Smooth bokeh, amazing colours
I bought this lens on Ebay in May 2025 for £23.98 (including postage). It’s quite a heavy lens, and feels very solid.
The 15-blade version is quite old – 50+ years – and the lens is a little wobbly, but still produces amazing results.
A little bit of history about the Pentacon 135 mm 2.8
The Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 15-blade lens has a strong reputation among vintage lens enthusiasts, particularly for its smooth bokeh and solid construction.
Originally made by Meyer-Optik Görlitz as the Orestor 135mm f/2.8, the lens featured a distinctive 15-blade aperture. In 1968, Meyer-Optik was merged into VEB Pentacon, and the lens was rebranded under the Pentacon name. It was primarily built for M42 mount cameras and produced in East Germany throughout the 1960s and 70s.
Its standout feature is the 15-blade diaphragm, which creates a near-perfect circular aperture even when stopped down. This results in soft, creamy background blur that made the lens popular for portraits and close-ups. Because of this, it’s often called the “bokeh monster.”
The lens is made entirely of metal, includes a built-in retractable hood, and weighs around 500 grams. Over time, Pentacon introduced a newer version with just 6 blades and improved coatings, but many photographers still prefer the original 15-blade model for its unique image quality.
After German reunification in 1990, Pentacon was dissolved, and lens production eventually moved to South Korea. Despite that, the original 15-blade version remains popular today for its character and vintage charm.
First impressions of the Pentacon 135
Focusing distance is about 1 m, but even through the viewfinder on my Canon R3 it looked really sharp.
The aperture ring is not a stepped ring, but it’s a smooth aperture change, so you can move the dial up and down if you need more depth of field and/or more or less light.
When I downloaded the images, the first impression I got was “Wow, these colours are amazing!”
I took these images on a sunny day and – yes – flowers are colourful, but my other lenses don’t “pop” that much!
I just spent about 15 mins in the garden today, taking some flower photos, I am super impressed. I mostly used F2.8 as I wanted to explore the bokeh and – as promised – it’s super smooth.
Unlike the Helios 44-2, which creates spectacular bokeh effects behind your subject, the Pentacon 135 creates a buttery smooth bokeh.
What is the Pentacon 135 F2.8 vintage lens best suited for?
I used to be a wedding & family photographer, and I’ve read this lens is awesome for portraits.
When taking photos of people, I need to react quickly and I prefer a superfast autofocus.
As this lens is manual focus, it would take some getting used to and maybe would lend itself for portrait shoots where you don’t have to amend the focus quickly. You have to move the focus ring quite a bit to shift focus from things close up to subjects further away.
Personally, I think it’s a superb lens for flower and macro enthusiasts. I haven’t tried out much macro yet, but will post some in the future.
If you like poppy colours and buttery smooth bokeh, it’s £23.98 well spent!
