Originally posted by blackcloudbrew Even though I own a DA*50-135 and find it to be a wonderful lens, every time I've shot with one of the several old 135 primes I've owned, on any of my APS-c cameras I find that length hard to work with and just not that useful. Honestly that's why the DA*50-135 is there. It gives you a the 135 length when you need it and a lot of others at the same time. I think one could also pose the same question about why no DA 85 f1.4 and have the same answer, it just isn't that useful with a cropped sensor.
I picked up a cheap, plasticy FA28-90mm - I absolutely love that lens, and I've used the upper end of the lens quite a bit. It stays reasonably sharp, and retains a decent bokeh throughout. Granted, at 90mm its slow as hell at f/5.6, but its not exactly a lens I expect great things from (therefore I'm always getting pleasantly surprised by its performance.
As I said - its a budget lens from the film days and pure plastic, but you can get them dirt cheap with a bit of digging. It primarily is used as my 'out and about grabbing family snapshots' lens. If I break the thing, I'm not going to be overly upset since it costs so little.
This was shot at f/8 at the 90mm end of the lens - you can see the bokeh is staying nice and not-ugly even stopped down a bit.
I also have two manual focus 135mm primes and they're both pains in the butt to use due to the length. If I want a 135mm equivalent, I'm grabbing the plastic wonder instead.