What is a 135mm lens best used for?
The 135mm lens is a favorite of many portrait photographers for great reason. They compress your subject quite a bit, make everyone look fantastic, can be used for headshots and wider portraits, and blur the background into oblivion.
With a 135mm telephoto prime lens you can shoot a diverse range of subjects, explore depth of field and create beautifully compressed images with many subjects. It may not be the most popular focal width, but is definitely worth considering when choosing a telephoto prime for your kit.
Like the 200mm f/2 lens, the 135mm takes advantage of lens compression to create beautiful, bokeh-filled works of art. The 135mm f/2 (or f/1.8) lens is also much smaller, lighter, and less cost-prohibitive than the 200mm f/2, which makes it a great go-to portrait lens.
Less Distortion:
A common problem you'll encounter when shooting with a 35mm or 50mm lens is facial or picture distortion. However, you can always find a way to work around it. With an 85mm lens, you can capture perfect up close and full-length portraits without facial distortions.
“In conclusion, the 85mm will be a good choice for you if you tend to do a lot of close-up portrait photography. But if you're planning to do more senior portraits or bridal portraits in the long run, the 135mm will be your best bet.”
An 85mm lens is excellent for portrait work. By isolating the subject and minimizing distortion, this lens can produce captivating, flattering portraits, headshots, and full-body images. Ask “What is 85mm lens good for?” and you're likely to get the default response “portrait work.”
Unlike modern 135mm fixed primes, many of which allow you to focus as close as 2.6'—or about a quarter life size, the 135mm f/3.5 Nikkor-Q only focuses down to a paltry five feet, which is fine for head-and-shoulder photographs but a total no-go when it comes to capturing tight facial close-ups.
For me, the killer feature in the 135 mm is that f/1.8 aperture. For context, an f/2.8 lens is generally considered to be a great low-light option for wildlife photography.
Unlike the 18-55mm version, the 18-135mm is able to handle decent level wildlife and sports photography. It's also the perfect lens for shooting portraits with your Canon DSLR camera. You can even shoot wildlife close-ups like the image below with the 18-135.
A 50 mm lens is best for full-body portraits at waist level, both in the studio and on location. But, if you want to take a head or shoulder portrait, getting too close to your model can cause distortion because the facial features become too small, the face is too thin, and the nose looks bigger than it actually is.
Is 50mm or 85mm better for portraits?
The 85mm focal length is perfect for portraits thanks to the levels of compression they provide, and because they do not distort facial features.
85mm Prime Lens
A majority of portrait photographers would agree that this is one of the best lenses for portraits, especially the f/1.8 lens. This option is available for most camera brands, including Nikon, Sony, and other mirrorless cameras.
If you do a lot of headshots, 85mm is probably the better choice. You can capture beautiful, tight images from a reasonable distance, whereas headshots at 50mm can put you uncomfortably close. On the other hand, if you gravitate toward full-body or even group shots, 50mm is ideal.
Distance from subject
To fit the same proportion of your subject in the frame with a 50mm lens you have to be closer to your subject than with an 85mm lens. So, if you don't have the space, a 50mm lens is better.
If you're shooting a big family, a 50 or 85mm lens will give you the wide angle you need to get everyone in the frame. If you're shooting family portraits with only a couple of subjects, you can use a lens with a slightly longer focal length, like an 85mm, to fill the frame without having to stand too close.
Even if you already have the 70-200mm zoom lens, the 85mm 1.8 is still worth owning because it is still going to give you more bokeh, it is sharp enough to shoot wide open, and it is roughly 1.5 stops or so brighter than the 70-200mm f/2.8.
Reason #1: Works Well for Both Full Length and Closeup Portraits. While other lenses, such as 24mm or 35mm primes, have their place in a portrait photographer's toolkit, they don't work quite as well as the 85mm for closeup portraits.
The closest focus of the Nikon 85mm f/1.8G is 2.6 ft (0.8m). With a depth of field calculator at f/4 and a subject distance of 20 ft, the depth of field would be a bit over 2.5 ft. That will vary depending on if you have a full frame sensor, your subject distance and your aperture.
The 85mm has a lovely photojournalistic appeal, so I love standing at the farther point in the prep room and shoot with a wide aperture so the bride is in focus and items/people in the foreground are blurred. 50mm f/1.2 – this lens is the most versatile in my opinion.
85mm lenses cost more than many prime lenses at different focal lengths, but the price is worth it if you regularly plan to use your equipment. You can capture unique portraits and landscape photos and even use your lens for less conventional photography types—such as street shots.
Is an 85mm good for wedding?
With apertures as wide as f/1.4 (and a staggering f/1.2 in the case of Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens), they are not only good at even the darkest environments a wedding photographer may find himself or herself in, but are also brilliant for shallow depth of field photography, especially portraits.
Here is a short list of great astrophotography targets to shoot at 135mm with this lens: Orion's Belt (Including the Horsehead Nebula, Orion Nebula, and M78. The Witch Head Nebula including Rigel in Orion (Careful with star reflection!) The Rosette Nebula and Surrounding Nebulosity.
It is not what it was primarily designed for, but the Canon 85mm f/1.8 is my go-to lens for shooting indoor sports such as basketball or volleyball. 85mm is a really useful focal length for capturing mid-court action, and the f/1.8 aperture facilitates the high shutter speeds (1/1000s) needed for basketball.
The Rokinon 135mm F2. 0 ED UMC Lens is a manual focus telephoto prime lens useful for portraiture and most telephoto applications. Its fast f/2.0 maximum aperture is effective in low light and enables shallow depth of field control.
Many football photographers will use large prime lenses between 400-600 mm. With large zoom and prime lenses, having a monopod for support is essential. Be sure to turn on image stabilization, and you might even want to tape that switch so that you don't jostle the setting while moving around during the game.
50mm is definitely the equivalent to the human eye, says the camera salesman who is trying to sell you a camera with a 50mm lens. Look around. Yes, a 50mm lens could offer a similar view as the human eye. But so could a 24mm, a 70mm, a 200mm.
After figuring in the wide-field factor and how it plays out in a 24x36mm field, you end up with – depending on numerous factors including ambient light, subject-to-eye distance, as well as the health and age of the individual – a focal length of about 22 to 24mm, with 22.3mm getting the majority vote as being closest ...
The 135mm focal length (which is wide in astronomy terms) will allow you to capture impressive images of larger nebulae and deep-sky objects whilst short enough to make tracking manageable, even with a simple star tracker mount.
Wildlife Photography
An 85mm lens is excellent for creating distance between you and the wildlife you wish to photograph. You can use it to capture the animal's face, as well as to create more depth in your photo by getting the surroundings in too.
- Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II (£1,820 // $2,000) ...
- Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 (£1,150 // $1,400) ...
- Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 (£800 // $1,000) ...
- Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 (£1,300 // $1,400) ...
- Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 (£1,750 // $2,100) ...
- Nikon 300mm f/2.8 (£4,800 // $5,500)
What focal length do wildlife photographers use?
The best focal length depends on your subjects and how close you can get to them. It's hard to get close to most wild subjects, so wildlife photographers generally use long lenses: at least 300mm for an APS-C DSLR, or 400mm for a full-frame DSLR or 35mm SLR.
A 130mm telescope is more than good enough to observe every planet in the Solar system.
Short focal length (5-10mm) eyepieces provide high power magnifications and are best for observing the planets and the moon on medium focal length telescopes.
The 80mm objective lens and short 400mm (f/5.0) focal length are perfect for taking in wide swaths of the heavens, making it ideal for larger deep-sky objects. You'll see spectacular star clusters, wispy nebulas, and expansive galaxies with this telescope, but it also excels at viewing objects in our solar system.
