Bokeh-loving Nikon shooters have something to get excited about with today’s new lens announcement from Nikon. The NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens is already being coined a “bokeh monster” by many. With a fixed focal length of 135mm and a maximum aperture of f/1.8, you know this lens is going to deliver some spectacular photos. Let’s review the key features of this new lens.
Key Features of the Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens
- 135mm focal length
- f/1.8 maximum aperture
- Made for Z-mount
- Optimized for smooth bokeh and reduced vignetting
- Near silent AF is both fast and accurate
- Anti-reflective coatings (Meso Amorphous Coat and ARNEO Coat)
- Nikon’s Multi-Focus System
- Assignable Fn button
- New manual focus ring
- Clickless control ring
What to Expect of the Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens
Perhaps the most compelling feature about this new lens from Nikon is the amount of bokeh that it can produce. Boasting a focal length of 135mm and a striking f/1.8 aperture, this lens is capable of producing some of the best bokeh on the market today.
Unique Focal Length
The 135mm focal length is excellent for portraits, still life, cinema, and more. This increased focal length allows you to back up and still let your subject fill the frame — a privilege that is unavailable with more traditional portrait focal length, such as 50mm or 85mm.
Additionally, the f/1.8 aperture offers excellent low light performance and, of course, fantastic bokeh that will help separate your subject from the background.
Z-Mount Design
Made for Nikon’s Z-mount mirrorless cameras, you’ll be able to utilize the camera’s best features when paired with this lens. The shallow depth of field works beautifully with the eye autofocus feature in some of Nikon’s mirrorless cameras.
Fast, Quiet Autofocus
The autofocus system on this camera perfectly compliments the lightning fast autofocusing speed of Nikon’s Z lineup of mirrorless cameras. In addition to being quick and accurate, this new lens is also nearly silent. For video creators, this is absolutely crucial. You can ensure that you won’t pick up any audio from the autofocus system.
Advanced Control Settings
Finally, another feature on this new lens is the signature control ring. This isn’t a new feature to Nikon, but it is incredibly nice to have. The control ring allows you to adjust a setting of your choosing. The focus ring can control switching between manual and autofocus, aperture, exposure compensation, or ISO sensitivity.
Moving one of these options to the control ring on the lens can not only help you to work more efficiently, but also to free up another button on the back of your camera for another feature.
Additionally, the manual focus ring on this lens can be customized as well. Set the ring to rotation direction, linear, or non-linear to best suit your personal preference.
Who Should Try the Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens?
Wedding and Portrait
Any portrait photographer should be over-the-top about this new lens. The focal length of 135mm is excellent for single and small group photos. Meanwhile, the maximum aperture of f/1.8 is good for both low-light situations and creating bokeh. With all the careful attention to detail and high-quality optics, photographers can expect excellent imagery that is sharp where it matters with smooth and blurring everywhere else.
You should especially consider this lens if you don’t already own a lens that covers the 135mm focal length. Even if you do, this lens is still worthy of an upgrade for portrait and wedding photography.
Videography
Additionally, the Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens is well suited for videographers with its fast, accurate, and near-silent autofocus. When you only have one chance to get the shot, you can rely on this lens to perfectly capture the scene — and do so making nearly no noise. For those recording audio to pair with their video, the near-silent nature of this lens is crucial.
Low-Light Scenes
Lastly, this lens will shine in a variety of low-light circumstances. Giving up the versatility of zoom allows you to have this incredible f/1.8 lens. In addition to portraits, 135mm is an excellent focal length for capturing close-up images of the world, including landscapes, cityscapes, and even sports. While 135mm is traditionally wider than your standard sports lens, any time you can get up close to the action, this lens will reward you with spectacular image quality.
Comparable Nikon Lenses
This lens covers the same focal length as the Nikon 135mm f/2 DC lens, originally made in the 1990s for Nikon DSLR cameras. However, the new Plena lens is designed for Nikon mirrorless camera systems utilizing the Z-mount.
It joins a lineup of already impressive f/1.8 prime lenses for Nikon Z-mount, including a 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. All of these lenses offer incredibly high quality optics, and are all very popular among Nikon mirrorless shooters. Currently, the brand-new 135mm is the longest f/1.8 Nikon lens in the Z-series lineup.
Conclusion
As you can see, the new Nikon Plena lens checks all the boxes when it comes to portrait and wedding photography lenses. Excellent image quality, buttery smooth bokeh, and fabulous low light control make this a lens that should certainly grab your attention if you shoot on a Nikon mirrorless camera.
