Canon 135mm f3.5 SC

I couldn't pass up on this lens as it came with the Canon Extender FD 2x-B.

Page Last Edited : Saturday, 19th of April 2025.
© Dave Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.

I picked this up for less than £30.00 including P&P and was absolutely stunned by how this lens looked when it arrived, it looked as though it had very little use after being purchased originally. As usual, after letting the lens warm up and a clean, well more like a wipe over, I took a few test shots from my front doorstep where the weather was unusually good and I couldn't believe the results a few minutes later, imagine doing this 40 years ago while checking out a lens you fancied in Dixons or your local camera shop?

The first photograph below is what I normally see when standing on my front doorstep. I think it was taken using a 28mm lens on an M43 camera, but I can't be sure. Anyway, it's what I see when I open the front door. The weather was rather wet and dull, as usual around here.

The field of view of the 135mm lens is aproximatley the same as putting a 270mm lens onto your 35mm SLR. This was taken at f3.5 and it suprised me.

I went to the back garden and took this shot only because the light was reflecting off the roof of that house.

This was taken at f5.6 and what a difference a stop and a half makes. This lens is a beauty but must have been limiting in the days of film due to the slow f3.5 maximum aperture.

The Oxymoron above is real. Imagine having a 2x "Extender" with a 0.72x magnification reducer on the same lens and expecting a result. OK, what does that end up as, let's see:

135mm x 2 = 270mm
f3.5 x 2 = f7.0
270mm x 0.72 = 194.4mm
f7.0 x 0.72 = f5.04

So I end up with a 194mm f5.04 telephoto lens. If you want to see some crazy mixed-up photos taken with a combination of Teleconverters and Focal Reducers, go here

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