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

Back to EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens

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25 User Reviews

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$349.00 - $455.0 (4 sellers)

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Viewing items 1 - 10 of 25

Reviewed by: mcompagno
Updated: 08-28-07

Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

Duration of ownership:2 Days

Strengths: IS, USM, PERFECT FOR EVERY DAY USE, GREAT PICTURES INDOORS AND OUT

Weaknesses: NOT WIDE ENOUGH FOR WIDE ANGLE SHOTS ON 1.6 DIGITAL CAMERAS

Overall Evaluation: I am stunned at the image quality this lens has produced for me. Action shots are crystal clear thanks to IS which is extremely quiet compared to my other Canon lenses. And indoor shots without a flash are a breeze, thanks to the 3.5 aperture and IS. The USM focusing is EXTREMELY fast so you can get those unexpedted shots too.The only downsize is if you need wide angle shots on a 1.6 system, stick with your 17mm lens.
Reviewed by: touristguy87
Updated: 08-02-07

Overall Rating: 3 Star Review

Duration of ownership:1 Days

Strengths: it has a decent zoom range, and not too slow

Weaknesses: focus accuracy at wide angle is just awful

Overall Evaluation: I hate reviews like this..."Strengths: Perfect zoom range for everyday general purpose use"...trust me, it's not,it's too long..." Weaknesses: Only one I can think of is the 3.5 F-stop but has not prevented me from shooting in most low light conditions" no, and it wouldn't, would it? You can always use a tripod..."Summary: I love this lens! It produces sharp images." sure, if you get lucky or you shoot telephoto during the day. And how many dull, out of focus shots did you get for those sharp images? "I have two shots taken with this lens in Maine that I printed 13"x19" on my Epson 2200 printer that everyone raves about at the office. Incredible sharpness! Looks like the photo was taken with an "L" Series Lens." AAAugh! at what fstop, ISO and focal length? The difference between L lenses and cheaper lenses can be minimized by picking the best combination for the cheaper lens. "You won't be sorry buying this lens." Yes, you will, or I would not be writing this review, like this..."Newbie, Advanced Amateur, or fledgling PRO, this lens will be a workhorse for you!" Er, no. Not even close. The lens just does not focus well at wide angle. I took about 500 shots with one in one day on a Rebel XTi and I got about half of them in decent focus. And I mean quite well-lit, sunny even shots, plenty of detail...it just botched them. Plus it suffers from a lot of internal reflection and it is just too long for me to shoot casually "walking around town". The zoom is nice, it seems to work "ok" between 70 and 135mm, and it isn't too slow. But I would not buy this lens, I would never rely on it, and I have the 17-55 IS at twice the price. So, ok, there are 3 things that really limit the XTi with *any* lens. One is the focus system of the XTi itself. The focus points are too widely-dispersed, they "get in the way" if there is anything in the foreground hanging over the scene...a lot of time i leave branches, walls etc in the foreground and I want to focus on the background. Or I shoot with a lot of depth of field so there is a long range between the foreground and the background and I want the whole shot in focus...so I'll use the center focus point and focus in the middle somewhere. This may not be enough focus points for the XTi to get a good sharp focus. And you can tell, really, the shot will be hazy, at least, and none of the fine detail will be sharp. Even if at full-screen it looks ok. But this also happens with shots that are flat and full of good, well-lit detail, but usually not so much. Second is the in-camera NR which is ISO dependent, and last is the available light. It simply tends to have more blown-focus shots as the light goes down...but that doesn't mean that all of the shots taken in full daylight are in sharp focus! Far from it. And I never imagined having to distinguish between "in focus" and "in sharp focus". I had this problem with my Olympus SP-500 and a little bit with my S2 and certainly the A710, but not at all with my FZ5 or A610. I just am not used to this as a problem. If you're used to it...it may not be a problem, but I'm not used to losing a third of my shots to a dodgy focus. Having said that, when the 28-135 F3.6 hits a good focus, it can give you some good shots, and certainly if they are at a range beyond the 17-55, and you want it tight so you can maximize the chance of getting a good focus, and also, so you don't worry about having to crop later, it *can* give you some good results. Then you just have to deal with stuff like this. Those are headlight reflections, even a streetlight or two. 28-135mm F3.6 at F5.6 ISO800 1-60s 112mm.
Reviewed by: Kailani
Updated: 03-26-06

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:1 Months

Strengths: IS, useful focal range, quick USM focus, full time manual focus

Weaknesses: seems heavy at first, somewhat pricey

Overall Evaluation: bought this for use on my digital Rebel XT. At first I was a little bothered by the weight and questioned whether the IS was worth the extra $$. Now that I've had some time to use it, it's become the lens most often on the camera. The focal range covers most of my walk around shooting, and images look sharp. I got some great surfing photos from the pier (the surfers were already fairly close, obviously) recently. Also got some nice close shots of bumblebees on flowers in the yard (with a little cropping to enhance the subject). Great general use lens! My only drawback has been that it's longer than the kit lens & sometimes I missed having a wider angle. Solved that by picking up a EF-S 10-22, but that's another review.... :) Can hardly express the improvment over the kit lens, there's really no comparison. If you only have the funds for one lens right now, this is a good one to pick up!
Reviewed by: alexveksler
Updated: 10-10-05

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:40 Days

Strengths: Image Stabilizer - very much worth the difference in price. Fast focus speed. Great every day lens

Weaknesses: Don't have any yet.

Overall Evaluation: This is my first Cannon purchase for my new 20D. I purchased 70-200 IS for action photography (too big for everyday use) and also was looking for every day lens. I had to put a stop somewhere on the price, as there are so many products on the market. However, if price was no issue, I would have purchased Canon Zoom Super Wide Angle EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and have it as every day lens. I had an advantage - I had never own any SLR cameras/lenses, so I am really starting from 'scratch'. If you are first time buyer, this is a great purchase.
Reviewed by: d9175
Updated: 09-02-05

Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

Duration of ownership:1 Months

Strengths: image stabilization, fast focus, good zoom

Weaknesses: would rather have a wider angle and don't need as much zoom

Overall Evaluation: OVerall a decent lens. Definately better than the standard lens, but not as good as the pro series. Nice general purpose lens, but a little heavier than I would like. I use it on my digital rebel-xt and it feels heavier than the camera itself.
Reviewed by: bioltb
Updated: 06-05-05

Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: This is a good "walk-around" lens. IS system, sharp, full time manual focus, USM lens motor with a decent price

Weaknesses: IS drain battery, the maximum aperture only 3.5

Overall Evaluation: This lens is the one I use most often due to its great performance and convenience of use. I use it for general wide-angle shots, usually at 28-50mm, and portrait photography which usually at 85-135mm. But reminder, with Canon 1.6 crop factor bodies, the field of view changes to 45-216, which to me becomes not wide enough. I can not complain this to the lens it self, right? May be one day I will change to 1X system, then get ride of this problem. Actually, to me, this lens is very versatile and easy to use. There are two switches to change. One is the manual/auto focus switch, the other is the image stabilization switch, which "I" means on and "O" means off. The built quality is nice. It has a ring type USM (ultra sonic motor) inside for quick and quiet auto focus. The feel of the zoom and manual focus rings is sufficiently smooth. Image quality is excellent. Many expert reviews seem to slam this lens as being soft. But as an amateur photographer of me who shoots only for enjoyment, it is good enough, at least for now. I have never tested images by shooting a chart, neither did I compare the central and edge image blur difference. For edge-to-edge sharpness I will stop the aperture down to f8 or less. And with image stabilization I can shoot with a slow shutter speed of 1/15 fully zoomed to 135mm and get a printable image. This is the one if I can take only one lens to go out and shoot real pictures. Even though I agree with this is a good "walk-around", I still have two things to complain about it, first is the IS drain battery. Normally I can easily shoot 300 shots on a fully charged BP511 battery, but I will only got less than half of that before the camera was indicating the battery was getting low. And the most important, how I wish Canon made the maximum aperture bigger, may be 2.8 or even 1.4? Cause I found the IS can only help be used on non-moving objects, the big aperture will be far more important for both sport and portrait photographs.
Reviewed by: dw01
Updated: 04-16-05

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:2 Days

Strengths: Fast focusing, image stabilizing, good picture quality

Weaknesses: A bit heavy.

Overall Evaluation: I used this lens for 2 days and I'm very completely satisfied with it. The picture quality is superb, professional, and very sharp -- much much better than the kit lens I have. The IS really helped me in taking pictures in low light without flash -- a must for me. The focus is fast also. I will use this lens for years to come...
Reviewed by: viper12321
Updated: 02-23-05

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:1 Months

Strengths: Great construction, IS is amazing, FTM, Great focal range, relatively small/light

Weaknesses: Kinda expensive.

Overall Evaluation: For use with my Digital Rebel. IS is a godsend, lets you take pictures with speeds 2 or 3 stops lower when its on. Got consistently sharp images at both extremes of its focal range. Its more expensive than the EF 28-105, but its well worth the extra money for the IS and the extra range.
Reviewed by: skiorules
Updated: 01-17-05

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:6 Weeks

Strengths: range of the lens along with the IS

Weaknesses: none

Overall Evaluation: I have had this lens for about a month and a half and it has probably been used more than all of my other lens i own combined. It has a great range which means fewer times for me to switch lenses. I think that this lens is worth getting for the range you get for the price.
Reviewed by: raise
Updated: 01-05-05

Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

Duration of ownership:10 Days

Strengths: The image stabilizer is excellent;extremely versatile lens; beautiful, sharp pictures;

Weaknesses: a little bit heavy, a little bit abrupt/large mounted on aCanon Digital Rebel

Overall Evaluation: The image stabilization is definitely worth the extra money. Its fuction is amazing. I can use it without tripod or other support under certain conditions. The pictures still looks very nice.In addition, the lens are fast and quiet.