The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena is a lens that photographers have been going crazy for. Specifically, if you’re a Nikon shooter, then you should be drooling over it. It can deliver beautiful image quality for sure and focuses very quick with the Nikon Z9 especially. However it shouldn’t be the reason why you switch over to Nikon. Indeed, Sony and Canon both make a better lens. But if you’re looking for some beautiful, dreamy image quality, it’s hard to beat this.
Table of Contents
The Big Picture
There’s a lot to like about the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena. It’s fairly lightweight overall, and doesn’t feel like anything heavy that Sigma has made in the past few years. It also autofocuses pretty quickly and closely. Though it’s faster to focus than the Canon and Sony variants on the Z9 specifically, it can focus as closely. This is a lens for a location portrait shooter that might probably end up reaching for a 70-200mm f2.8 lens instead just for the convenience. And I can’t always imagine that a lens like this would be the go-to for any portrait photographer. with that said, I think that it’s still a niche lens; but quite a special one that a photographer would really enjoy owning.
The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena receives 4 out of five stars. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
Pros
- Nice feeling in the hand
- Fast autofocus
- Very close focusing abilities, though not as close as Canon’s or Sony’s.
- Beautiful bokeh, and there seems to be a bit more pop than there is with Sony’s lens. But Canon’s has the ability to make things really trippy and gorgeous.
- Sharp without feeling like it’s too sharp
- The fact that I can work with this easily in the space of a NYC bedroom is insane. That wasn’t possible for many 135mm lenses for a long time.
Cons
- Costs more than a month of rent in NYC.
Innovations
In the space of 135mm lenses, the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena isn’t truly doing anything innovative. It’s just a really nice lens overall. Where Canon offers closer focusing, chromatic aberration control, and image stabilization, Nikon doesn’t. Sony only offers closer focusing. So truthfully, it seems like a lens where Nikon is just trying to say “we can make one too.” But it’s still gorgeous.
Gear Used
We used the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena and the Nikon Z9 on loan from Nikon. They were tested with the Profoto B10, which belongs to our studio.
Ergonomics
Taken from our first impressions
This isn’t your everyday carry lens. It’s chunky for the most part, except at the lens mount part, where it really tapers down quickly from the lens control ring. But the weight is distributed well, so you don’t find the lens tipping downward when you handhold it. It was noticeably heavier than the Nikon Zf I was testing it with. However, there was no uncomfortable weight imbalance felt during my test shoots.
If you’re a Nikon’s 85mm f1.8S portrait lens user, the 135mm will take a bit of time to adjust. This lens is a lot bigger, wider, and heavier. It reminds me of their AF-S 35mm f1.4 lens from the F-mount range.
The filter size is a large, but not massive 82mm. You have two customizable Fn buttons on the left and one on top of the lens. The large manual focus ring is very similar to what’s seen on other S-line Z-mount lenses. And the de-clicked control ring can be set to change multiple parameters based on your preference.
Build Quality
The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena is one of the company’s S-series of lenses. So, with that said, it’s weather-resistant and designed to take on some of the toughest situations you can throw at it. Without fail, everything that we’ve used from Nikon has been stellar. The only thing that’s a bit odd is the placement of the autofocus switch. It’s so out of the way that you really need to look for it. But besides that, we can’t at all complain about the build quality. This is surely a lens that you won’t take everywhere with you. But it feels positively incredible.
Ease of Use
Since this is a prime lens, there isn’t much to know about the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena. It focuses closely, and that can be very important when you’re working in a tight area. Using the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena is quite nice. When when you’re not focusing at the closest range, you can still get just the eyes in focus on a subject and see the background melt into a gorgeous bokeh. Truly, whenever I work with 135mm lenses, I’ve always felt they were difficult because of the distance. But this one has changed my mind in so many different ways.
Focusing
If you’re using this lens, we’re pretty sure that you’re going to use it either for portraits or for product photography. And indeed, that’s what it’s really designed for. Every time that we used the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena, we asked the Nikon Z9 to be more selective about the area that it was focus on. At least, we needed to do that with the product photos we did. When it came to working with people in a studio setting though, it was perfectly alright. We had no issues at all, and couldn’t be happier.
To be fair, the Nikon Z9 is the best autofocusing camera that we’ve tested in a while. With firmware updates, it became a speed demon.
Image Quality
Well, really, what do you expect us to say? That it’s not good? The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena offers incredible image quality through and through. It’s sharp, contrasty, and most importantly, it’s not so sharp that you have to do a lot of retouching to your skin. We didn’t even use the skin softening options that Nikon offers.
Bokeh
You can see in our sample images that the bokeh is beautiful. Part of this comes from the Vivid mode on the Nikon Z9 and how rich it makes the colors look. That bokeh then becomes part of the background that making your subject pop out even more in the scene.
Color Rendition
We just talked about the color. Not going to lie; my skin was lighter than it normally was when using this lens. And I’m not really sure why Nikon is doing that.
Lens Character
Nikon has engineered character out of this lens in our minds. While it’s beautiful, we didn’t see any lens flare. Honestly, we wanted a bit of lens flare at least.
Sharpness
There’s no need to have any fear when shooting portraits. Your subjects will look sharp, but they won’t need a whole lot of retouching when shooting them. Lots of photographers have used the Nikon 105mm for portraits in the past. But this is arguably better.
Image Samples
From day one, The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Who Should Buy the Plena?
If you shoot Nikon and want a 135mm lens, then the Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 Plena is perhaps your best bet. At the same time, the Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 is also a very good option. But to make the most of this lens, you really need a lot of room. And some of us just don’t have that.
Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
Tech Specs
These specs are taken from the Lensrentals listing.
Angle of View | 18° 10’ |
Aperture Blades | 11, Rounded |
Autofocus | Autofocus |
Brand | Nikon |
Filter Size | 82.0mm |
General | Dimensions (ø x L)3.9 × 5.5″ / 98 × 139.5mm2.2 lb. / 995 gWeight |
Hood Included | Yes |
Image Stabilization | No |
Item Type | Lens |
Lens Type | Telephoto |
Max Aperture | 1.8 |
Maximum Magnification | 0.2x |
Mfr. Model Number | 20123 |
Minimum Aperture | 16.0 |
Minimum Focusing Distance | 2.7feet |
Mount | Nikon Z |
Optical Design | Groups/Elements14/16114Short-Wavelength Refractive Front ElementsAspherical ElementsExtra-Low Dispersion Elements |