Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm F 1 8 S Plena Review | 54 Data compared

The Photography Life review hails the Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena as an optically elite portrait lens delivering best-in-class performance, characterized by exceptional edge-to-edge sharpness, natural contrast, and virtually no severe vignetting or "cat's eye" bokeh at f/1.8. Its robust, weather-sealed metal build and specialized, rounded bokeh in the corners make it a top-tier choice for professional portraiture. However, the 995-gram, 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a heavy, specialized lens that lacks built-in vibration reduction (VR), relying entirely on camera-based stabilization. While featuring dual STM motors for high-precision, the autofocus system is optimized for accuracy rather than extreme speed, and the lens carries a high $2,500 price point, limiting its versatility compared to more specialized action lenses.

The Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena is a premium, heavyweight prime lens ($2,499.95) for the Nikon Z system that delivers outstanding resolution and beautifully defocused backgrounds, earning it an Editors' Choice award. Designed heavily for portraiture and bokeh enthusiasts, it outperforms the pricier Nikkor Z 85mm F1.2 S overall by offering superior edge-to-edge illumination that creates perfectly rounded, circular bokeh highlights without "cat's eye" distortion, even at its wide-open f/1.8 setting. Built to withstand the elements, the lens features a mix of metal and polycarbonate construction, complete with internal weather sealing and a smudge-resistant fluorine coating on the front glass element. In lab testing, it achieved fantastic sharpness figures—scoring higher than any lens previously tested on a 45MP sensor at f/2.8-4—and successfully sidesteps longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) false color. Despite its stellar optical performance, the lens does come with some notable drawbacks. Its main cons include a dual stepping motor (STM) autofocus system that can occasionally lose track or miss critical focus on quickly moving subjects, making it less than ideal for fast-paced sports or wildlife photography. Additionally,...

The Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a highly exceptional, large, and heavy prime lens manufactured in Thailand that offers spectacular edge-to-edge brightness and minimal field curvature. Its standout performance lies in its extreme edge-to-edge sharpness, which remains excellent from center to corner even when shot wide open at f/1.8. Thanks to an oversized image circle, it delivers beautiful bokeh balls that are impressively free of edge impacts and onion-skinning, while achieving the lowest amount of wide-open vignetting encountered in a prime lens. For handling, the build quality is dust and drip resistant, balancing beautifully on larger bodies like the Nikon Z8 and Z9. Despite its optical mastery, the lens exhibits a few notable drawbacks, most notably its vulnerability to colored ghosting and prismatic flare when a bright light source enters the frame. It also displays heavy longitudinal chromatic aberration on high-contrast edges and within the bokeh, which requires stopping down past f/2.8 to control. Additionally, users will experience modest pincushion distortion, subtle corner softness when shooting wide open at the minimum focus distance of 32 inches, and slight focus...

The Digital Camera World overview highlights 2023 as a transformative year for Nikon, headlined by the launch of the Nikon Z8 and the full-frame retro Nikon Zf. The Nikon Z8 serves as a highly successful "baby Z9," compressing the powerhouse capabilities of Nikon's flagship pro shooter into a smaller, more affordable, and compact body. Key pros of the Z8 include its blazing-fast, stacked 45.7MP full-frame CMOS sensor, powerful Expeed 7 processor, fierce 10-recognition deep-learning autofocus, and the capacity for stunning 8K 60p video. Furthermore, by boldly ditching the mechanical shutter completely, it achieves rapid shooting speeds up to 120fps. However, on the con side, its autofocus precision, while exceptionally strong, may still slightly lag behind the specialized tracking precision found in rival Sony or Canon systems. On the vintage end of the spectrum, the Nikon Zf debuted to immediate acclaim from film photography enthusiasts by bringing a full-frame 24.5MP sensor to Nikon's vintage-inspired lineup. The major pros of the Zf center on its premium build quality—utilizing a rugged magnesium alloy body, tactile brass external dials, and advanced internal smarts like...

The Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena is a premium portrait lens for the Nikon Z-mount, praised for its edge-to-edge brightness, exceptional sharpness, and specialized bokeh that eliminates "cat's eye" distortion. The robust, weather-sealed metal lens offers professional handling with dual control rings, though its nearly 1kg weight creates imbalance on smaller camera bodies. Key disadvantages include noticeable focus breathing for video, imperfect resistance to direct backlight flare, and a restrictive focal length that demands significant working distance. While delivering superior image quality, the $2,500 lens is positioned as a niche tool rather than a versatile option.

The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 S Plena is an outstanding, premium prime lens designed for full-frame mirrorless cameras, highly praised for its unique and gorgeous bokeh. It stands out by producing round bokeh balls with almost zero "cat's eye" distortion, combined with excellent sharpness, high contrast, and smooth background transitions. Mechanically, the lens features fast and highly accurate autofocus, lower focus breathing (5%) than competing portrait lenses, robust weather sealing, and advanced anti-reflective coatings like the Meso Amorphous Coat to combat flare. Its 135mm focal length offers 60% more reach than an 85mm lens, enabling superb subject isolation that makes it highly appealing for portrait and wedding photographers. However, the lens comes with several notable disadvantages, primarily regarding its size, weight, and steep price tag of approximately $2,497 USD. Weighing 995 grams and measuring 98 x 140mm, it is physically large, heavy, and bulky, which can require a significant step-back distance in smaller studios. Additionally, it lacks built-in optical image stabilization—relying instead entirely on the camera's in-body sensor shift—and lacks a focus limiter switch. Finally, the lens does not feature...

The Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a high-performance, weather-sealed medium-telephoto prime lens designed for exceptional optical quality, offering superb edge-to-edge sharpness and beautiful, circular bokeh at f/1.8. It excels in portraiture by eliminating longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) and features a useful, customizable control ring, making it a top-tier choice for bokeh enthusiasts. On the downside, the 2.2-pound lens lacks internal optical stabilization, relying instead on in-body image stabilization (IBIS), and its autofocus can occasionally struggle with fast-moving subjects. Despite its high price and weight, the lens is lauded for its superior image rendering and robust construction.

The Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a premium short-telephoto prime lens designed for the Z-mount system, highly praised for its superb optical sharpness and ability to produce perfect, well-rounded bokeh throughout the frame. Priced at $2,499 / £2,579, the lens features a complex construction of 16 elements in 14 groups alongside 11 rounded diaphragm blades, which completely eliminate distracting onion-ring or cats-eye bokeh. It provides exceptionally sharp images right across the frame even when wide open at f/1.8, while successfully suppressing ghosting, flare, and chromatic aberrations. Its autofocusing system uses stepping motors that deliver fast, accurate, and quiet performance, making it highly effective for both eye-detection portraiture and video work when paired with Nikon's latest camera bodies. Despite its outstanding optical excellence, the review highlights several distinct drawbacks, particularly its hefty weight of 995g and its large, nearly 140mm long physical profile. The 135mm focal length is also noted as being less flexible than a traditional 85mm portrait lens, as it requires photographers to stand at a significant distance from subjects and makes shooting in tight spaces...

In this review, astrophotographer Göran Strand evaluates the Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens by testing it under the night sky to capture the Orion Nebula (M42) and Horsehead Nebula with a Nikon Z9 camera. The core pros highlighted are its stellar build quality, excellent handling balance, and its groundbreaking corner performance. Unlike most camera lenses that distort stars at the edges, the Plena's unique optical design produces pinpoint stars completely out to the corners even when shot wide open at f/1.8. This large aperture capability dramatically optimizes astrophotography by cutting required exposure times by a factor of 4 compared to shooting at f/4.

The Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena is a premium S-line prime lens designed for exceptional bokeh and optical mastery, carrying a high price tag of $2500 USD. Testing on a 45MP Nikon Z8 reveals that the lens delivers incredible sharpness and high contrast across the frame even wide open at F1.8, with sharpness turning razor-sharp in the corners by F2.8. Its unique curved rear element ensures beautifully round, circular specular highlights (bokeh balls) right into the extreme corners, which is paired with highly minimal vignetting and exceptionally low longitudinal and lateral chromatic aberrations. The lens features an upscale metal alloy build with robust weather sealing, dual STM focus motors that provide surprisingly fast and precise autofocus for still photography, excellent close-up performance down to 82cm, and highly effective Meso Amorphous and ARNEO anti-reflective coatings that keep flare resistance very strong. However, the Plena has several notable limitations, primarily its large size, heavy 995g footprint, and lack of built-in lens stabilization (VR), making it reliant on camera-based stabilization. While the autofocus excels for stills, video autofocus is less impressive due...

The Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a premium telephoto prime lens for Z-mount cameras that delivers professional-tier performance with exceptional sharpness, color rendering, and smooth bokeh across various shooting distances. Weighing 995 grams and measuring 98 x 139.5 mm, the weather-sealed lens features a robust build, an 11-rounded blade diaphragm, 16 optical elements, a 2.7-foot minimum focusing distance, and a customizable control ring that operates smoothly without accidental adjustments. It provides excellent telephoto compression and fast autofocus tracking, making it an outstanding asset for portraiture and high-end gigs, though its focal length may feel somewhat restrictive for standard street photography. The lens's primary pros include its amazing image quality, top-tier construction, highly effective control of chromatic aberrations, and lovely, stand-out bokeh qualities. On the negative side, its substantial retail price of $2,496.95 serves as a significant financial barrier. Additionally, its considerable size and weight present a notable con for casual use, rendering it less practical for everyday photo walks or vacation travel. While it represents a pinnacle of Nikkor Z engineering, photographers who already own a quality...

According to the ePHOTOzine review, the Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8S Plena is a premium-tier portrait lens lauded for exceptional optical performance, featuring an all-metal, weather-sealed design with customizable, user-friendly controls. It delivers outstanding sharpness, minimal chromatic aberration, and exceptionally smooth, circular bokeh with superior edge-to-edge brightness, even at the maximum f/1.8 aperture. Key drawbacks include the lack of built-in Vibration Reduction (VR) and a physical focus limiter switch, which may affect handling in dynamic situations. Furthermore, the lens is a substantial, 995-gram, 82mm thread instrument with a high price point, positioning it as a specialized, luxury tool for discerning photographers.

The Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S 'Plena' is a high-end, pro-series telephoto lens designed to deliver exceptional portrait performance and immaculate background separation. Its primary strength lies in its bountiful image quality, which offers incredible sharpness and an engineering focus that heavily corrects for vignetting. By projecting a larger light circle than the sensor requires, it maintains bright corners and high resolving power even when shooting wide open at f/1.8. Furthermore, its bokeh rendering is outstanding, showcasing smooth out-of-focus gradations, circular stopped-down highlights, and minimal cat's-eye distortion, all while avoiding distracting artifacts like onion rings or soap-bubble effects. Physical pros include a fully sealed, high-quality body, a premium quick-release hood, a smooth manual focus ring, and customizable control buttons. On the downside, the lens is notably large and heavy, weighing in at approximately 35.1 ounces (995 grams), though it remains competitively in line with similar offerings from Sony and Canon. Its close-up capabilities are relatively standard rather than standout, offering a minimum focusing distance of 0.82 meters and a modest 1:5 macro reproduction ratio. For video creators, a significant drawback...

The Nikon Z 135mm f1.8 S Plena is an outstanding telephoto prime lens for the Nikon Z mirrorless system that uniquely balances razor-sharp image quality with a smooth, beautiful bokeh. Optically, it excels across the full frame with high contrast, minimal field curvature, very usable close-up performance, and negligible color aberrations or coma. Its standout engineering feature is the near-total elimination of both light fall-off (vignetting) and the "cat's eyes" effect, ensuring mechanical bokeh circles remain perfectly round even at the frame's edges. The lens is robustly constructed with extensive weather sealing, an exceptionally fast autofocus drive, two customizable L-Fn buttons, and advanced anti-reflective Meso Amorphous and ARNEO coatings. However, these premium optical achievements come with noticeable trade-offs in size, weight, and price. The Plena is physically large and heavy, weighing in at approximately 1 kilogram. It is also highly expensive, retailing for over 2500 EUR/USD/GBP, making it more than twice the cost of alternatives like the Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art. Additionally, despite its premium price tag and weather sealing, the lens curiously lacks a fluorine coating on the front...