Beyond the Portrait with the Canon 135 f/2lPosted by drfl on April 15th, 2010

As demonstrated earlier this week, the Canon 135 f/2l proves it is fabulous for portraits, but as I mentioned, I wanted to see in what other capacities this lens might be useful, especially in nature photography. 

Wildlife

Since the 135 f/2l is super sharp and fast, shooting wildlife might be a good use for this lens.  As I wanted to try this, I went out to a local wildlife conservatory and shoot some critters.  Here are some samples, all shots were with a Canon 5d (Original Flavor), the 135 f/2l and a Canon 1.4x Extender II and all shots were captured at f/2.8.

As is evident, the lens with the teleconverter was great at capturing these wolves clearly and easily.  The focus was achieved quite effectively allowing me to get some action shots.  Because of the wide aperture of this lens, I was also able to open up wide to blur out the fence between the wolves and me, rendering it invisible in almost every shot.  In the wild, I certainly would not want to be as close to these guys as I was here.  Overall, the lens worked well for this purpose, but I doubt I would want the short distance I had here when capturing shots of wildilfe (I was about 12 feet away).  Besides encroaching on their personal space, they would either run away or see me as a threat!  I think I’ll stick to my 300 and 1.4tc for most shots of wildlife.

Macro

While researching this lens, I read several posts of individuals utilizing it as a macro lens.  Since I dabble in the macro quite often I was very interested in seeing what I could do.  Spring in Nebraska brings some wildflowers, but most tend to be small, delicate, and can be difficult to capture.  While hiking through Platte River State Park, I came across some examples of a white fawn lily. 

Shot at f/6.3

Using the lens by itself, the flower was too far to focus on.  In order to get a closer shot, I placed a 1.4x teleconverter and a 25mm extension tube on the 135 and even then, I wasn’t as close as I would have liked.  This example shot is about a 65% crop of the image that was captured.  Even so, the flower is sharp (as expected) and the bokeh is very nice.  Not horrible for macro, but I would say if macro’s your thing to get a dedicated macro lens, otherwise, be sure to have a few extension tubes and a teleconverter handy.  A crop camera would be beneficial here as well.

So, the end result is that the camera is adequate for other work, but would not be the ideal lens for wildlife and macro shooting.  Still I always like pushing my lens into other areas than what is considered the “norm”, partially because I like to see what I can do, and partially because when one spends that much on something it’s nice to be able to use it in diverse ways.