Lens review

Canon EF 28-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

11. Summary

Pros:

• very good picture quality in the center of the frame
• good picture quality at the edges of the frame
• well controlled distortion
• low astigmatism
• accurate, quiet and quite fast autofocus
• well functioning stabilization

Cons:

• visible chromatic aberration at 28 mm
• visible coma
• a bit large vignetting at 28 mm
• weak performance against bright light

The Canon EF 28-135 mm IS USM is a great choice if you are willing to give up the wide corner and you want to have a fairly universal lens with a pretty usable focal length range, as well as a flawless autofocus and very good optical features with efficient picture stabilization. It is even more tempting when we look at its price – in the digital L-grade lenses era, the price has dropped noticeably. A couple of years ago it was hard to find this lens for less than 2500 Polish zloty and now it can be purchased for as little as 1800-1900 Polish zloty.

In summation, our pictures would be of much better quality if we used the combination of the EF-S 18-55 mm kit lens and the tested EF 28-135 mm, rather than the EF-S 17-85 IS USM alone. The only drawback is the necessity of adding a weak kit lens when we need a wide view corner. We gain a much wider focal length range in telephoto mode, plus better aperture and the opportunity of saving a few hundred Polish zloty in exchange.

Sample shots:

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Camera: Canon 300D Parametry: 135 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/250 sec, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3072x2048 pix, 1.9 MB	Camera: Canon 300D Parametry: 135 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/400 sec, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3072x2048 pix, 2.0 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parametry: 28 mm, f/9.0, exp. 1/200 sec, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3072x2048 pix, 5.2 MB
Camera:Canon 300D Parametry: 135 mm, f/7.1, exp. 1/250 sec, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3072x2048 pix, 3.1 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parametry: 85 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/20 sec, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 2.3 MB	Camera: Canon 300D Parametry: 50 mm, f/4.5, exp. 1/24 sec, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3072x2048 pix, 2.4 MB