The Best Bokeh Lens: The Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

Incorporated into Nikon's prestigious S-series lineup, the Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens emerges as a meticulously engineered marvel in optical technology. This new edition reflects the same optical excellence observed in the highly awarded Nikon Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens, drawing upon Nikon's century-long legacy in crafting superior lenses.

This lens employs a sophisticated 11-blade diaphragm, rendering a near-circular bokeh that enhances the aesthetic value of each photograph. According to Nikon's terminology,

"It skillfully mitigates colour fringing to keep the bokeh exceptionally pleasing, almost ethereal, and devoid of any disruptive foreground or background elements."

So, if you already have a premium Z-series camera body consider this lens to your kit, especially considering its versatile focal length and exceptional bokeh.

135mm Compared to 50mm and 85mm

As shown in our latest Georges Cameras TV video, when looking at this lens compared with the Nikon NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.2 S Lens and Nikkor Z 85mm F/1.2 S Lens, the choice of focal length and lens build can significantly impact the outcome of your shots. While the other two lenses are popular amongst Nikon users, it's the Plena lens that provides several key benefits, including:

Exceptional Bokeh

The 11-blade diaphragm in this lens plays a crucial role in creating near-circular bokeh. The result is aesthetically pleasing, almost ethereal bokeh that lacks distracting geometric shapes, enhancing the overall composition of your photos.

Compressed Background and Foreground

The Z 135mm lens offers a longer telephoto focal length than the 50mm or 85mm. The lens naturally compresses the background and foreground, better isolating your subject from the foreground and background providing a unique depth to your photographs.

Closer Crop, Complementing a Portrait Look

Finally, the longer 135mm focal length allows for a closer crop of your subject, making it an ideal lens for portrait photography. Combine this with the incredible bokeh, and the Plena lens wins hands down in a portrait contest.

Lens Construction

The Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens makes an immediate impression with its robust construction and thoughtful design nuances within the range of NIKKOR S lenses. At a competitive weight of 995 grams, it occupies a similar weight class to its direct competitors, the Canon and Sony 135mm f/1.8 lenses, which register at approximately 950 grams. This makes it a portable yet solid piece of kit, balancing durability with usability. The build quality, in particular, lives up to the high standards set by other premium NIKKOR S lenses, particularly those released in 2023.

Weather Sealing and Design

Engineered for resilience, the lens comes fully integrated with weatherproofing and dust sealing across its entire body. This is certainly a welcome feature for many high-end Z series body users. To complement its rugged build, additional sealing has been applied to the movable parts of the lens barrel, along with a rubber gasket on the lens mount. This detail in weather sealing provides an extra layer of assurance, making it a reliable lens for when the environment isn't controllable. A uniquely crafted lens hood accompanies the lens, incorporating a locking switch to offer a secure and functional protective enclosure for the delicate lens elements. 

Moreover, the lens has a specialised diaphragm unit containing its drive mechanism. This system relies on electronic signals from the camera to ensure highly accurate aperture control and stable exposure control, even during continuous shooting. This attention to precision highlights the lens's focus on delivering consistent, high-quality results, fulfilling the needs of working professionals in various fields.

Plena Lens Focus and Performance

The NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens adopts a stepping motor for its autofocus system, unlike the linear motors commonly found in other lenses. This choice of motor contributes to the lens's superior speed across the minimum focal distance of 0.82m to infinity.

Regarding manual focusing for various portrait photographers, the lens is engineered to offer a smooth and well-dampened focusing ring that provides tactile feedback for accurate adjustments. This feature complements the autofocus mechanism, allowing photographers to easily alternate between modes.

For added functionality, the lens incorporates an L-Fn button at the top of the lens, designed to enable smooth function or setting adjustments, especially while shooting in a vertical orientation. This offers a level of convenience similar to the Fn1/Fn2 buttons found on the camera body. Finally, the lens is meticulously calibrated for focus-breathing compensation, ensuring capturing video. The seamless transition from different focus positions, be it from foreground to background subjects or the reverse, along with stable exposure and fluid aperture changes, results in video that displays gradual shifts in brightness.

Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens: Image Quality

Looking into the image quality, the lens has little to no vignetting, especially when shot wide open at f/1.8. As for close-up capabilities, the lens boasts a minimum focusing distance of approximately 0.4 metres, which is quite decent, although not macro-level. The angle of view is around 18° on an FX sensor or 12° on a cropped DX format, with a magnification factor of 0.2x. This makes it useful for capturing detailed close-ups while maintaining beautiful, soft backgrounds; however, don't consider this a macro lens.

The Best Bokeh

The biggest feature of this lens is its ability to produce an exceptionally pleasing bokeh. Shooting at an aperture of f/1.8 results in clean, round, specular highlights without distracting artefacts. Further stopping down to f/2.8 maintains the circularity of the aperture, ensuring that the bokeh quality remains consistent across the frame and various f-stops.

If we were to sum up the look of the bokeh, it depicts a clean radial edge that consists of a velvety bokeh that seamlessly transitions from sharp foregrounds to diffused backgrounds. The smooth transition regions in this lens make it ideal for scenarios where background blur is sought after, especially in portrait, wedding and product photography.

Who is The Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens For?

The Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens is designed to serve the needs of portrait photographers, street photographers, and even sports photographers who require a fast, reliable lens with excellent low-light capabilities. 

What is a Plena lens?

The name Plena means "boundless richness", which reflects the design potential of Nikon's Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens. The exact design of the lens closely resembles Nikon's f/0.95 Noct lens, a game changer in bokeh and image sharpness.

What does the S mean on Nikkor lenses?

S-Line lenses are some of the best in the NIKKOR lineup. They offer unparalleled image clarity, capturing the smallest details without chromatic aberration. Nikon S lenses excel in reproducing point images, maintaining their integrity even when the aperture is fully open. The resulting bokeh is smooth and organic, contributing to a visually compelling depth that accentuates the focal subject.

Final Thoughts

If you are in the market for a new portrait lens, then this new Nikon lens is by far the best you can get in the Z series range. We found the sharpness incredible, and this lens is manufactured to meet the most challenging lighting conditions thanks to the impressive autofocus driven by a stepping motor. Its multiple strengths make it an exceptional addition to any photographer's or filmmaker's toolkit. If you want to make this lens your own, speak to our knowledgeable team in-store, via live chat or over the phone.