Some comparisons of 135mm lenses

I did this simply for my own purposes but I remembered that someone asked, a while back, "What's all this business about lenses producing nice/poor/ so-so colour. Surely, colour is colour?" Well, it isn't, as these show. All are untouched out of the K3 to discover which is "the best" (if such can be said!) The crop is the same and all were f8

First off Pentax DA 55-300zoom at 135



Tokina



Pentax Takumar



Russian Jupiter 11a



Meyer Optik



And the tiny thing that made it all possible (Jupiter)



All will take a lot of PP but the modern zoom is the sharpest and far too red. The best overall representation is from the Jupiter
Each lens represents the colours in its own style and the result will be as much personal taste as reality.

I agree that the photo from the jupiter lens has the best colour, but the photo from the DA -300 is under-exposed by around a stop when compared to the others, making it not an entirely fair comparison.

The best 135mm lens I've tried is the RMC Tokina f/2.8 - sharp, contrasty and great colour too.

Interesting as far as it goes.

Talking of 135mm lenses, has anyone any experience of the newish Samyang f2 and how it compares to the Pentax SMC K or M lenses in terms of sharpness, contrast...overall image appearance?

Karlo

I have a Tokens RMc 135 f2.8 and a Pentax m135 f3.5 - both seem really good, however, I have not tested them side by side yet🙂

I too am interested in how the Samsung performs.

Did you mean: for Tokens read Tokina, and for Samsung read Samyang? Predictive text issues I guess?!

I did mean tokina

Jonathan-Mac said, "The best 135mm lens I've tried is the RMC Tokina f/2.8 - sharp, contrasty and great colour too."

This IS the Tokina RMC f2.8, which I have always found a bit lacking in punch. Could be my copy since the reviews consistently praise it.

I have a minter 135mm K 3.5

So compact and superb sharpness, bokeh and colours.

There is the K 2.5 but as the K3.5 is better at infinity I prefered it as it was lighter to carry up mountains for landscapes.

Lucky beggar!