With the Nikon Z mirrorless camera system there is so much to like about the photographic system. There is an extremely wide range of lenses to choose from, small travelling suitable lenses, to the physically large and massive large aperture normal and super telephoto high performance lenses.
Many years ago I used a Nikon Ai Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 telephoto lens and it was one of my most used lenses, it was a manual focus lens at the time as were all lenses. This old lens took many images in my early photographic journey and was used mainly with slide transparency and monochrome films. Time has now moved on and for many years after that I did not even posess a 135mm lens. Now in the Nikon Z mirrorless era I have in my kit a 135mm f/1.8 S Plena NIKKOR.
In selecting a new lens I do not take too much notice of the technical details and measuremts of lens performance such as Modulation Transfer Function charts (MTF) etc. I prefer to take notice of excellent photographers and note what performance they get out of the use of their equipment and what they recommend, after all it is all about image quality and deciding if you like the images you are getting.
After some research I noticed excellent comments about the 135mm Plena lens and decided to give it a go. After using it for a relatively short period I am now sold on the image quality from this lens. It is not the perfect lens, no lens is, but the image quality from the Plena is very near to perfect.
Desert RoseDetails of the above Desert Rose image is as follows:
- Nikon Z8
- f/5
- 1/1,000 sec
- ISO-1,600
- 135mm
- Subject distance 890mm
Details of the above Wombat image is as follows:
- Nikon Z6II
- f/4
- 1/640 sec
- ISO-800
- 135mm
- Subject distance 8.4 metres
Details of the above Rose image is as follows:
- Nikon Z6II
- f/1.8
- 1/2,000 sec
- ISO-1,000
- 135mm
- Subject distance 840mm
A comment on the above Rose image. What I really like about this lens is the performance at f/1.8. I shoot with this lens at all different apertures and it is excellent, but I do love using the lens at f/1.8, the widest aperture.
Details of the above Highland Cattle image is as follows:
- Nikon Z6II
- f/4
- 1/640 sec
- ISO-360
- 135mm
- Subject distance 6.3 metres
Is there anything that I do not like about this lens? Nothing is perfect, so yes there are issues I do not like. The lens is BIG, it is BULKY and HEAVY. It may not be the best lens for travelling due to these issues, heavy and bulky equipment is not so suitable for travelling due to airline weight restrictions for instance. Personally I can live with these disadvantages as I use the lens so much, I love its performance and put up with the disadvantages.