A bit faster than most 135mm lenses of the time.
A quick comparison to the 35-135mm f3.5-4.5 Zoom is also
included at the end of the page.
Page Last Edited : Friday, 5th of September 2025.
© Dave Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.
I came across this lens from a seller from whom I normally get some great lenses from and before the lens arrived, he reduced the price because he hadn't noticed the scuff marks on the front element and the "Poor" condition the lens was in. It's a bit scruffy, so what, it's a sign that the lens itself was well used by the photographer and you never use something over and over if it's not up to scratch. This is one of the lenses I bought off eBay thinking I'd never win the auction and forgot about it until the "You have won, pay now" kind of email from eBay landed in your inbox. At the moment I have a bid on a "Helios Macro Bellows Camera Attachment", as described by the seller (23/02/2025) and the highest bid so far is mine at £2.79 plus P&P. Sometimes you can grab a bargain, the last bellows I purchased I converted to M43 fittings, anyway enough of that and let's look at this lens in more detail.
After a clean and adding the Canon FD to Micro Four Thirds adapter it looks the part but didn't add to the weight.
A great looking lens of the time and is quite capable of producing some quality images on modern cameras.
I find it realy handy when the hood is provided on the lens, no need for extra space in your camera bag.
There are no visible signs of any of the markings on the photos taken, I did try pointing it at bright lights but did not find anything out of the ordinary.
Stopped down to f6.3, well, between f5 and f8, this lens produces some great images with colour and contrast.
It's amazingly sharp for a lens of this age, even with the blemishes on the front lens coatings it will pass my tests.
One of my normal "Front Door" photographs, when the white horse box is in place, it used to be blue
That church will soon dissapear from view because of the way the trees are growing, a lot has changed in the last 45 or more years due to nature.
This telephone pole has gone through so many changes over the years but great for checking the resolution of my lenses or camera sensor.
The lettering is what gives it all away. Sometimes cobwebs can be seen which is quite impressive.
The shot below is a 300% magnification, which impressed me, with a full screenshot of the image in IrvanView below it.
It's a great fit for my Olympus OM-D E-M5 II without the battery grips.
Looks can be deceiving as the lens weighs 410g, the camera is roughly the same weight at 417g.
It's a great combination, though. It's great to hold, and with focus peaking, it is a joy to use.
The lens is roughly 46 years old (In 2025) and is still in great condition. The camera was announced in February 2015, so we have a 46 year old lens atatched to a 10 year old camera which can still create some stunning images.
They don't make them like this anymore. My great-grandson wondered how we managed to take photographs using something so heavy.
And not too much plastic. The E-M5 II has a metal shell with only the buttons seemingly made of plastic. A great combination for a day out.
The lens itself evokes memories of a system that made you feel like you got what you paid for as in glass, metal and the weight of it all.
One of my standard "FOD" (Front Of Door) shots, but this time with the sun shining for a short while.
I zoomed in on this and noticed the flag above the centre left, and was amazed at how it rendered.
While I was out taking the test shots for the lens this showed up just above the slate tip across the road from my house. I managed to get two photographs of it before it dissapeared.
I know it's just a cloud formation, but looking at the shape of it, what does it make you think of?
In my opinion, this is an impressive lens, and if you get one in decent condition, keep hold of it. I'll be checking out its qualities using the "High Resolution" modes on each of my E-M5 II and E-M1 II cameras and will post the results here.
A Quick Comparison
I recently acquired the Tamron 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 Zoom lens, which I'd been after for a while, as I'd heard and seen some great things about it and wanted to check it out myself.
Here they are side by side with the Zoom on the right set to the 135mm position.
The 135mm Prime weighs 502g and the Zoom 634g, both with end caps, the Canon FD to M43 adapter weighs 56g without any caps.
The lenses are well made and are mainly steel and glass. The front lenses on both of them stand out. Using them on the M43 system means that the 135mm has a FOV of a 270mm lens and the zoom has an impressive focal range of 70-270mm FOV.
The most obvious limitation is the maximum aperture of the zoom at 135mm, which is f4.5 compared to the prime at f2.5. The images below were taken within minutes of each other, hoping the weather didn't change drastically.
Tamron 135mm f2.5 shot at f5.6, 1/500th, ISO 200.
Tamron 135mm f2.5 200% Crop of previous image.
Tamron 35-135mm f3.5-4.5 at 135mm, taken at f5.6, 1/800th, ISO 200.
Tamron 35-135mm f3.5-4.5 at 135mm 200% Crop of previous image.
The comparison images above were taken straight out of the camera as JPegs at my default size of 3200 x 2400 pixels, and the reason for the 200% crop. The weather was dull as usual, with the odd spots of rain along with some sunshine peeping through the clouds.
And, just for a simple, fun test, I cropped both to 500% to see what they looked like.
Tamron 135mm f2.5 shot at f5.6, 1/500th, ISO 200, cropped to 500%,
Tamron 35-135mm f3.5-4.5 at 135mm, taken at f5.6, 1/800th, ISO 200, cropped to 500%.
