7Artisans 135mm f1.8 Review: Too Good for Only $689!

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There are very few 135mm lenses that I haven’t liked. Nikon already has the very good 135mm f1.8 Plena and the Viltrox 135mm f1.8. And today, the brand is getting a third: the 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 — with autofocus. The incredible thing about this lens is just how closely it focuses: about 0.68m close, translating to just over two feet away. Plus, it boasts weather resistance and uses all of Nikon’s scene detection. Now here’s the big thing: it’s even comfortable on the Nikon Zf without a grip.

The 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 MAX will come in the Nikon Z mount first with both Sony E and Leica L mount coming later. And it’s launching for only $689. That’s cheaper than the Viltrox offering and much, much cheaper than the Nikon 135mm f1.8 Plena. And in all reality, you won’t be able to tell the differences between most of these lenses if you’re not pixel peeping. Even then, it depends on how it’s all lit.

Table of Contents

The Big Picture: 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 Review Conclusions

This review is still in development, and we will publish our full conclusions soon.

Experience

This review is still in development, and we will publish our full experiences soon.

A black camera with a large lens resting on open magazines in sunlight. — 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 product image

Using this lens with the Nikon Zf is quite a fascinating experience. When you pick it up, it feels really, really solid. In fact, I just picked it up before continuing to write this review, and felt that it was cold to the touch. However, it’s not as cold as the 7Artisans 14mm f4 Tilt Shift lens that’s also currently in my office. And so, I think the exterior is metal but I’m not totally sure about that.

What I am sure of is how it feels. There are lots of controls on it: two function buttons, a giant focusing ring, and another ring towards the back. If you set the control ring to control the aperture, know that there is no click/de-click function on the lens. However, there is a USB port and I assume that you may be able to configure that using some piece of software or an app. But I’m not sure yet.

7Artisans told me that it has a weather sealing ring. And so I know that it’s incorporated, but I don’t know if weather resistance is fully built into the lens throughout.

The autofocus experience, while functional, isn’t like using a Nikon lens. Sometimes I have a few autofocusing mishaps and I have to change the focusing mode that I’m using. But this doesn’t happen all that often. Still, the autofocus is very fast and accurate. Specifically, I’m talking about when the exposure preview settings are off. When the exposure effect preview is activated, the lens can lose focus in 3D tracking mode and with AF-C activated in situations where the scene is underexposed. Realistically speaking though, that shouldn’t be a major problem if you’re using this lens for portraits in a studio setting and you know what you’re doing with lighting.

In the AF-S setting and using a small focusing point, the lens doesn’t suffer from many issues. In fact, a scene that should’ve been exposed at 1/60th and f1.8 didn’t trip up the Nikon Zf and the 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 when it was majorly underexposed to 1/2000th instead. That’s pretty impressive. And if you’re making studio portraits, I really don’t think that you’d use AF-C all that often. Instead, you’d probably just use AF-S and face detection.

Image Quality

In terms of image quality, I’m insanely impressed with what the 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 is capable of doing. But note that we have to do further tests as we’ve had this lens for less than a week so far.

The following images were edited in Capture One.

Green leafy plant by a window with sunlight shining through a slightly foggy glass.

A green air plant in a macramé hanger, hanging in front of a window with soft natural light.

A woman with long dark hair smiles, covering her mouth with her hand, and wears a ring on her finger.

Woman with long black hair smiling softly, wearing a colorful shirt, sitting indoors near a window.

Close-up of a person with long hair and a concerned expression on their face.

A man with glasses and a beard stands indoors, wearing a floral shirt and looking slightly to the side.

The following images are straight out of camera.

Smiling person with glasses sits in front of a window with dark curtains in the background.

Man with dark hair and glasses looking directly at the camera, wearing a light patterned shirt.

A man with short dark hair and a beard looks thoughtful, with plants blurred in the background.

Just for fun, you should check these out. In the below gallery, the image on the left is from the Nikon 135mm f1.8 Plena using the Nikon Z9, the middle photo is from the Viltrox 135mm f1.8 using the Sony a7r III, and the photo on the right is from the new 7Artisans 135mm f1.8 using the Nikon Zf. Here’s the truth: if you’re not pixel peeping, you can’t tell the differences at all.

They all have nice bokeh, sharpness, etc.

Tech Specs

The following table was taken from 7Artisans’ press communications.

Lens specifications chart showing focal length, aperture range, optical construction, and other technical details.

Declaration of Journalistic Intent

The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:

At the time of publishing this review, 7Artisans is not running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
7Artisans provided the unit and accessories to the Phoblographer for review. There was no money exchange between us or their 3rd party partners and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt. We get to keep the lens.
7Artisans knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let our readers know.
7Artisans paid for shipping of the lens to and back. This is a standard practice in the world of journalism.
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