I've recently bought well-used examples of the 135L and 85LII and need to decide within the next week or so whether to keep them. I'm not convinced about the AF of the 135 and I'm wondering whether what I'm seeing is typical.
I'm using a 7D2. Other lenses include a bunch of EF-S zooms, Sigma 50 Art and the old 70-200 OS (pre-Sport), and the EF 85/1.8.
I've microadjusted the 135 to +8, which gives me a reasonable hit rate, but only reasonable. Focusing on my own car's number plate at a range of 10 m or so while it's sat on the drive, I'd say I'm getting maybe 60% spot on, 20% near miss that I'd consider acceptable (the sort of thing you could cover up with a bit of deconvolution sharpening and nobody normal would notice in casual sharing), and 20% miss. Misses seem to be randomly either substantially in front (like a metre or so) or a similar distance behind. (This is using centre or near-centre focus points, the hitrate seems to drop further with points closer to the edge.)
I'm talking here about focusing wide open. I'm using exclusively AI Servo and back-button focus as I do with all my other lenses. I never focus-and-recompose, I always click the shutter with AF active. The results described above would be using either single-point AF or single-plus-four expansion, I don't see much difference either way. I've also tried spot AF with the 135 and it maybe gives slightly more reliable results, but only slightly. (I only occasionally use spot AF in the normal run of things as typically I find tracking more reliable with single or single-plus-four).
I'm reasonably confident that the misses I'm seeing are not the result of user error - there is clearly nothing anywhere near the active focus point that is in focus, but I can generally find a band of sharp focus either in front of or behind the intended subject. (I have found that 1/250 is a little too slow with the 135L so I've got auto ISO set for minimum 1/500.)
Of these two lenses I currently have on trial I was expecting the 85L to be the finicky diva but actually I've found it not too bad. I certainly don't get 100% hitrate with the 85L wide open, and the tracking performance obviously isn't great, but I'd expected that. What I wasn't expecting was to find the 135L not really much more reliable at f2 than the 85L is at f1.2.
I'm also finding the 135L slower to focus than I expected. My go-to for capturing action would be the 85/1.8 which I've used to photograph sprinting dogs and suchlike with a decent hitrate, even wide open. That also goes for the Sigma 70-200 OS (which as I said above is the non-Sport version). The 135 isn't bad - obviously it's much faster than the 85L - but it's certainly nowhere near as quick as the 85/1.8 is, and it also seems slower than the Sigma 70-200 (though now I write that I haven't compared them side by side). I haven't tried it properly yet with anything moving especially fast but it just doesn't seem very quick.
Both the 85L and the 135L give much more reliable focus in Dual Pixel live view than through the viewfinder unless I'm trying to track action - no big surprises there.
Does that sound typical of your experience with the 135L, or is the one I've got on its last legs? Optically it's absolutely fine - the glass looks clean and clear - but the focus ring is fairly well-worn. I think it has seen a fair bit of use, though it doesn't look to have been knocked about too much.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated - thanks!
I'm using a 7D2. Other lenses include a bunch of EF-S zooms, Sigma 50 Art and the old 70-200 OS (pre-Sport), and the EF 85/1.8.
I've microadjusted the 135 to +8, which gives me a reasonable hit rate, but only reasonable. Focusing on my own car's number plate at a range of 10 m or so while it's sat on the drive, I'd say I'm getting maybe 60% spot on, 20% near miss that I'd consider acceptable (the sort of thing you could cover up with a bit of deconvolution sharpening and nobody normal would notice in casual sharing), and 20% miss. Misses seem to be randomly either substantially in front (like a metre or so) or a similar distance behind. (This is using centre or near-centre focus points, the hitrate seems to drop further with points closer to the edge.)
I'm talking here about focusing wide open. I'm using exclusively AI Servo and back-button focus as I do with all my other lenses. I never focus-and-recompose, I always click the shutter with AF active. The results described above would be using either single-point AF or single-plus-four expansion, I don't see much difference either way. I've also tried spot AF with the 135 and it maybe gives slightly more reliable results, but only slightly. (I only occasionally use spot AF in the normal run of things as typically I find tracking more reliable with single or single-plus-four).
I'm reasonably confident that the misses I'm seeing are not the result of user error - there is clearly nothing anywhere near the active focus point that is in focus, but I can generally find a band of sharp focus either in front of or behind the intended subject. (I have found that 1/250 is a little too slow with the 135L so I've got auto ISO set for minimum 1/500.)
Of these two lenses I currently have on trial I was expecting the 85L to be the finicky diva but actually I've found it not too bad. I certainly don't get 100% hitrate with the 85L wide open, and the tracking performance obviously isn't great, but I'd expected that. What I wasn't expecting was to find the 135L not really much more reliable at f2 than the 85L is at f1.2.
I'm also finding the 135L slower to focus than I expected. My go-to for capturing action would be the 85/1.8 which I've used to photograph sprinting dogs and suchlike with a decent hitrate, even wide open. That also goes for the Sigma 70-200 OS (which as I said above is the non-Sport version). The 135 isn't bad - obviously it's much faster than the 85L - but it's certainly nowhere near as quick as the 85/1.8 is, and it also seems slower than the Sigma 70-200 (though now I write that I haven't compared them side by side). I haven't tried it properly yet with anything moving especially fast but it just doesn't seem very quick.
Both the 85L and the 135L give much more reliable focus in Dual Pixel live view than through the viewfinder unless I'm trying to track action - no big surprises there.
Does that sound typical of your experience with the 135L, or is the one I've got on its last legs? Optically it's absolutely fine - the glass looks clean and clear - but the focus ring is fairly well-worn. I think it has seen a fair bit of use, though it doesn't look to have been knocked about too much.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated - thanks!