LAB vs PLENA: Nikon 135mm Showdown

In the past six weeks I have reviewed two amazing 135mm lenses – both in Nikon Z mount. That’s great, as 18 months ago we had zero 135mm lenses. Both of them have tremendous strengths and a lot of similarities…but…
Dustin Abbott has been published in such publications as PhotoPlus, Photo News, Popular Science, American Photo, Pro Photographer, and Photography Week magazines as well as the Globe and Mail newspaper. He has been featured as a guest on many photography blogs and has had either articles or photos published in local magazines in multiple countries. He writes on a regular basis as a free-lance writer for PhotoNewsFlash, Alien Skin Software Blog, CanonRumors, B&H Explora eZine, and has also written for Photography Masterclass Magazine, Henry’s Photography Blog, PhotoNews Magazine, Digital Photography School, the Zeiss LenSPIRE blog, and Pro Photographer magazine. His lens reviews are respected around the world and can be seen on YouTube, too.
In the past six weeks I have reviewed two amazing 135mm lenses – both in Nikon Z mount. That’s great, as 18 months ago we had zero 135mm lenses. Both of them have tremendous strengths and a lot of similarities…but…
Last year about this time I reviewed the little 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8, a pretty decent budget autofocus lens for various APS-C mounts (I reviewed in on Sony). This year they are back with another APS-C lens, but this is…
Sony’s mirrorless E-mount has reached a saturation point with more lenses available than possibly any lens mount before, so finding an actually unique lens can be hard to do. That’s not true for today’s review, however, as Sony is releasing…
We’ve known that Viltrox’s LAB series was coming for about two years, and I, for one, was very excited for the series. Viltrox has proved to be capable of doing very serious optical engineering, and, put simply, the LAB series…
This is a very important review for me. Not because the Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena is a new and hot review (it was actually released in October of 2023, several months before I started to do Nikon reviews…
In May of 2023 I reviewed a lens that I was very excited about. Viltrox had released a next level 16mm F1.8 autofocus lens for Sony FE, and it fill a niche previously unfilled on FE – a high quality,…
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses along with a truly excellent series of APS-C lenses, including the 25mm F1.7, 35mm…
I have owned (and loved) the Sony FE 200-600mm F5-6.3 G OSS since reviewing it back in 2020. Sony took a different tack than most competing telephoto zooms by opting for an internally zooming lens, and, while that meant that…
Yongnuo’s “Commander” series of lenses has thus far been consistently good. I’ve previously reviewed first an 11mm F1.8, then the first of the trio of faster primes at standard focal lengths. First came the 33mm F1.4, then the 23mm F1.4,…
In the fall of the 2024 I had the opportunity to review the long awaited first entry in Viltrox’s Premium LAB series – the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB FE. I loved the lens on Sony despite it being large…
Sirui launched the world’s first autofocusing anamorphic cine lens in the form of the 1.33x Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 late last year. I covered that lens in depth, and you can get my full thoughts by watching the video review or…
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses, the excellent 35mm F1.7 and 56mm F1.7 APS-C lens, and now we have a…
It has been rare that I’ve had a chance to accept opportunities to travel to press events in my career as a photographer and influencer, my wife and team encouraged me to accept an invitation to Japan to be present…
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a Tokina lens. I actually owned multiple Tokina wide angle zooms back in my time as a photographer before I became a reviewer. Tokina has released relatively few lenses in the mirrorless…
In September of 2024 I released a review of the Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 “Chip” lens for Sony E-mount. One of the most common requests I got in the responses to my review was for a Fuji X-mount version. I…
My most popular video of 2024 was a showdown between the (then) primary standard zoom options available on the Fuji X-mount platform – the Fuji XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS, XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR, and the Sigma…
It was just a little over a month ago that I spent time reviewing the Yongnuo 33mm F1.4 DA DSM WL Pro lens, which I knew was the first to release from a series of three lenses in YN’s “Commander”…
Fuji’s original 18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS was often used as proof positive that Fuji’s APS-C platform was the best. Before I began to test Fuji, I heard the lens hyped to epic proportions. When I got around to reviewing it in…