Review of Sony FE 135mm F/1.8 G Master Lens
Real World Images from the Sony 135mm F/1.8:
Sony has no shortage of portrait lenses. Back in their dSLR dates, one of their premium lenses was a 135mm f/1.8 lens. In 2019, they got around to making such a lens for the FE mirrorless system. With the GM or G Master moniker, the Sony FE 135mm F/1.8 GM is meant to be a premium lens delivering the absolute best in build and image quality.
Weighing nearly a full kilogram and priced at $2,100, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 is a serious lens. While one can certainly shoot many subjects with a 135mm focal length, it’s primary purpose is to shoot portraits with creamy background separation and flattering compression. It seems Sony is constantly improving with each new lens release. So my questions when reviewing the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM, is it the best G Master lens Sony has released? Does it really produce portraits and image quality potentially worth a price tag of over $2000?
I shot a borrowed copy of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM for two weeks. As a bit of a spoiler, I really really didn’t want to return it…
Body and Handling of the Sony 135mm F/1.8
Sony continues the same basic build quality of their previous G Master lenses with the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM. There is nothing to complain about. The build feels like a solid combination of metal and high quality plastics. Weather sealing seemed sufficient. Manual focus ring is well grooved and smooth to use. Focus hold buttons are customizable for extra functionality.
Switches include AF/MF switch and focus limiter switch on one side. The opposite side of the lens, as shown below, included a de-click aperture switch. The Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM has an aperture ring, which can work with clicks or without clicks (for silent aperture change during video). To control the aperture from the camera, you set the ring to “A,” past F22. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM has the same functionality but with a problem: any bump or nudge of the lens threatens to dislodge the aperture ring out of the “A” setting. As a result, you may intend to shoot at wide aperture but suddenly find yourself F22 instead. Fortunately, the “A” position on the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM is a bit tighter, small bumps are unlikely to dislodge it.
Weighing it at 950 grams, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM is not a light weight lens by any stretch. To put it in perspective, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 (reviewed here) weighs 840 grams. Of course, it still weighs a whole lot less than the 1480 grams of the Sony 70-200mm F/2.8 (reviewed here). With the size of the lens and distribution of the weight, I actually found it fairly comfortable to handhold for extended periods of time. It’s still bulky and heavy. I’m not personally a fan of heavy lenses, but somehow the weight of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM felt less than its listed 950 grams. It was actually more comfortable to carry than the slightly lighter Sony 70-200mm F/4 telephoto.
Autofocus was exceptionally fast and silent in all situations. Autofocus is sometimes on the slower side with other premium lenses from Sony, but not in this case.
IBIS Tested
The Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM does not have in-lens stabilization. It is compatible with the in-body stabilization found on most of Sony’s current cameras. Below, I tested some hand holding of the lens at slower shutter speeds on the Sony A7riii. Different lenses tend to show varying degrees of benefits from the IBIS system. Traditionally, IBIS is thought to work best with wider lenses. Accordingly, my expectations were not very high for a telephoto 135mm focal length.
Click below for close crops…
I was very surprised at the quality of stabilization combining IBIS with the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM. I recently tested the Sony 35mm F/1.8 which seemed to get very little benefit from Sony IBIS. In contrast, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 seemed to really lock down when you half-press the shutter. Keeper rates certainly are not 100% under 1/100. Further, your own results will vary based on your hand holding technique. For me, I was getting a very high rate of keeps down to 1/40. At 1/25, I still got a decent number of sharp images. At 1/15, it was rare to get a truly critically sharp image. The ability to shoot around 1/40 with a 1.8 aperture on a 135mm lens really does open up low light capabilities.
Image Quality of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM
The Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM costs $2,100. That’s $300 more than the 85mm F/1.4 GM. The utility of a 135mm prime lens is generally limited to outdoor or large studio portraits (where you would have the working distance for 135mm). With high price and limited utility, this lens needs to deliver excellent results. I was not disappointed in any regard.
Vignetting of the Sony 135mm F/1.8
In raw files, there is some mild vignetting at wide open aperture of 1.8, but far less than most Sony lenses. For the types of photographs you would take at 1.8 aperture, the slight vignette is more likely to enhance the image than degrade it. Stopped down to 2.8, vignetting becomes even more mild. From about F4, there is virtually no noticeable vignette.
Distortion
Below we look at the distortion. Distortion is minimal in most prime lenses.
Close examination shows very slight pin cushion distortion easily corrected by Lightroom profiles. Distortion just isn’t a concern.
Flare Control and Sun stars on the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM
The above images show the worst possible flare I could coax out of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM at increasing apertures. In real world shooting, I rarely got any flare. But if there is a bright light right at the edge of the frame, you can certainly get significant flare. The good news, you don’t get the random color blobs of flare produces by some Sony lenses. Instead, you get “ghost” type flare and haze. I found it easy to avoid such flare, it really only was an issue if the sun was right at the edge of the frame.
Below, we see some sun stars. With 11 aperture blades, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM is designed for perfectly round bokeh, not edgy sun stars. In the examples below, the sun stars were aided by the small opening in the leaves. At smaller apertures, starting around F10, you can get decent pointed sun stars. At very small aperture, F20, you can certainly achieve brilliant sun stars. (Notice that despite the positioning of the light, flare was not an issue in these images).
Color Fringing on the Sony 135mm F/1.8
Chromatic aberrations can cause color fringing, typically a purple or green haze, in high contrast situations. I really didn’t notice it in most of my testing of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM so I stress tested the situation most likely to produce CA: running drops of water in bright high contrast. Click below for larger.
As shown in the first two images, there is some purple fringing at wide aperture of F1.8. We don’t see any longitudinal CA, color fringing in out of focus areas. Instead, we just see the mild purple fringe in the extremely high contrast water drops. As you stop the lens down, the CA disappears.
CA is correctable in Lightroom, you use the dropper in Lens Correction – Manual panel. Below we see the results of 1 click correction.
The conclusion is simply that CA does exist under extreme situations at wide aperture with the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM. In high contrast images, keep your eye open for it and make corrections as necessary.
Bokeh of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM
The whole point of shooting a 135mm lens at 1.8 (with 11 aperture blades!) is for beautiful smooth background separation and clean round bokeh balls.
Below, we see the boken balls at apertures from F1.8 to F8.
Bokeh is a somewhat subjective consideration but most “bokeh snobs” looks for smooth round circles with soft outlines and clean centers. Bokeh balls will also tend to lose the perfect circularity as aperture stops down. Bokeh snobs should be very pleased with the Sony 135mm F/1.8. Bokeh balls retain their roundness even down to F8. The centers of the circles are free of any disruptions, the overall impression is very pleasing for lovers of traditional bokeh.
Next, we can take a look at how the bokeh and background separation translate when there is an actual subject.
Looking at the above examples, and then looking at the below “real world” bokeh examples, the results for background separation and “bokeh balls” remain impressive. As small aperture, background blur can start to appear busy, but this is to be expected. At wider apertures, we get very smooth soft background blur, really making your subjects pop.
Real world bokeh:
Sharpness of the Sony 135mm F/1.8
Most Sony lenses are very sharp. I’ve now tested every single GM lens (as of October 2019), and they all boast impressive sharpness. I should note that sharpness is overrated. Years ago, there may have been many lenses that might look soft especially at wider apertures. But today, most lenses are good enough that they will look perfectly sharp to the human eye when viewed at normal viewing distances and sizes. Even though sharpness is overrated by some, tack sharp images give the best ability to crop and best ability to make large prints. Each year, Sony’s newest lenses seem sharper and sharper. As we pixel peep, we see this is true of the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM:
Center Sharpness
Starting with center crops (click for large):
Before commenting, Center crops from closer focus distance:
The most distant focus is a bit sharper than the close focus, but you need to examine super closely to see the difference. Overall, the center is tack sharp at all apertures. Technically, it gets slightly sharper as you go from 1.8 to 2.8, but it’s tack sharp even wide open.
Turning to the off-center / aps-c border area:
Border Sharpness
And borders from closer focus:
The results really aren’t much different from the center. Again, it’s slightly weaker from close distance but not by much. Even upon close exam, it passes my threshold for “tack sharp” at every aperture. It’s sharpest between F2.8 and F8.
How about the challenge of the extreme corners…
Corner Sharpness
And close focus:
Wide open, the corners are slightly darker from the lens vignetting. Still, the corners are quite sharp, even wide open. The close focus distance is less sharp, but still very very very good. I’d call the corners sharp at every aperture though truly tack sharp with some slightly stopping down. At F2.8, you get a level of sharpness usually reserved for the center of the frame.
So testing on the 42 megapixels of the Sony A7r3, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 is basically tack sharp across the frame at every aperture. Sony makes lots of sharp lenses, but this is the sharpest I’ve ever tested.
A little test to see if I’m exaggerating: Especially at wide apertures, the corners are naturally softer than the center of the frame. Below, on the left, you have a center crop at F2.8. On the right, you have the extreme corner crop at F2.8. The crops are enlarged to 300%. 300% crops of any image should be pretty soft…. [click to see full size]
The center of the frame, still being fairly sharp at 300% is surprising. The pleasant shock is that the extreme corner, blown up to 300%, is just as sharp. Virtually identical. Wow.
Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM Overall Evaluation:
Dear Santa and my valued readers, bring me the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM for Christmas. I try to just give the objective facts, measured through my subjective priorities in this blog. With the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM, there is something extra which is hard to describe. Using it has a bit of a magic vibe. Whether it be the sharpness and contrast, the lovely bokeh, or something else intangible, I felt that many of my photos had just a bit of extra goodness with this lens.
With fast silent autofocus, very effective IBIS compatibility, and just great sharpness, it felt like every shot was being nailed.
Technically, there is some vignetting at wide aperture, but very little. Under extreme situations, there is some CA, but again very minor. Distortion is basically imperceptible. Flare is possible, but you almost need to intentionally angle your lens for it .
In terms of optical and build quality, the Sony 135mm F/1.8 is virtually perfect. Unfortunately, the $2100 prevents me from rushing to add it to my own camera bag. For those with the new Sony A7r4, I have no question that this lens will maximize its resolution.
Ultimately, this blog is primarily for enthusiasts. If you extensively shoot portraits professionally, then this lens is scored 10 out of 10. It belongs as part of your professional kit. Images from the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM will require less correction and processing than images from other lenses. Contrast and bokeh will be breathtaking.
You can see the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM on Amazon / Adorama.
For enthusiasts, doubt I would ever call any $2000+ lens a “must own” 10/10 lens. If you shoot portraits extensively, if you have the budget for it, you’ll love the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM. I am putting it on my own wish list to add to my bag some day.
So viewed as an enthusiast, it’s only losing points for the price, for a final score of:
Rating (1-10): Score: 8.9
(About my scoring: 9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer. 6-8: recommended with caveats. 3-5: A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations. 1-2: Just stick to your phone camera)
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See the Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM on Amazon / Adoram
Questions, comments or feedback about the Sony 135mm F/1.8, leave a comment below.
As of this writing, we have reviewed 43 Sony FE lenses… almost every Sony FE lens that would be of interest to enthusiast Sony photographers. Reviews of the Sony 50mm F/2.8 macro and Sony 200-600mm are currently in the works. Is there any particular lens from Sony or third party that you would like to see reviewed? Please leave a comment below.
Sony 135mm F/1.8 Review
