test shot to this review.. This is the lens that always stays on my A900.

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A great one!

Pros: Sharp, Macro-like, Great Bokeh

Cons: CA, Heavy

I am using this lens on a55V. This lens generates incurably sharp images and very quiet and fast AF. However, it has a typical problem for a large diameter lens, CA. If it is OK condition, CA can be controlled but under high contrast very bright conditions, it is clearly visible on the images (please see my butterfly pic). Other than this, it is a great lens. Even this is 135mm focal length, since minimum focus distance is 72cm, my other macro lenses has been replaced by this one. Manual focusing is very smooth but there is a bit of initial "play". Again, this is a great lens if you can carry it.

Great! Really developing photos by a new wave!!!

Pros: sharp, very bright, crisp focus, design...

Cons: none

Sony A-850 + Carl Zeiss Sonnar T*135mm f/1.8 = perfect combination. Yes, it is heavy, but if you want best pictures you should beter go to gim)))... Sony+Zeiss permored alternative lense against Canon& Nikon. Using it about 2 months - NO complaint!!!

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Simply the best

Pros: Fast focusing ,produces stunning images

Cons: Pricey but worth it

This CZ lens once purchased quickly moved up the ranks as the best in my arsenal, as it continues to deliver stunning images. With or without flash in or out of focus whatever the needs it will not let you down. It has prompted me to purchase an additional camera (A700) so that i would never have to remove it. Sony and CZ have really brought together a tool to produce works of art in imaging. Although its pricey and heavy it is well worth it's weight in gold delivering crisp sharp clean images. In my humble opinion its one of the best darn lenses ever made.

Great Lens

Pros: Great quality, Great Bokeh, Great Speed

Cons: heavy, slow auto-focus

Very good lens, heavy and bulky and for the price Sony could have used the SSM autofocus but very satisfied with the quality of the pictures I have taken using this lens.

The Best Lens

Pros: Image quality, consistent focus

I use this on my alpha 850. It provides the best pure image quality of any 35mm style lens I have ever used (in over 20 years of photography). Even wide open at F1.8 the quality is very good, and closed down a bit it is fantastic. Xlnt bokeh as well. Although focusing is not SSM, it is fast and consistent. I use a microfocus adjustment of minus 3 on my camera and I get superb results close and far.

Superiorus Prime

Pros: Awesome!! Great DoF

Cons: Just a little heavy, but understand

OK - I am a Transformers fan, but if I have to compare it to a character in the movie, it would be Optimus Prime. This is my first prime lens and I am so glad I purchased it first. The depth of field of this lens will leave you speakless. This is my new number one lens in my camera bag!

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Almost perfect

Pros: Speed, Sharpness

Cons: focusing motor could be quicker

I shoot high school basketball with this lens on my Alpha 900. Under the dim light levels of a gymnasium, this lens is great, although I have to go to ISO1600 to get acceptable shutter speeds without flash. The problem comes in following the ball carrier. The focusing motor sometimes just can't keep up and I've lost a number of shots this way.

ALL AROUND

Pros: GREAT BOKEN

Cons: MANUAL FOCUS SLOPPY

ALL AROUND GREAT FOR ANY SITUATION..PORTRAIT,SPORT,NATURE. MANUAL RING IS A LITTLE SLOPPY FEELING..

The best lens for portrait

Pros: good lens for portrait

Cons: highly recommand, must buy,for the best pictures

This is a best lens i ever bought and i think it worth every penny, it deliever crisp sharp imagesThe bokeh is beautiful and has a creamy looks .Only one problem is a little noisy.

Awesome!

Pros: wide aperature, crisp focus, everything!

Cons: none

This is the best lens! It exceeds my expectations, is versitile and worth every penny! Thank You Sony!

Scary good

Pros: Extremely bright, bokkah phenomenal

Cons: glad I am strong

This lens and my A700 give me that almost arrogant confidence that I can get the shot. Keeps one a photographer instead of a Photoshopper.

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Excellent Lens

Pros: Design, quality, overall performance.

Cons: A bit heavy, but understandable.

Being an old school type who prefers prime lenses, I love this amazing piece of glass. It is a near perfect blend of Minolta heritage brought into the 21st century / digital age by Zeiss and Sony. All of my friends who are into the DSLR stream have been amazed at the performance characteristics of this lens when coupled with the A900 body. I will be adding others in this lens family as they become available.

The Lens to Get

Pros: Sharpness, color, bokeh, focal length, tough construction

Cons: No SSM, would like a second focus-hold button for portrait configuration

I own most of the best Sony lenses now, including the Zeiss 85mm 1.4, the 70-400G and the Zeiss 24-70, which are all outstanding (see my reviews on this site), but THIS is the lens you should save for first for outdoor portraiture. I find the focal length to be more useful than the 85mm for outside, as long as there's plenty of room to maneuver. The telephoto compression opens all sorts of creative possibilities, while the long focal length makes background blur very easy. And the blur (or bokeh) is very, very smooth. The sharpness is outstanding, with a sweet spot around f/8, but at both extremes, images still look terrific. This lens feels tough, right down to the metal hood. Its weight is hefty but fine, and coupled with my a77, feels very well balanced. The only downside is we're still using a screw drive to focus, which is noisy and not as fast as SSM. Sony dropped the ball on that one, but it does not affect image quality and has only a minor effect on functionality. If I were starting my lens purchasing adventure over again, I would get this lens as my #1 for shooting people outdoors.

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Great

Pros: Clarity, fast and qaulity

Cons: None

I was just amazed by the great operation of this lens. It surpassed my expectations that I had before I got the lens.