The Canon EF 35-135mm USM is the "Affordable" Alternative

The Canon EF 28-135 IS USM is a GREAT lens, but it might be a little bit too expensive for some photogs on a limited budget. The Canon EF 35-135mm f/4-5.6 USM is the "Affordable" Alternative. This very compact telephoto zoom lens is relatively light and incredibly versatile. It is an excellent performer, capable of capturing crisp images with fantastic color saturation and striking contrast. If you can find one of these highly respected gems in good condition it could be your favorite Canon EF lens.

It is a RARE, highly sought-after model with “FTM” Full Time Manual focusing, superior “Ring” type USM motor, a real distance scale window and infrared compensation indication. It is threaded for common (affordable) 58mm filters and accessories. It has the heavy duty STAINLESS STEEL METAL LENS MOUNT, which is getting harder to find these days. This lens was discontinued in 1997, but may be found on eBay if you watch carefully.

“Full-Time Manual” focus allows you to make fine focus adjustments WHILE THE AUTO FOCUS SYSTEM IS ENGAGED! This is especially useful for setting the exact focus point in a close shot. It will allow you to emphasize a particular picture element while other parts of the image are intentionally blurred by a narrow depth-of-field. This lens has the Top-of-the-Line “Ring” type USM Ultrasonic AF design. There are 14 lens elements in 12 groups. Focusing is performed internally, the front lens does not rotate, making it much easier to use polarizing and special effects filters. These features insure that focusing will be lightning fast, impeccably precise and dead silent!

The large zoom ring is very comfortable to use and quickly goes from 35mm all the way out to 135mm in about a quarter turn. The barrel extends for zooming, but the front lens element does not rotate at all. The position of the zoom ring relative to the focus ring makes this lens almost as easy to use as a "One Touch" lens design in manual focus mode. In Auto Focus mode, it is just a pleasure to handle.

Image quality dramatically outperforms all of the popular “standard kit” zooms, and is at least equal to the much more expensive EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 USM !!! Sharpness and contrast are quite impressive throughout the entire zoom range. While very good wide-open, the image sharpness gets really sharp at around f/8 or so. In spite of the impressively wide zoom ratio, only slight distortions are visible, and then, only at the wide-end of the focal range. Flare is well controlled. Pictures produced through this lens are quite sharp, “contrasty” and rich in color saturation. If you are still using the cheap “kit” lens that came with your EOS camera, YOU REALLY NEED TO UPGRADE TO THIS LENS.

Note that when it is used on a Canon Digital SLR, like the Rebel XT, 20D or 10D, this is equivalent to a 55-215mm zoom lens. That's due to the 1.6 X "crop factor" magnification. This is a great focal range for portraits, nature and sports photography. This is the perfect mate to use with a Canon EF 20-35mm wide angle zoom, especially on any EOS Digital SLR with a less-than "full frame" image sensor.

This model is very compact in size, about 3.75” at 35mm to 5.5” at full zoom. It is reasonably light-weight at only 15 oz. It has a very solid "feel" with smooth operation. The wide angle to medium telephoto range make this an ideal “travel” lens. You will find that it will stay on your camera almost all of the time. It’s great for everything from interior shots to portraits, architecture, landscapes and nature photography. It covers about 80 to 90% of all normal photographic needs.

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