Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM Lens: A Comprehensive Review

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is a high-performance prime lens that belongs to Sony's esteemed G Master series. With a wide aperture of f/1.8, it offers excellent subject isolation, breathtaking bokeh, and exceptional sharpness. Designed for Sony's full-frame mirrorless cameras, this lens is tailored for professional photographers and videographers, particularly those who specialize in portraiture, wildlife, and event photography.

The 135mm f/1.8 GM stands out not only because of its optical performance but also due to its robust build quality, fast autofocus, and versatility in demanding environments. This review will examine the lens in-depth, covering its features, build quality, image quality, performance in photography and videography, use cases, autofocus, price, and more.

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Features / Specifications

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM comes with several features that make it one of the best lenses in its focal length category. Below are the key specifications:

Aperture: f/1.8 to f/22, providing a shallow depth of field at f/1.8 and flexibility for controlled depth at smaller apertures.
Lens Elements: 13 elements in 10 groups, including 1 XA (extreme aspherical) element and 1 ED (extra-low dispersion) element. These elements reduce chromatic aberration and minimize optical distortions.
Coating: Nano AR Coating to reduce flare and ghosting and enhance contrast in challenging lighting conditions.
Minimum Focus Distance: 0.7 meters (2.3 feet), which allows for relatively close focusing at a telephoto focal length.
Autofocus: Dual linear motors and a floating focusing mechanism for fast and precise autofocus performance, ideal for both stills and video.
Bokeh: Rounded 11-blade aperture for smooth, aesthetically pleasing bokeh.
Filter Size: 82mm, a common size for many high-performance lenses.
Weight: 1,010 grams (35.7 oz), which is relatively lightweight for a telephoto prime lens of this caliber.
Weather Sealing: Yes, providing protection against dust and moisture for outdoor use in challenging environments.

Build Quality

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM exhibits exceptional build quality, consistent with Sony’s G Master standards. Its design is sleek, professional, and rugged, making it ideal for demanding environments.

Material Construction: The lens barrel is constructed from high-quality metal, ensuring durability while keeping weight to a manageable level. The smooth matte finish and textured control rings give the lens a premium feel.
Weather Sealing: With its weather-sealed construction, this lens is well-protected from dust, moisture, and occasional splashes, making it suitable for outdoor shoots even in less-than-ideal conditions.
Focus and Aperture Rings: The focus ring is wide and smooth, offering precise manual control. The aperture ring features tactile clicks that help make it easy to adjust the aperture in 1/3-stop increments, although videographers may prefer using the click-less aperture ring to avoid noise during video recording.
Durability: The lens is designed to withstand tough conditions, and its rugged build makes it a solid choice for professional photographers who need a dependable tool in the field.

Size, Weight, and Dimensions

Compared to other telephoto primes, the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM strikes a balance between portability and professional-grade performance.

Dimensions: 93.5mm (3.7 inches) in diameter, 181.5mm (7.1 inches) in length.
Weight: 1,010 grams (35.7 oz). While this is relatively light for a lens of this focal length and aperture, it’s still on the heavier side for some users, especially for handheld shooting during long sessions.
Filter Size: 82mm, which is a convenient size and a common standard for telephoto lenses in this category.

Despite the weight, the lens is well-balanced on Sony’s full-frame mirrorless bodies, providing comfort during extended shoots. The longer barrel can feel front-heavy at times, particularly when mounted on smaller mirrorless cameras, but this is a minor concern for those used to telephoto lenses.

Image Quality

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM delivers outstanding image quality with exceptional sharpness, color reproduction, and bokeh, making it an excellent choice for professional photographers and videographers.

Sharpness

Center Sharpness: The sharpness of this lens is nothing short of remarkable. Even at its widest aperture of f/1.8, the center of the frame is extremely sharp, rendering fine details crisply. When stopped down to f/2.8 to f/5.6, the sharpness increases slightly, and the image remains tack-sharp across the frame.
Edge Sharpness: The lens holds up well even at the edges of the frame. While there is slight softness at f/1.8, edge sharpness improves significantly by f/2.8. By f/4, the lens offers near-perfect sharpness across the entire frame.
Overall Consistency: The lens performs consistently across its aperture range, delivering excellent sharpness for both wide-open shots and smaller apertures. This consistency is ideal for high-end portrait and commercial photographers who rely on flawless image quality in every shot.

Color Reproduction and Contrast

Color Rendering: The 135mm f/1.8 GM produces vibrant, accurate colors with rich saturation. The lens maintains natural skin tones in portraiture and vivid color reproduction across various genres, including landscape and wildlife photography.
Contrast: The Nano AR Coating does an excellent job of reducing flare and ghosting, even in backlit or high-contrast scenes. Images are punchy, with deep blacks and crisp highlights, making the lens great for dramatic lighting scenarios or any situation that requires high contrast.

Bokeh

Bokeh is one of the standout features of the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM. With its 11-blade aperture, it creates a beautifully smooth and rounded blur in the background.

Smooth Bokeh: The bokeh at f/1.8 is exceptionally smooth and creamy, which makes this lens an excellent choice for portrait photographers looking for a soft, out-of-focus background to emphasize their subject. The transition from sharp focus to blurred areas is gentle and pleasant to the eye.
Close-Up Bokeh: While 135mm is longer than most portrait lenses, the background blur remains beautiful and pleasing when working with subjects at closer distances. The shallow depth of field at f/1.8 gives photographers incredible control over their composition.

Optical Performance

Chromatic Aberration: Chromatic aberration is very well-controlled, and even in high-contrast areas, such as bright skies against dark tree branches, there is minimal color fringing.
Distortion: The lens exhibits minimal distortion, especially considering its longer focal length. Straight lines remain crisp, and the image quality is almost completely free of noticeable barrel or pincushion distortion.
Flare and Ghosting: Thanks to the Nano AR Coating, the lens performs admirably in challenging lighting conditions. It effectively controls flare and ghosting when shooting towards light sources, ensuring images remain clean and sharp.
Vignetting: There is some light vignetting at f/1.8, but it is quite mild and can be corrected in post-processing. By f/2.8, the vignetting is virtually gone, and the lens performs optimally.

Autofocus

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM uses a high-performance autofocus system with dual linear motors. This system ensures fast, precise, and near-silent autofocus, making it suitable for both photography and videography.

Speed and Precision: Autofocus is very fast and accurate, making it suitable for both stationary and moving subjects.
Quiet Operation: The autofocus operates almost silently, which is essential for videography, as there are no distracting sounds during recording.
Tracking: Excellent tracking performance ensures that even fast-moving subjects stay in focus.

Performance in Photography and Videography

Photography:

Portrait Photography: The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is an exceptional portrait lens, offering beautiful subject isolation, excellent sharpness, and stunning bokeh. Whether you’re shooting headshots or full-body portraits, the lens renders fine details like hair texture and skin tones with remarkable accuracy.
Sports and Wildlife: The fast f/1.8 aperture allows photographers to shoot in low light and use a shallow depth of field to isolate moving subjects. The lens excels in capturing fast motion, making it suitable for sports and wildlife photography.
Low-Light Performance: The f/1.8 aperture is beneficial in low-light conditions, allowing for faster shutter speeds and more control over exposure without introducing excessive noise. This makes the lens great for indoor events, concerts, or evening portrait sessions.

Videography:

Autofocus Performance: The fast, accurate autofocus system ensures that the lens remains responsive and reliable, even when tracking fast-moving subjects in video. The autofocus is smooth and nearly silent, making it perfect for video recording, especially for interviews or cinematic projects.
Manual Focus: The manual focus ring is smooth and precise, which is useful for videographers who prefer to manually focus in certain situations. It also benefits from a hard stop at both ends, which improves the accuracy of focus pulls.
Bokeh for Video: The creamy bokeh produced by the lens contributes to a cinematic look, making it highly suitable for creating films or professional-quality video content where the background blur plays an important role.

Use Cases

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is versatile, offering excellent performance in a variety of professional photography and videography applications:

Portrait Photography: With its outstanding sharpness and beautiful bokeh, the lens is perfect for portraits.
Sports and Wildlife Photography: The fast autofocus and long focal length make it suitable for action shots.
Event Photography: Ideal for capturing candid moments at weddings, parties, or other events, where subject isolation is key.
Videography: Its smooth focus transitions, fast autofocus, and bokeh quality make it an excellent tool for filmmakers and videographers.
Astrophotography: While primarily a portrait lens, its ability to perform well in low light also makes it useful for astrophotography, where sharpness and low-light capabilities are essential.

Price

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is priced at the higher end of the spectrum, but for professionals, its performance justifies the cost. It offers excellent optical quality, fast autofocus, and a solid build, making it a top choice for serious photographers and videographers who demand the best.

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM is a remarkable lens that offers superior image quality, fast autofocus, and exceptional build quality. It is versatile enough to handle a wide range of photographic and videographic needs, making it an excellent choice for professionals. While its price may be a consideration for some, it is undoubtedly a high-performing lens that delivers outstanding results across the board.

Conclusion

Rating

Our overall rating: 9.1/10

The Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM excels in almost every category. Whether you’re a portrait photographer, wildlife shooter, or videographer, it provides stunning results that justify its premium price. This lens is an excellent investment for professionals looking for top-tier performance.