NIKON 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Q & A - One Week In REALWORLD | River Chat - Joe and Matt | Matt Irwin 

Hello Matt & Joe. So good to see both I mist the livestream, Well done.

I love that I’m forever memorialized at the 1:57 mark as being the main character of my own story 😂.

Fun discussion as always and thanks for your thoughtful commentary! Love you guys! will use Plena in my bag for concerts, events and portraits. Maybe Plena is the start of lens that can suit higher megapixel sensors? don't know but glad the technology exists and bring on more exotic lenses!

Just got this phenomenal lens two weeks ago to add to my Nikkor glass arsenal for my portrait shooting, I would say this is the best lens I ever had among my 35 Nikkor lenses in the last 46 years. Its performance surpassed my AF-S 85mm f/1.4G as a portrait lens, so I might have to add the new Z 85mm f/1.2S to be comparable to the new Z Plena. Again thanks so much for reviewing the new Z 135mm lens.

Missed this live, thanks for the effort. Looking forward to getting the 135. I am not sure if I will keep the 105 1.4.

Sorry I missed the live stream, I have been in the woods in the fog taking pictures! A trio of primes with aperture rings. If ZF sells as well as we think, then Z prime trio would sell well too. Wait and see. I have ordered a black ZF because the colours here in UK have to be ordered from the Nikon store.

Good job Matt and Joe and nice to see it was a wee bit warmer and dryer. I have ordered the Plena to go with the 50 and 85 I already own. And a bunch of other Z glass for primarily wildlife work. Yes a 20mm/1.2, 14mm/1.2, 16mm fisheye, a Z 8-15 would be extraordinary. AND of course a Z 105/1.4 Plena I really do not need anything like the 35mm or another 28 or another 24 -- I hope Nikon Nikkor respond to the wider wide angle end of the FX range. A few more stubbies would be cool. More importantly - I would like to see a Tilt/Shift adapter with optical element like my Hasselblad HTS 1.5 that can be used on almost all my HC/HCD lenses and then adapter onto the X2D (with the adapter or 0.8x converter). In I would hope to see more Power Zoom lenses but have no view on which DX or FX and the zoom ranges. All things DX depend on what the strategy for bodies -- rthere is really no point adding more high quality Dx lenses if there is not a high quality DX body. So what are vloggers etc missing in DX. SMALL is covered by stubbies which have to be FX and so can be used dual purpose on FX and Dx.

a 105mm Plena,, exotic type lens following the 105mm f/1.4E magic would be on my Nikon wish list...

I'm really excited about this! I can't seem to get enough of the Plena coverage since the announcement. As always, you[r’e the best Matt! :) I've already pre-ordered this lens, and I've got this idea of it replacing my 70-200. After reviewing my metadata, I've noticed that I typically shoot at around 140mm with the 70-200 (and the photos shot at 200mm are shots where I’m positioning myself with my feet anyways). I've relied on the 'holy trinity' of lenses for over a decade now, and while it's been convenient, I'm thinking about something different. I've been seriously contemplating the upcoming 35mm 1.2 as a substitute for my 24-70 (based on my metadata, I average around 42mm with it). Pair that with the 135mm as a replacement for the 70-200. It might sound more challenging, but I believe it's the change I need. Working with only two focal lengths can bring a sense of professional consistency to the final product, especially when delivering hundreds of event or wedding photos to clients.

Last year (2022) canon released their RF 135mm f/1.8 prime lens which has since been through the DXOMark assessment and they have positioned the lens as the highest canon lens tested with a DXOMark Score of 53, which is pretty good for a canon. Overall the lens is 4th in the list behind two Nikkors (85mm f/1.2 S & 58mm f/0.95 S) and a Sigma (50mm F/1.4 Art on a Sony). The top 10 consists of 3 Nikkors, 2 Zeiss, 2 Sigma. 2 Canon and surprisingly 1 Yongnuo. If the Plena is as you expect, it will top the overall chart bringing the Nikkor Z total to 4 displacing the canon 85 f/1.4 out of the top 10. Happy Days for us Nikon Z shooters. Now into 6th year since launch, Nikon has delivered their promise to unlock further possibilities of lens design greatly increasing capabilities in optical performance. The 58mm Noct is untouchable (and unaffordable) and the new Plena is going to be a top of all the charts if your expectations are correct. My deposit is paid and waiting for shipments to arrive from GoW in the UK. Good talking heads video guys. Thanks. Paul.

Thanks guys! Have either of you tried any Z Voightlander lenses? Even the F mount 58mm f1.4 Voightlander is amazing on the Z cameras because there are 3 ways to focus! And I love the long focus throw.

Lenses: My hope is that Nikon starts to develop smaller travel friendly primes and zooms after having finished the must-have and the "show-off" lenses like the 1.2 primes and the professional teles. I would love to see a range of f2.8 or f4 lenses something like a 2.8 (or f4.0) 14mm/20mm/35mm/50mm/85mm/105mm and a 4-6.3/100-400mm. Cameras: Would love to see the further development of even faster stacked sensors that allows for sync speeds of up to 1/2000th of a second. Combined with an improved dynamic range and color depth that's all I could ask for. BTW: I would have loved to see the comparison of the rear elements of the two lenses in front of you, Matt. The 135 seems to squeeze more glass in the given diameter of the Z-mount. Would be interested to see how much bigger the rear element of the Plena is compared to the 1.2/85mm

Looking forward to seeing to video

I would love a comparison with the 106mm 1.4E. Great post and discussions!

Hi Matt and Joe, I think that the Nikon 135mm f/1.8 S Plana is currently out of reach for me for now. I would be interested on you thoughts about CPL and night filters. Do you use them and when do you use them? Should I buy Nikon filters? Thanks.

Worth going to Nikon Museum in Tokyo! Will be epic trip to Japan!

I have the Plena and it's serious now, we might get married. we're not just dating anymore!

About the next lenses: fish-eye!!! We only have the 16mm now, and it's manual focus on the FTZ. Do you need AF on such a lens? Maybe not, but it's certainly more convenient when switching lenses around. Otherwise you might want to enable focusing aids, and disable them afterwards. Oh, if this can be done automatically when attaching an MF lens or switching to MF, please let me know. This would be awesome! edit: just had a quick look in the Z8 online manual and apparently, peaking comes on automatically when in MF, if so configured. So that's great. Still though, if you want fish-eye, you have to still use an FTZ. I think it's time that that changed.

Can it be adapted to a gfx or a x2d?

Matt and Joe: Batman and Robin: 2023. Thanks!

Thanks!

Not a comment during the livestream, but I think Nikon would have a lot of buyers with a top notch DX camera (a new Z500?) and some quality DX lenses. Perhaps something the size of the Z8, or between the Z8 and Z7ii/Z6ii, with around 31-35 MP at least 20fps, IBIS, great autofocus for the birders, kind of a rebirth and reimagination of the D500.

Larger image circle..... could it be medium format ready....?

I hope you get to Kyoto and the Tokai road -- watch Joanna Lumley's 3 episode documentary. Obviously you are not at the right time for Cherry Blossoms but you could go see the bathing monkeys Obviously you need to take both a wide angle but for creative work you should take at least an 85mm and probably a 70-200. Some shots need the "look through" ability of a 100-200mm

Novoflex makes bellows for Z.Really high quality gear but rather expensive and not always readily available.

8-15Z would be great

With a large rear element, does it make the t stop better than 1.8?

17- 55 2.8 would be nice

wondering if you think Nikon is proving that the Z mount if pretty much borderline MEDIUM FORMAT

I most likely will own this lens , the Nikon , Placenta 135 . Lol . The Space GodZ 135 rules the 135 Space for sure . Your talking ultra wide primes . The Nikkor Z 28mm f/1.2 …. I’d buy that 100% ! The 14mm f/1.8 eeeeeh let’s see a 14 f/1.4 that’s under $2k U.S. $ , please Nikon . A dream I guess. I’ll get the 14-24 f/2.8 probably. I need fast fast focusing ultra wide . I need fast fast focusing. If is a fast focusing 14mm f/1.8 I’ll take that . If I have the Nikon Z 14-24 f/2.8 S then I wouldn’t get a Nikon Z 14 f/1.8 S . Just saying

The 135mm SIGMA is probably 95 to 98 percent of what the Plena can do at half the price

After Japan, come to America!

👍🏾🙏🏾. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇸🇪🇹🇹

If we are talking a wish list for z - you didn't mention the ONE lens that really shows a wide mount advantage - the canon RF28-70 F2 an exotic amazing lens that makes a real difference to me as a professional doing wedding in low light

8:52 Matt, this is the Nth time that you've made the claim that with DX, you can multiply the focal length by the crop factor, and not do the same with the aperture. That is simply wrong. The "f" in f/1.8 stands for the focal length. The 135mm f/1.8 lens has an aperture with a diameter of 135 / 1.8 = 75mm. If you use this lens on DX, and multiply the focal length accordingly, you get 202.5mm. But the physical aperture of the lens is still 75mm in diameter. So if you want to calculate the F-number, you need to divide 202.5 by 75 = 2.7. So if you want to use FF "units" to describe the lens on DX, it's a *202.5mm f/2.7* lens. NOT f/1.8. I like you and all that, but you are repeating the same sort of things that manufacturers used to put on the side of bridge cameras like "24-600mm f/2.8-4". I'm sorry, but it's not correct.

Too much talk - I want raw pictures!

The only fault with the Plena seems to be that its not available yet ... 🦘