The powerhouse portraiture lens, the 135mm f/2, has been discontinued. This apparently happened while I wasn’t paying attention and wow am I bummed about it. I own a copy already and love it and I hate the fact that I now can’t get a direct replacement if something ever happened to my copy.
This is on top of the 200mm f/2.8 lens being discontinued. The 200mm was never as popular as the other what could now be called “legacy” L series lenses but it was a powerhouse for the price. I think it was $800 and you got amazingly sharp performance down to f/3.2.
The lens far exceeded the Canon sensors when it was originally manufactured and once you could marry the lens to a modern mirrorless Sony camera body you got something amazing. I can’t express just how much a mirrorless sensor brought out the 200mm’s good qualities.
Now there is a new RF 135mm f/1.8 but it isn’t the same lens design. For one thing it’s faster by a bit and for another obviously it’s designed for the modern Canon mirrorless mount.
It’s just sad that we’re now at a point where Canon has seemingly abandoned the legacy DSLR camera bodies and lenses. Some of these lenses are iconic and have been so for decades. You’d think Canon would have a little more respect for their own past.