Nikon Unleashes the PLENA Lens! 135mm f/1.8 S Initial Review 

EHRMEGERD PLERNA

Make No Mistake, *GF 110mm F2 with GFX100 ii combination hovers at the top of the image quality chart.*

I dunno, but my Sony 7Rm5 with 135/1.8 GM is also flawless. Great time we live in!

Amen !

Yeah, this is Nikon’s year. But also Fuji. Ugh. Everything is SO GOOD in the camera industry in 2023.

Another tombstone from Nikon, for Nikon!

3:21 Not just his arm but face as well.

Final Cut having some issues or something.

I thought this was my computer only to realize it was the video.

@@Brown-BirdThe Camera, Final Cut, or RU-vid. Lots of opportunities for problems.

There was a distortion at :26 as well

Amazing. But it's "truth be told." No problem.

The rendering and sharpness of their S line lenses is tempting, for sure.

Stop! I can only get so poor! J/K but not really 😅

Ehhhh

Well, there is nothing close to the classic 28mm that is anything brighter than f/2.8. Laowa has an 28mm f/1.2.

@@liselottepulver2819 True, my 28/2 AIS has yet to be matched in terms of size and performance

@@liselottepulver2819 sigma has 1,4 with AF tho

They've been on top since Z started...

I adore mine as well. Funny how it seems to be forgotten these days.

You mean “welcome back to the Camera Store TV” 👌

Not surprisingly, the same is true in Spanish. The phrase "en plena dia" is the equivalent of "in broad daylight."

That was my first thought when I saw the name that whatever name you think of, it is inevitably going to sound funny in some language.

In fact, I can imagine that the word plena shares the same root as the English word plenty; a lens "plenty" of light?

Yeah! I leave it up to the Nikonnians :D

Their is no 135 1.2 on the roadmap.

He means 35mm(Thirty five)

Sure, 35 or 135 cause focal length is overrated anyhow

​@@ulimuller7892He may have the budget for only one to replace something else in his lineup. I do not think he thinks focal length is overrated.

I’m going to engrave “Mythos” on mine and paint it to match 😊

Toneh.

It's even called "Plena," "Pena," or actually "Peña," is a Michael. An actor.

Mythos it is then! WOW! You got the right name. Thanks!

The reason the 85 1.2 didn't get a name is because it didn't push the engineering envelope in any one way or another the way the Noct and the Plena did.

These are editing errors. Could be caused by Resolve. I've seen stuff like this pop up. I fix it by exporting to h.265 rather than h.264, but there's other errors that are just bad editing mistakes, too.

Try a Nikon before you buy one. I love the ergonomics but the af is not as strong on the older z models compared to Canon. Its all something to get used to but for me it works fine

I was in your boat last year. Used to shoot Canon DSLRs until ~2015. Then got a Fuji for compactness but eventually missed full frame. Chose Nikon because their lens lineup seemed reasonable (and not like Canon/Sony where you get a cheap craptastic or a sell your kidneys and use a wheelbarrow because it's so big amazing lens). Very happy with my decision after this year :)

If you going to move over ,start with the Z8 which to me ranks among the best mirroless camera ever made. The next consideration should be the ZF for budget option then the incoming Z6iii. The earlier version of budget friendly Z cameras will be a step down to what you have already .

Same thoughts here. At least the EF lenses can be adapted to Nikon too with full AF for pictures and video, at least as a solution for a while. For me the best overall systems in the price / quality ratio now are the Nikon Z and the Panasonic L-Mount. I'm waiting for the Panasonic next releases with phase AF, the S1 line. The lenses are great and cheaper, and now Samyang join the L-Mount and maybe others will join in the near future. I'm still with Nikon, but waiting for what Panasonic will bring in the future.

Out of curiosity, I just checked an e-shop with photo equipment. They offer 11 135mm lenses for Canon (EF and RF) and 8 for Nikon (F and Z). The third party lenses which exist for both also have the same price for both (no surprise) and the only 135mm lens by Nikon (which is also the only one for Z mount) is actually ~12% more expensive than its Canon RF equivalent. I'm not happy about the lack of mid-price RF lenses either but not everything that "people say" is actually true.

I would be interested to see how this performs on a Fuji GFX body if it could be adapted!

@@tylerdoestechI don’t think it’s possible to adapt to Fujifilm G mount. Since the Z Mount has much shorter flange distance than the G mount (16mm vs 26.7mm)

@@tekdw225 I have seen some random Chinese dudes adapted Noct on a GFX body but that is a manual lens. I highly doubt they can do it on an auto-focus one.

Not really. Physics. I mean you can make them a bit smaller but you would have to correct a lot of flaws with software. It's the same in every system. Some are bigger, some smaller, but they are all bulky. I am talking about full frame lenses of course.

The mirror determines how far the back element is from the sensor surface. The size of the mount allows for a bigger imaging circle and the angle of incidence of the light can be lower. Leica supposedly has to use different micro lenses at the edges of their sensors to compensate for the high angle of incidence many of those lenses produce. If you could make a curved sensor, you could design lenses for it that would have great edge performance with a smaller imaging circle.

Nikon could theoretically come out with a pancake lens for everything but the optical quality would be questionable Theoretically they could make a 35mm f1.4 summilux sized thing but itd probably be too flawed optically

I guess it's because the lense is just incredible, shockingly so actually, so people flock on the reviews.

If you care about microcontrast and depth, then don't. These new lens have too many glass elements.

The FTZ adapter doesn't work with autofocus?

​@@seth094978I don't own a Z body camera, but my understanding is the FTZ adapters, you can only use manual focus with the AF-D lenses. (which I have a lot of).

@@seth094978 not with screw drive lenses.

@@seth094978 In AF and AF-D nikkors, the lens needed a camera-based motor to drive the AF mechanism. Neither the Z-cameras nor the FTZ have this motor, so all AF and AF-D lenses are MF only on Z-bodies. The 135 f2 DC is an AF-D lens. The FTZ will auto focus with AFS lenses, which are the more modern ones.

😂

I have always thought the Sigma 135 had a nicer look to the images than the Sony 135GM. and now I think the newest Samyang 135 might be the best out there for Sony. the main thing the Sony is best at is focusing speed, and sharpness only by a hair. but not with the overall look of the images it creates. same with the Sony 24/70 GMll according to some people who own it. this new Nikon has a nice look to it. but between the heavier lens and heavier camera. its not for me. and there's also the price.

Agreed, although both canon and Sony options are good lenses this clearly renders better than the comp. Well done Nikon

@@jaegerschtulmann can someone explain what rendering means if you shoot raw? I think If all 135/1.8s were put to a blind test with edited images non of those "this has best rendering" people would guess right. And further more, no client cares.

@@sulev111It is subjective bs, basically. There no such thing as objective better rendering. Also complaining over a lens being cynical, it’s cynical because it has little flaws. That’s the effect limited flaws have in rendering.

We might get a group test of "the cursed focal length" between the Sony GM, Samyang for Sony E, Canon EF and this Nikon Z Plena but really, unless you are looking for a new system and is interested in probably rather small differences in handling, AF and optical characteristics(and for a 135mm to decide what system you are going to use), what's the point?

the reports that say that happen with hss all use godox, never seen it using profoto or wescott, but I’ll test it out

@@livejames9374 that is a bold statement since HSS does not even work properly in manual mode with profoto on Z8 :) and when you put it in TTL, it can find the correct exposure but the effect is even worse with profoto than with godox... I tested it with B10XPlus and with AirTTL transmitter for Nikon. For Godox it is mainly visible in times around 1/4000 or shorter but can be reproduced is wanted in extreme conditions n other times as well. I tested it with different flashes and I was able to recreate the scanning line with all HSS capable flashes at my disposal. sometimes it is more visible sometimes less. To be perfectly honest, most of the times it is not even visible if you are not looking for it and outdoors the effect disappears almost completely because it is mainly visible in high contrast gradients and best visible on white/grey walls. When used in studio with regular sync speeds up to 1/200 every flash work perfectly fine with the Z8, but if you want to recreate the issue with HSS scanning lines it is not hard to do if you have HSS capable flash. I love my Z8 for all other features and I almost never use HSS anymore, but is bothers me that no one addresses this issue officially...

I use HSS with godox and don’t see the lines.

@@mikedfurmanas I mentioned, you need to look for it and really want to see them :D they only show up in hss and in gradients with very short times :) and of course we are talking about the Z8 here which does not have a mechanical shutter :) If you want to replicate it you can try to create a gradient of lights on a white/grey background, preferably with a modifier with grid at an angle which goes from light to almost completely black and you can see the sensor scanning lines in the gradient and you can increase the contrast to exaggerate it. And let me repeat one more time, most of the times it is almost not visible if you are not looking for it :) But I got a terrible result with a SB-800 in ttl mode fired straight into a wall at 1/4000s :D

@@JacekWPhoto I shoot a Z8 and Z9.

Agreed, as a Z5 Owner, I'm mainly just using adapted 'F' lenses that I buy second hand, as I refuse to pay the outrageous prices that Nikon want for their 'Z' lenses, their premium 'Z' lenses are off the planet.