Canon EF 135mm lens

Last updated September 12, 2025

EF 135mm f/2L USM

The Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM is a short-to-medium telephoto lens. The "135/2" is mainly used for portrait photography and for indoor sports, where the lighting is often poor. The fast f/2 aperture makes the lens ideal for both of these applications.

Among Canon photographers, the lens is highly regarded for its sharpness, contrast, and color rendition. The lens is also popular because it is very sharp at its maximum aperture of f/2, allowing the photographer to throw the background out of focus while recording a lot of detail on the primary subject. This gives the photographer fine-grained control over depth of field.

The EF 135mm f/2L USM lens offers internal focus; the length does not change while focusing. The lens is compatible with the Canon Extender EF teleconverters.

EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus

The Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus is a soft focus prime lens introduced by Canon Inc. in 1987 designed for portrait photography.

This is the only EF lens that has soft focus capabilities, allowing the user to control the lens's correction of spherical aberration. This feature is controlled by rotating the soft focus selector which has three choices; 0, 1, and 2. On the 0 setting, it functions as a standard 135mm prime lens. Settings 1 and 2 adjust the amount of softness in the focus. This is done by rotating elements that are inside of the lens to create deliberate spherical aberration.

Due to its old design, the 135mm SF does not feature USM technology; rather, it uses arc-form drive technology. Despite this, focusing is quite fast and reasonably quiet. Since focusing is achieved with the rear element, the front element does not rotate or extend. The lens supports all 52mm filters.

The lens can be used with any camera that accepts EF lenses, but cannot be used with Canon's teleconverters.

Specifications

Attribute	f/2L USM	f/2.8 w/Softfocus
Image
Key features
Full-frame compatible	Yes
Image stabilizer	No
Ultrasonic Motor	Yes	No
L-series	Yes	No
Diffractive Optics	No
Macro	No
Technical data
Aperture (max-min)	f/2–f/32	f/2.8–f/32
Construction	8 groups / 10 elements	6 groups / 7 elements
# of diaphragm blades	8	6
Closest focusing distance	0.9 m (3.0 ft)	1.3 m (4.3 ft)
Max. magnification	0.19× (1:5.3)	0.12× (1:8.3)
Horizontal viewing angle	15°
Diagonal viewing angle	18°
Vertical viewing angle	10°
Physical data
Weight	750 g (1.65 lb)	390 g (0.86 lb)
Maximum diameter	82.5 mm (3.25 in)	69.2 mm (2.72 in)
Length	112 mm (4.4 in)	98.4 mm (3.87 in)
Filter diameter	72 mm	52 mm
Accessories
Lens hood	ET-78II	ET-65III
Case	LP1219	LP1016
Retail information
Release date	April 1996	October 1987
MSRP $	$1089	$450
Street price $	$900	$279

References

"EF135mm f/2L USM specifications". Canon Camera Museum. Archived from the original on 2008-05-24. Retrieved 2008-05-31.

External links

Canon EF 135mm f/2 L USM Archived 2007-04-23 at the Wayback Machine

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v t e Canon EF/EF-S/EF-M lenses
EF-S zoom	EF-S 10–18mm EF-S 10–22mm EF-S 15–85mm EF-S 17–55mm EF-S 17–85mm EF-S 18–55mm EF-S 18–135mm EF-S 18–200mm EF-S 55–250mm
Ultra-wide zoom	EF 11–24mm EF 16–35mm EF 17–35mm† EF 17–40mm EF 20–35mm†
Standard zoom	EF 22–55mm† EF 24–70mm EF 24–85mm† EF 24–105mm EF 28–70mm† EF 28–80mm† EF 28–90mm† EF 28–105mm† EF 28–135mm EF 28–200mm† EF 28–300mm EF 35–70mm† EF 35–80mm† EF 35–105mm† EF 35–135mm† EF 35–350mm† EF 38–76mm† EF 50–200mm† EF 55–200mm†
Telephoto zoom	EF 70–200mm EF 70–210mm† EF 70–300mm EF 75–300mm EF 80–200mm† EF 90–300mm† EF 100–200mm† EF 100–300mm† EF 100–400mm EF 200–400mm
Wide-angle prime	EF 14mm EF 20mm EF 24mm EF-S 24mm EF 28mm EF 35mm
Standard prime	EF 40mm† EF 50mm
Telephoto prime	EF 85mm EF 100mm EF 135mm EF 200mm
Super telephoto prime	EF 300mm EF 400mm EF 500mm EF 600mm EF 800mm EF 1200mm†
Distorting lens	EF 8–15mm Fisheye EF 15mm Fisheye†
Tilt-shift	TS-E 17mm TS-E 24mm TS-E 45mm TS-E 50mm TS-E 90mm TS-E 135mm
Macro	EF-M 28mm Macro EF-S 35mm Macro EF 50mm Compact Macro TS-E 50mm MACRO EF-S 60mm Macro MP-E 65mm 1–5x Macro TS-E 90mm Macro EF 100mm Macro TS-E 135mm Macro EF 180mm Macro
EF-M zoom	EF-M 11–22mm EF-M 15–45mm EF-M 18–55mm EF-M 18–150mm EF-M 55–200mm
EF-M prime	EF-M 22mm EF-M 28mm Macro EF-M 32mm
Lens accessories	Extender EF
† denotes discontinued lenses.