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LAB VS PLENA | 135mm Z-Mount Shootout
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Apr 2, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a comparison between the two HEAVYWEIGHTS in the 135mm Nikon Z-mount space - the Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena and the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z. Is the Plena worth the extra money? Watch to find out! Plena Reviews: Text: or Video: Viltrox Reviews: Text: https://tinyurl.com/LAB135Zda or Video https://tinyurl.com/LAB135Zvid Purchase the Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena @ The Camera Store https://tinyurl.com/BuyPlena | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4iI0arV | Adorama https://howl.link/ky9q4tc0mvemd | Amazon https://amzn.to/3FLjdTL | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4vclo | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4hPLRjJ | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3QWNlxM | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4iMMJHf Purchase the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB @ Viltrox https://geni.us/Dustin135Z (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H https://bhpho.to/3YLAYJM | Adorama https://howl.link/2wffw60qkjmth | Amazon https://amzn.to/4bWqFHs | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4ea4PQs | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3CnIpOf | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4ftHomc | Pergear https://tinyurl.com/Buy135LAB Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you one of my head-to-head
0:14
comparisons and I'm reviewing two of the
0:17
premium 135mm lenses that exist on the
0:20
market in general and the only two
0:22
options that exist on Nikon Zmount One
0:25
of those is Nikon's own Nicor Z 135mm
0:29
f1.8 8S Plenna and then we have
0:32
Viltrox's autofocusing 135mm f1.8 lab
0:38
series lens in Zmount I've had the
0:40
opportunity over the last 6 weeks to
0:42
review both of these amazing 135mm
0:44
lenses which is great considering that
0:47
18 months ago we had zero 135 millimeter
0:50
lenses on Nikon Zmount Both of these
0:53
have a have tremendous strengths and
0:55
they also have a lot of similarities as
0:57
we're going to find but they are priced
0:59
radically different With the lab coming
1:01
in at around
1:02
$900 the Plenna is closer to
1:05
$2500 So is the Plenna worth it Does the
1:09
lab make the Plenna irrelevant Well the
1:12
answer is surprisingly kind of
1:13
complicated So today we're going to dive
1:16
in and try to break down where the
1:18
strengths lie I want to say a thank you
1:20
to Viltrox for providing the lab lens
1:22
for this comparison and to Nikon Canada
1:24
for supplying a plenna and so that we
1:27
can have this showdown today So let's
1:29
start by talking about what is similar
1:32
and this is a short list because there's
1:34
actually a lot of similarities but
1:35
obviously both have the same focal
1:38
length They both have the same maximum
1:39
aperture They have a fairly similar
1:42
feature set though there is some areas
1:44
of differentiation that we will dive
1:46
into here today Both of them have
1:48
professional-grade builds with thorough
1:50
weather sealing They have very robust uh
1:53
casings bodies to them and they they
1:57
both feel like premium lenses because
1:58
that's exactly what they are
2:00
Surprisingly they both have roughly
2:02
similar autofocus speed and the overall
2:06
uh performance of autofocus feels more
2:08
similar than different And in terms of
2:10
just basic going back and forth as you
2:12
can see from these comparison shots
2:15
really there's not a whole lot different
2:17
that's going on between the two of them
2:19
And that was true on a lot of different
2:22
metrics Optically they're also very very
2:25
similar And I'll try to point out the
2:27
nuances where they're a little bit
2:29
different here today But as you can see
2:31
from these portrait comparison shots
2:33
it's pretty hard to if I were doing a
2:36
blind test I'm pretty skeptical that too
2:39
many in the audience could tell me which
2:41
was which They have a very similar
2:43
amount of resolution and contrast They
2:45
have similar overall rendering Even the
2:47
color signature is quite similar between
2:49
the two lenses And so in many ways they
2:52
are they're very very comparable
2:53
optically
2:55
Now as far as a slight difference
2:57
between the two that really doesn't add
3:00
up to much One is wider in diameter the
3:03
Pleno lens one is longer the Lab series
3:07
lenses but if you calculate their
3:08
internal mass they're both within about
3:10
1% of each other And so they're
3:13
basically the same size though not the
3:15
same weight which we'll get to in just a
3:17
moment So let's start by talking about
3:19
reasons to choose the Lab The Lab is the
3:22
new lens on the market Obviously it's
3:24
attractive in many ways but the first
3:27
thing that it's most attractive for and
3:30
probably the number one reason to choose
3:31
it over the Plenna is the price It's
3:34
currently
3:36
$899 a bit less if you use the discount
3:39
and the code that down below And the
3:43
Plenna is around $2,500 So that's about
3:46
a $1,600 difference between the two As
3:49
is so often with these thirdparty lenses
3:50
if you took price out of the equation
3:52
and you said "Well would which would you
3:54
choose if price is no object?" I would
3:56
say probably 99.9% would choose the
3:59
first party Nikon lens But obviously we
4:03
don't get to take price out of the
4:04
equation and in this case that price
4:05
difference is vast And so obviously
4:07
that's going to be a pretty significant
4:09
factor Now the second reason to choose
4:12
the lab is that if you're looking for a
4:14
specific feature set surprisingly it's
4:17
the lab lens that actually has more
4:20
options as far as uh controls It's also
4:23
more customizable It does feature the
4:25
LCD screen on the front And so that will
4:28
allow you a few different things that
4:30
you can't do with the Plenna lens You
4:33
can set a AB focus for example and
4:36
program that using that Obviously it's
4:38
going to give you a distance scale It's
4:40
going to allow you to see your current
4:42
aperture right on the screen there So
4:44
definitely some extra features there And
4:46
beyond that uh there also are some just
4:49
features absolutely missing from the on
4:52
the Plenna lens that are here on the lab
4:54
And so one of those is a focus limiter
4:56
We have a three-position focus limiter
4:58
on the lab that doesn't exist on the
5:00
Plenna You have the option of clicking
5:02
and declicking the aperture And so again
5:05
an option that you don't have on the
5:07
Plenna And so just a a few more features
5:10
that are there as well Now far less
5:13
significant because both of them are
5:15
extremely extremely minimal when it
5:17
comes to distortion but the lab does
5:19
have a little bit less It's basically
5:22
100% neutral whereas the Plenna has the
5:24
tiniest amount of pin cushion distortion
5:26
I certainly wouldn't make my decision
5:28
based on that factor alone However it is
5:31
one area of differentiation between the
5:33
two
5:35
Interestingly I think you could probably
5:37
make the argument that the Lab Lens has
5:40
the nicer build set And if nothing else
5:44
it definitely has the nicer hood Um the
5:46
hood is much nicer It's more robust has
5:49
that rubberized front edge It feels like
5:51
a premium hood Well frankly I found in
5:53
my review of the Plenna the included
5:55
lens hood with it feels a little bit
5:56
cheap actually But in terms of the
5:59
overall materials here the Lab has a
6:01
really gorgeous build quality And one
6:03
thing it doesn't have is this weird
6:06
pseudo third ring that's on the plen
6:09
lens which I have not yet been able to
6:10
figure out why it's there It doesn't
6:12
rotate It's just but has a rubberized
6:14
grip surface like it is an additional
6:17
ring that's there And again these two
6:20
lenses are really really similar
6:21
optically as we're going to see But of
6:24
the the two the Plenna is as we'll get
6:26
to in a moment it's a little bit sharper
6:28
in the center I would say whereas the
6:30
Lab is uh better in the mid-frame The
6:33
corners are kind of a wash but there
6:36
might be a slight edge in the corner
6:37
performance there as well One final area
6:40
that is a little bit more obvious is
6:42
that the Lab lens it has floating
6:45
elements inside And so you might hear a
6:46
little bit of a clunk if you shake it
6:48
back and forth like this when it's not
6:49
attached and turned on But the reason
6:52
for that is that floating elements allow
6:54
it to focus about 10 cmters closer than
6:56
what the plen does and thus achieve a
6:59
significantly higher level of
7:00
magnification The plan is capable of
7:03
0.20 times whereas the lab lens can
7:06
focus down to 0.25 times and so it's
7:09
going to give you higher level of
7:10
magnification Both of them are very good
7:12
at their minimum focus distance However
7:15
it gives you more magnification thus a
7:16
little bit more versatility in its
7:18
design
7:20
So those are some of the reasons to
7:22
choose the lab lens How about some
7:24
reasons to choose the Plenna Well the
7:27
Plenna though both lenses are very
7:28
similar in size the Plenna is very
7:31
obviously lighter Doesn't mean that it's
7:33
a light lens but it is considerably
7:36
lighter than what the Lab is a very
7:38
heavy lens And so at 9 995 gram for the
7:41
Plenna it's about 273 g less than the
7:44
Lab which is,68 gram And by the way you
7:48
definitely can feel that difference in
7:49
weight The Lab feels just more dense and
7:52
heavy relative to the Pleno lens which
7:55
is heavy but it's definitely a lot
7:57
lighter
7:59
One kind of significant thing for me is
8:01
that while the aperture can be
8:03
decllicked on the lab if you're using
8:05
the control ring which they both feature
8:08
they have that customizable control ring
8:10
that can be used either as an aperture
8:12
ring but also can be used for exposure
8:14
compensation can be used for ISO for
8:16
different things like that But if you're
8:17
using it for aperture control you can do
8:20
smooth aperture racks on the Pleno lens
8:24
that look very natural look very much
8:26
like a a manual aperture ring um on a
8:29
cine lens But on the Viltrox lens even
8:32
decllicked you see very visible steps on
8:35
Nikon as you uh try to stop down or open
8:39
up that aperture And so it's it's just
8:40
it's not cinematic at all I wouldn't use
8:42
that at all And so as far as doing that
8:46
kind of thing the aperture control on or
8:48
the ability to declick the aperture on
8:50
the lab lens becomes pointless Whereas
8:53
on the plan lens you definitely can do
8:55
those aperture racks I also noted with
8:58
the lab lens that the lab lens number
9:00
one it doesn't have nearly as good a
9:02
feel to its manual focus lens or focus
9:04
ring whereas the Plenna has a really
9:07
beautifully damp manual focus ring More
9:09
importantly however than just the feel I
9:11
found that I could do smoother uh focus
9:15
pulls manually than what I could with
9:18
the lab lens where again I felt like
9:19
there's just a little bit of a stepping
9:21
quality to the manual focus as well
9:24
whereas you get that smooth
9:25
uninterrupted manual focus that is a
9:28
very very good manual focus simulation
9:30
on the Plenna And so for some of those
9:32
video kind of specific features like
9:34
that aperture racking and manual focus
9:36
pools the Plenna is the much nicer lens
9:38
to use as they stand right now The
9:41
Plenna has a very unique design uh
9:43
particularly with the glass in the rear
9:45
element where they really designed with
9:47
the intent of making uh as the lens as
9:50
evenly illuminated as possible So
9:52
reducing vignette almost exclusively but
9:55
then also allowing for very very round
9:58
specular highlights And so let's look at
9:59
both of those things as being
10:01
advantageous Now ironically the Lab is
10:03
actually the second best out of probably
10:05
all of the existing 135mm lenses right
10:08
now But the Plenna is the best in that
10:10
regard And if you really love perfectly
10:12
round specular highlights all across the
10:14
frame the Plenna does a better job with
10:16
that than any 135 millimeter lens that
10:19
I've tested before There's none of that
10:21
kind of cat eye or lemon shape towards
10:23
the edge of the frame And so it really
10:25
produces really lovely looking specular
10:27
highlights And so that's great It also
10:29
has almost no vignette a very very tiny
10:33
amount Whereas the lab lens has about
10:37
two stops worth of vignette on Nikon
10:39
which is kind of ironic because the
10:40
E-mount version of the Lab lens had it
10:43
was very much like the Plenna It showed
10:44
almost no kind of vignette at all And so
10:47
anyway the Plenna in its rear element
10:50
design particularly here on Nikon it
10:52
just does a better job with both of
10:54
those metrics I also found that whereas
10:56
overall focus speed is about the similar
10:59
between them I did find that focus was a
11:01
little bit more reactive with the Plenna
11:02
and so I could nab things where I had to
11:04
really quickly adjust and pull focus I
11:07
could do it better on the Plenna than
11:08
what I could with the Lab I also found
11:11
that I got greater focus consistency
11:13
when I did a portrait session using both
11:15
lenses recreating the same shots again
11:17
and again at different distances I got
11:19
just higher accuracy overall I got very
11:22
close to 100% accuracy with the Plenna
11:24
whereas I probably was more in the range
11:26
of 75 to 80% accuracy with the lab lens
11:30
in those identical situations And so
11:32
definitely if you really really need to
11:34
rely on portrait consistency then I
11:37
would say the Plenna uh stands out above
11:39
the lab lens at this point
11:42
Now neither one of these lenses really
11:44
impressed me all that much on Nikon when
11:47
it came to doing things like uh
11:49
autofocus pulls for video and then just
11:52
showing general reactiveness There's
11:54
just quirks You can see pulses and racks
11:56
in the wrong direction Just a lot of
11:58
stuff that I'm generally unimpressed
11:59
with However of the two neither one is
12:02
great but the Plenna is better and the
12:04
lab is worse And so if that's something
12:07
that you're going to actually need to
12:08
rely on prepare for some frustration but
12:10
the Plenna will give you less than what
12:12
the Lab will And finally in head-to-head
12:14
wide openen sharpness I felt like the
12:16
Plenna was the sharper lens in the
12:18
center of the frame and that also
12:20
remained true as you stopped it down a
12:21
little bit Both these lenses are
12:23
fabulously sharp by the way And so uh
12:25
it's it's not a huge metric to make your
12:27
decision on But again if you're wanting
12:28
to know which was sharper in my test in
12:30
the middle it was the Plenna So that
12:32
leads me to my conclusion
12:35
I would say that it's safe to say that
12:37
the differences in performance between
12:38
these two lenses are subtle As I just
12:41
said they are both incredible optically
12:43
but I did encounter more quirks just in
12:46
using the lens with the Viltrox than
12:48
what I did with the first party plan
12:50
lens I really feel like the Viltrox is
12:52
due a firmware update For example it's
12:54
still at this point I find in Lightroom
12:57
for example that while the name is
12:59
correct in there the focal length
13:01
reports as 16 mm rather than 135 mm It's
13:04
just little quirks like that where
13:06
there's a few bugs that need to be
13:08
squashed with the lab lens that haven't
13:10
been done yet You know it's been out for
13:12
about a month now and so that hasn't
13:14
happened yet And so the the Plen just
13:16
feels like the more polished finished
13:20
stable product There was moments when I
13:22
was using them side by side where I was
13:24
pretty clearly reminded of which was the
13:26
first party lens and which was the third
13:28
party lens So I would still call the
13:30
Plenna the better lens And again if you
13:33
remove price from the consideration I
13:35
would say I would choose the Plenna But
13:38
$1,600 difference in price is a lot of
13:42
money And I think the case could easily
13:44
be made that the lab has given you you
13:46
know 90 to 95% of the performance of the
13:49
Plenna And you could buy 2.7 of these
13:52
lab lenses for the price of one Plenna
13:55
And for many people who maybe aren't
13:58
earning money professionally from the
14:00
photography that's going to make the lab
14:01
the more easy choice It's a great lens
14:04
for the money And if you go with it I
14:05
think you're going to be delighted with
14:06
it If you're a professional who is
14:08
earning your living uh doing portrait or
14:11
wedding work or things like that I would
14:13
say maybe spending the money on the
14:15
plenum will be worth it because I feel
14:17
like it's going to just give you a
14:18
higher percentage of keepers and that
14:21
obviously can make all the difference if
14:22
you're shooting professionally So food
14:25
for thought If you want more information
14:26
on either one of these lenses I have all
14:29
of my reviews linked in the description
14:31
down below both text and video on both
14:33
of them There's buying links there And
14:35
of course as always I hope that this has
14:37
helped you out today Thanks for watching
14:39
Have a great day and let the light in
14:42
[Music]
14:50
Okay here's a little bonus for those of
14:52
you who stick around to the end I'll
14:54
give you a few comparisons really
14:56
head-to-head and so you can maybe make
14:57
some further decisions for yourself
14:59
Plenty's going to be on the left The lab
15:01
is going to be on the right 200%
15:03
magnification and you can see on the 45
15:06
megapixel Z8 In the center of the frame
15:09
it's all Plenna looking sharper and
15:11
crisper mid-frame However the pendulum
15:14
swings and now the Viltrox is the
15:17
sharper of the two If we pop down here
15:19
into the corner they're similar However
15:21
if you look at this zone here right out
15:23
towards the edge the Viltrox is holding
15:25
on to sharpness a little bit further a
15:28
little bit more consistently If we look
15:30
over on the left side here we can see
15:32
that Viltrox is a little bit sharper
15:35
with the lab lens And up into this left
15:38
corner we can see that it's a little bit
15:41
closer here in this corner I would say
15:43
that I might favor the uh Plenna a
15:46
little bit And so you can see that as
15:48
far as sharpness goes the pendulum kind
15:50
of swings back and forth Now both of
15:52
these lenses have very good minimum
15:54
focus distance performance You can see
15:56
that the magnification level as we've
15:58
already said does favor the Viltrox As
16:01
far as the overall performance up close
16:04
I would say that they are close but I
16:06
think the Plenna is ever so slightly
16:08
better up close Just a little bit more
16:11
detail being resolved If we look at that
16:13
with a three-dimensional object you can
16:15
see here that the magnification level
16:18
yes is higher on the Viltrox Both of
16:20
them are really impressively good here
16:22
with a threedimensional object up close
16:24
Obviously depth of field is going to be
16:26
a little more shallow with the Viltrox
16:27
because of the higher magnification but
16:29
if you look at this zone they're both
16:31
very good I would at You may not be able
16:34
to see it on your screen but on mine at
16:36
4K here with the original RAWs I think
16:38
that the Plenna is ever so slightly
16:41
sharper there but I mean both of them
16:43
are excellent And again because of depth
16:45
of field with something threedimensional
16:47
you don't want to draw too many
16:48
conclusions Both of them are great but
16:49
the Plenna is excellent at the minimum
16:51
focus Now as noted the Viltrox is far
16:54
from the worst performer when it comes
16:56
to the cat eye shape It's actually
16:58
better than any other lens save the
17:00
Plenna as far as 135 mm that I've
17:03
reviewed However the Plenna is
17:05
exceptional And you can see see here
17:07
there's a little bit of a deformation
17:08
there in the corner that's nice and
17:10
round here on the Plenna Also in this
17:12
case it's squeezing a little bit whereas
17:14
the Plenna is a much rounder shape So if
17:17
that's a big deal to you well the Plenna
17:19
is the winner there Finally we'll take a
17:21
look at a few portrait comparisons where
17:23
I have tried to equalize things as much
17:25
as possible So you can see looking at
17:27
the images overall the Plenna image and
17:30
the lab image they look really
17:32
remarkably similar And so as far as
17:34
looking at the subject the subject looks
17:36
very very similar Not much of a
17:38
difference there to point to As far as
17:41
the out of focus areas again I would say
17:44
to my eye they look more similar than
17:46
different I mean this is a complicated
17:48
subject with water streaming over this
17:51
rock but I mean both of them look fairly
17:53
soft Both of them look very similar Um
17:56
and you know throughout the close and
17:58
all of that I mean even the colors
18:01
they're very very similar Hard to call a
18:03
winner there Here with a closer look
18:06
this is f3.2 on both Same shutter speed
18:10
You can see that they look really really
18:12
remarkably similar Look at the defocus
18:14
area And again it looks very similar on
18:17
both of them And if we punch into the
18:20
face and the skin tones you can see that
18:22
it's really remarkably similar I do
18:25
think there's maybe just a little bit
18:27
more contrast for example in the beard
18:29
on the Plenna versus the Lab But again
18:33
if you didn't have them side by side
18:35
could you tell that difference I'm kind
18:37
of skeptical that you could One final
18:39
shot here at f1.8 And again if you just
18:41
look at the image as a whole if I were
18:44
to you know cycle off the information
18:46
switch them around do you feel like you
18:49
could tell which is which Maybe you do
18:51
maybe you don't But the reality is is
18:53
they're very very close I do think in
18:55
this zone I think that the Plenna is
18:58
just a little bit smoother than what the
19:00
Lab lens is But um outside of that it
19:04
there's not a whole lot of of difference
19:06
there I do think that I was a hair
19:08
closer with the Plenna which helps a
19:10
little bit with the background but I
19:12
mean just don't draw too many
19:13
conclusions from that As far as the
19:15
sharpness the color the detail I mean I
19:19
don't know I don't see a difference
19:21
Maybe you do and so that's why I'm
19:23
showing it to you But bottom line is
19:25
that both of these lenses do produce
19:27
very similar results in a portrait type
19:29
setting