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 and heavy and gave it a pretty glowing review. One regret I had was that my Megadap ETZ221 Pro adapter didn’t play well with the LAB 135mm, so I didn’t have a chance to use the Sony FE version on my Nikon Z8. As an aside, I’m interested in seeing if Viltrox’s own new E to Z adapter solves that problem. But fortunately we have a better solution, because a new Nikon Z mount version of this amazing lenses has officially arrived, and frankly the big LAB is going to be a better match for my large Nikon Z8 body anyway! One thing hasn’t changed; this is still a big, heavy lens, but it also a very serious challenger to the premium Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena…particularly considering that lens’ hefty $2500 USD price tag. The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z is an optical juggernaut, and the bargain price tag of $899 USD makes it a huge value (and if you use code DUSTINABBOTT at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 5% off!). Find out if this should be the 135mm in your own kit by watching the video review below or by reading on in the text review.

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Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.  *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here. You can visit the product listing page of the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z.

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I’ve had a long-term love affair with 135mm lenses. I still own some classic 135mm options from the film era (SMC Takumars and the like) and have been privileged to own some of the modern premium 135mm options, from the Canon 135mm F2L to the Zeiss Milvus 135mm F2 to the Sony FE 135mm F1.8 G Master. In short, I have owned a premium quality 135mm for just about as long as I have been a professional photographer. I value the focal length above all for the utterly unique portrait shots you can get; shots the feature extreme isolation and wonderfully creamy bokeh. There are many lenses where you can get a blurred out background if you get very close to your subject, but a lens like the LAB 135Z allows you to completely isolate your subject even when you are a much further distance away, like this:

And look at what happens if you take a tighter crop of that shot:

You can perhaps get a sense of just how exquisite the combination of bokeh and sharpness is…even at F1.8.

I love the look of images shot with a fast 135mm lens…but I don’t end up shooting with the focal length as often as I might like. My least favorite part of owning premium 135mm lenses is how comparatively rarely that I reach for the lens (just too long for a lot of situations). For me that has made me question the amount of money I have sitting on the shelf far too often, and has caused me to (at times) sell such a lens to help fund a more practical purpose. The size and weight of the LAB 135Z might still be such a deterrent, but the price won’t be. I would feel far less qualms over a $900 (or less!) lens sitting on the shelf a bit too much than having a $2500 lens like the Plena sitting on the shelf.

The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z is a fiercely good lens, and I suspect is going to be somewhat disruptive here on Nikon because of just how good it is at such an inexpensive price.

*There will be some redundancy with my Sony FE review of the lens as this is in essence the same lens mechanically, cosmetically, and optically. I have updated the imagery and also any area of unique performance to the Nikon platform.

Viltrox LAB 135mm Build and Handling

There is basically one variance from the E-mount version of the lens to the Z-mount version of the lens, and that is that the barrel of the lens near the mount is much wider on the Z-mount version to accommodate the significantly wider diameter of Z-mount (on the right).

You might also notice that the rear weather sealing gasket is a little more obvious on the E-mount version, but that is only because the gasket is seated a little differently to accommodate the different mounting position on Nikon. Other than that the E-mount and Z-mount versions are essentially identical, with similar size, length, and features.

In many ways the new LAB 135mm feels like a blend between a Canon L series and a Zeiss Batis lens. The overall feel of the lens and its textures reminds me of a Canon L series, while the top mounted LCD screen reminds me of a Batis lens.

Nikkor 135mm Plena is a big lens, as have been all of Nikkor’s premium fast primes. It is 98mm (3.9″) in diameter and 139.5mm (5.5″) in length. It weighs 995g (35oz). But the LAB 135Z manages to top that. It is 93mm in diameter (3.66″), a little narrower, but is a bit longer at 147.6mm (5.74″) in length. That’s not bigger (the Plena has an internal volume about 1% higher), but the LAB 135Z is a hefty lens, weighing in at a whopping 1268g (44.72oz), or about 270g more than the Plena (I weigh the FE version of the LAB at 1236g, a little lighter due to that smaller diameter near the lens mount). Do not buy this lens if you are adverse to some weight. Why is it so heavy? Above all, it has a LOT of glass inside.

Up front we get a large 82mm front filter thread, though that is pretty common for any 135mm lens with an F1.8 aperture. You can’t beat physics!

Viltrox has demonstrated that they are capable of producing small, lightweight lenses with good optics (the AIR series is a perfect example of that), but that’s not the point of the LAB series. The LAB series seems to following a similar design philosophy to Nikon’s F1.2 S line lenses: build the best optical instrument at the focal length that you can, and don’t worry about the size and weight. These types of lenses are not for everyone, but some photographers simply want the best. Those types of photographers are going to be delighted with the LAB lenses.

It looks like Viltrox’s Pro Series will take a more traditional approach to aperture similar to either Sony’s GM series or Sigma’s better DN prime lenses, namely a marked aperture ring that could either be clicked or declicked. Their approach with the LAB series is a little more similar to Nikon’s approach with the S-line lenses. The aperture ring is a bit more like a command dial that interacts with the LCD screen than a traditional aperture ring with hard stops at either end. You still have the option to have the ring either clicked or declicked, but the aperture rings seems to move in a speed dependent, non-linear way. A quick rotation will speed you through the aperture options, while a very slow rotation doesn’t even move a one-third stop with each click. The LCD screen shows only one third stops between the full stops like F2 and F2.8, so I’m not sure what the point of this is. A more traditional aperture control setup would have been preferable all around, though, like Nikon Z mount lenses in general, you can use this ring for other things than aperture (exposure compensation, ISO, etc…).

Unlike native Nikon lenses, however, you do have the option to have the aperture clicked or declicked via a switch on the left side of the barrel.

When you turn the clicks off you can smoothly move through the whole aperture range without defined slots.  This allows for smooth video aperture racking and has become an expected pro-grade feature on modern lenses. There does seem to be less lag in the aperture iris than many lenses, however, making smooth aperture racks more possible. This is the rarely lens that I prefer the aperture clickless rather than clicked even for stills.

Unlike Sony (at least at the present), some of Nikon’s cameras have a top mounted LCD screen, and while you can see the selected aperture on both screens, you can see that it is larger and more easily seen on the camera rather than the lens LED.

The iris itself has 11 aperture blades, and these make for a nicely rounded aperture even when stopped down a fair bit.

Beneath the declick button there is a three position focus limiter that allows you to select the full range, up close (0.7-2m), and to eliminate the close focus range (1.5m to infinity). The LCD screen also functions as a distance scale, showing you the focus distance in large letters while showing a scale above in smaller letters.

Further up the barrel is an AF | MF switch along with two FN (function) buttons.  The top one functions like the typical function button, performing whatever function you have that button programmed to in camera.  The second button is going to be used more commonly for video functions, however, as when in manual focus mode it allows you to preset two focus positions and automatically switch between the two at the press of the button (A-B focus).  This works in conjunction with the LCD screen on the top of the lens (more on that in a moment).  You can preset the focus position(s) by long pressing the FN 2 button, and then access the focus changes by short pressing it. 

Now to that LCD screen.  The LCD functions in many ways like those found on the Zeiss Batis lenses, though with some improvements.  The screen itself is nice and bright, allowing for good visibility even in bright conditions.  It solves the problem of a distance scale (something missing on most mirrorless lenses), as it gives you a large font telling you the precise focus distance along with a distance scale above that.  The bottom part of the screen gives you a readout of the current aperture.  It also gives you some information related to the function buttons however, with the Fn icon lighting up when the first Function Button is depressed, and then the A or B function lights up when you are presetting focus distances.    There’s actually a lot of useful information on the LCD screen once you get familiar with how it is all being displayed, though I’m sure a lot of people will still find it somewhat of a gimmick.

The manual focus ring is slightly raised and has a rubberized, ribbed texture.  It moves fairly smoothly, I feel like there is a little more feeling of steps or pulses from the focus motor while manually focusing than on Sony. There’s obviously a bit of a difference with the way that input on the focus ring is routed through the Nikon body, as on Sony the focus process feels smooth and linear. Like the aperture ring, input on the focus ring seems to be speed specific and not quite linear. Using the A/B focus is a much more precise way to set up repeatable focus pulls.

We also have weather sealing on this lens that starts with a unique maroon-colored gasket at the lens mount along with other seal points through the lens (a total of 12 of them, by my count).

This is an internally focusing lens, so there is nothing that moves where dust might intrude. There’s also an HD-Nano multilayer coating on the front element to help with water and fingerprint resistance, making the front element easier to clean.  As always, however, “moisture-proof” does not mean “water-proof”, so don’t go crazy! This is, however, a professional grade lens with professional sealing.

Viltrox continues with a trend that other lens makers are now imitating by including a USB-C port in the lens mount that allows you to do firmware updates right to the lens.  I’m a fan of this approach, as it eliminates the need for a separate dock or lens station for firmware updates, and I find the process a little more intuitive than even doing firmware updates through the camera.  This allows Viltrox to future proof their lenses and continue to improve them through firmware.

As with other recent Viltrox lenses, the lens is Bluetooth equipped, which means that you can use the Viltrox app for IOS or Android and update firmware wirelessly. You can also program a custom splash animation to the powerup cycle on the lens (I’ve got mine showing my business logo during startup).

There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped.

One thing worth noting is that when the lens is powered off, there will be some movement/clunking if you rotate the lens up and down. This can be very disturbing if you are not familiar with modern lens design. Many high end modern lenses employ floating elements that allow for better up close performance. The lens groups are not fixed, but float in a certain area, so when they are not energized they will move around a bit. This is by design, however, and when the camera is powered on, those elements will be energized and become fixed. You can rotate the lens up and down without anything moving around. It feels like the Viltrox has finetuned this process with the LAB 135Z, however, and it seems a bit less obvious than on the Sony version.

The benefit of this design is that you get a much better up close performance that you typically see on Viltrox lenses. You can focus as closely as 72cm, giving a maximum magnification figure of 1:4, or 0.25x, which bests the 0.20x (1:5) available on the Plena. Up close performance is fantastic even at F1.8, with excellent sharpness and contrast and a nicely flat plane of focus.

I used the LAB 135Z for some product shots for another review, and it delivered excellent results.

That’s macro lens levels of performance there!

Viltrox has redesigned the front lens cap with a bevel along the front that makes it feel slimmer (good, as this is their biggest front lens cap so far). The lens also comes with the hood and a nicer than usual leather pouch (similar to Canon L-series lenses). There is some cushion on the bottom, but I don’t find these pouches nearly as useful as a good padded nylon case like what Sigma provides.

The LAB 135Z comes with the nicest lens hood that I’ve seen on a Viltrox lens. The plastics are extra thick and sturdy. There is a felt lining inside to keep light from bouncing around, and there is a rubberized transition section that helps to protect the lens from bumps and also makes a nice option for placing the lens facing down. The lens doesn’t have a lock, but does have a firm bayonet into place that sits securely. I had no issues with it coming loose. I will note that it can reversed for storage but fits very tightly, so it can be a little work to get off sometimes as the rubber of the hood grips the rubber of the focus ring.

As noted, the lens barrel construction reminds me a lot of Canon’s better L- series lenses, with an magnesium alloy body, which is the same material used in expensive camera bodies. The new LAB badge on the side of the barrel reminds you that this is from this new premium series of lenses.

While I don’t agree with all of the ergonomic choices Viltrox made with the LAB 135mm, I do think that this is a very nicely executed package.  The lens feels high quality in the hands, and it handles like a premium lens. In many ways this feels like a much more expensive lens than the $899 USD price tag. The finish feels durable and I would expect the lens to hold up well for the long haul. This is a big, heavy lens, so that will obviously be a deterrent for some buyers, though frankly the Plena is actually a bit bigger (though the LAB is heavier). Sony does have the slightly smaller, lighter option in the form of the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8, but at the moment, Nikon has no such option. I will say this as a final word on the matter: the LAB 135mm feels like a much more natural fit on a beefy body like my Z8 than it does on any of my smaller, lighter Sony bodies. I’m not sure that “two wrongs make a right” applies here, but perhaps we could say that a heavy lens makes more sense on a big, robust camera.

Autofocus (Stills)

I was excited to see that Viltrox was pioneering a new autofocus system with the launch of the LAB series, as I felt like A) they had gotten about as much out of their STM motors as they were going to get and B) a premium lens like this with big, heavy glass elements needs as much thrust in the focus motor as possible. Like the Sony FE version, the LAB 135Z is equipped with not one VCM (voice-coil motor), but dual “Hyper VCM” motors that work in harmony to drive autofocus. This is a similar approach to what Nikon has done with the 135mm Plena, and the dual high performance focus motors allow you to broaden the scope of what can be done with a fast prime lens like this, up to and including sports.

As with the FE version, I have been reviewing a prerelease copy of the LAB 135Z, so the lens arrived without the final “retail firmware” update. But you could also tell that they’ve had that extra six months to refine focus, as the Z-mount version just felt more confident out of the box (the Sony version got there after a firmware update). Fortunately firmware updates are pretty simple, and can be done via a drag and drop on a computer, or via Bluetooth through the Viltrox app.

Autofocus speed is very good. Not quite instant, but near to it. In my formal tests I saw quick and mostly confident focus changes from close to distant. If I go back and compare my results to the Sony FE version, I find that focus is a little slower and perhaps a little less confident. On Sony the progressions from close to distant and back were nearly instant and with complete confidence, but I find a few more little pulses and an occasional quick rack in the wrong direction. In real world shots, however, focus changes tend to be smaller and I didn’t really notice the same things.

That included shooting in lower light conditions. You can shoot with precision even in situations with a tiny depth of field, like this:

I’ve been playing a lot of squash recently, and I was curious to see if the AF speed was sufficient to keep up with the rapid fire action on the squash court. I tested the Sony FE version with basketball, and it did fine, so this was something different. The good news is that focus had no problem keeping up with the action and acquiring subjects.

This is too long a focal length for this application, really, and you have to contend with shooting through glass (I would NOT want to be in there with a camera!), so I wouldn’t choose this combination for serious tracking of the sport. But that wasn’t really the point; I wanted to know if the lens could keep up on my Z8, and the easy answer was yes.

I actually feel like Viltrox has done a really solid job of porting over to Nikon’s focus algorithms here, as the lens feels very natural and at home on the platform. I’ve consistently been impressed with how well third party lenses that I’ve reviewed on other platforms first behave on Nikon. Often the VR (In Body Image Stabilization) works better, focus is very similar to what I find on Sony, and when testing on Sony, I ran into the typical limitation for all third party lenses: burst rates are capped at 15FPS for non-Sony lenses. Fortunately no such limitation exists on Nikon, so I was able to shoot as quickly as 30FPS and got consistent focus in those very quick bursts.

Someone next to me while I was shooting asked, “How many photos did you just take?” after one such burst. I told them I had no idea; all I knew is that I was getting 30 of them every second!

Focus precision was also exceptionally good. I had no problem nailing quick shots of Nala as she rolled around in a shaft of sunlight. Look at just how gorgeous the focus (and the detail!) is in this shot:

Focus sound is near silent, with a very light whirring sound as focus moves back and forth. There’s no drama associated with focus, just quick, accurate results.

Things were mostly fantastic when shooting portraits. I was literally shooting in the middle of a blizzard, and the sheer number of keepers despite the persistent distractions was actually pretty impressive.

A few times, however, the focus system got distracted by the snowflakes and it was like it couldn’t see past them to the subject, like here:

I ended up saving this shot anyway because I kind of liked the effect. The potential for these focus issues seemed to go away when I got closer, and the contrast of the subject become more obvious. My keeper rate for the portrait session was very high despite the conditions.

This is definitely in the upper tier of autofocus performance for third party lenses. It’s amazing how far Viltrox has come in just a few short years.

Autofocus (Video)

Video autofocus was largely an extension of what I saw from my stills tests, though the flaws were a little more obvious. The hint of little focus racks in the wrong direction were more obvious with video autofocus pulls, and everything didn’t seem quite as confident as I saw on Sony…though there is some hopes that the retail firmware could improve that.

Movement towards the camera was fairly good if the movement was consistent and linear, but if I stepped in and out of frame, the reactiveness of picking me back up had some lag.

Video focus on real subjects seemed to be fine. Here’s a screenshot from some 4K60 footage during the portrait shoot.

Video footage looks noticeably very detailed and crisp, and the beautiful color, contrast, and rendering of the lens makes for some gorgeous footage.

Viltrox clearly wanted the LAB series to be a statement in every area, and fortunately that includes autofocus. While autofocus isn’t quite as exceptional on Nikon as it was on Sony, it’s also true that Sony’s focus is a little more sophisticated in general. I was very happy overall with focus performance here.

Image Quality Breakdown

Ahhh, and now to my favorite part, because the LAB 135Z is just a special, special lens. I fell in love with the Zeiss Otus lenses because, despite their being ridiculously big and expensive, they were just so good optically. It might be heresy to say, but the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB is just that kind of lens. The optical design is 14 elements in 9 groups, with four of those being ED (low dispersion) elements and two of them being HD (high refractive index) lenses. The MTF is fantastic, with an absolutely stunning center and midframe performance that isn’t quite the same in the corners. At F8 the MTF is pretty much a straight line across the top, i.e. perfect.

Just for fun, let’s take a look at the Nikkor 135mm F1.8 Plena MTF:

Gulp. If the MTF is to be believed, the $900 LAB 135Z is sharper all across the frame than the $2500 Plena.

And yes, if we look at real world images, the results are just ridiculously sharp.

Take a look at the crop:

In fact, the Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 delivered once of the best all-round optical performances that I’ve ever seen and is essentially strong to extremely strong in all areas that I test. It is the rare lens that is both technically and artistically excellent. Look at the lovely overall rendering from this image:

And now let’s look at the crop that shows the technical excellence:

Yup. That’s great.

More on this in a moment. Let’s look at the technical side of things.

I was expecting a lens well corrected for LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations), and that is the case here. I see mostly neutral results on either side of the plane of focus without any visible fringing.

I tried a wide variety of situations to see if I could find some fringing while testing both the Sony and Nikon versions of the LAB 135mm, but the LAB beat me. Look at how utterly neutral it is when dealing with the shiny and engraved bits of my classic lenses, which are typically amongst the absolute worst case scenario for fringing.

Brilliant.

LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) typically show up along the edges of the frame with high contrast transition points.  I saw a small amount of LaCA in my tests, which actually surprised me, as I didn’t see any on the Sony version.

Viltrox lenses have not always had great profile support, and if there is any advantage to this it is that they have gotten accustomed to doing a lot of the corrections optically rather than relying on software corrections. On the Sony FE version I found essentially no distortion or vignette. Essentially all the lenses I’ve tested first on Sony and then on Nikon have exhibited more vignette on the Z-mount version.

That’s the case here as well. There’s still no measurable distortion (there’s maybe a fraction of a percent of pincushion), but I do see some vignette (I used a +50 in the correction above).

It’s not a big deal and easily correctable.

We’ll move on to inspecting our test chart.  This test has been done on a 45MP Nikon Z8 sensor.  I use a high end tripod and two second camera delay to ensure vibration doesn’t affect images.  Here’s a look at the test chart that we will examine at high magnification:

If we take a look at crops (at 200%) at F1.8 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right corner, we find that center and mid-frame performance is exceptionally good, and that sharpness extends right to the corners.

The lower resolution point on Nikon (45 vs 61MP) only makes the results look even more consistent. If I compare mid-frame result above with the upper left corner from the (both at F1.8).

Yes, you can see that the mid-frame result is slightly sharper, but that is remarkably consistent performance.

To put that in context, let’s take a look at the same result using the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 that released in 2024. Not a top tier lens, obviously, but a pretty decent one that I gave a positive review to and even purchased for myself.

Wow! You can see just how radically sharper the LAB 135mm is. This is definitely the sharpest lens I’ve tested on my Z8 thus far. Stopping down to F2 does make a mild difference, particularly in the outer parts of the frame, though you might be hard pressed to spot the differences without the two images side by side and at very high levels of magnification.

By F2.8 the sharpness levels are essentially at the ridiculous level. There are more fine details visible in this old two dollar bill than I knew were even there.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice a minor reporting bug that hadn’t been squashed in my pre-release firmware yet, namely that while the lens properly registers in Lightroom as the Viltrox AF 135/1.8 LAB Z, the focal length registers as 16mm. That bug will be dealt with in the retail firmware.

Stopping on down produces improvements so minor as to be hard to see most places in the frame, though I could tell the improvements in the far corners.

Physics will affect even the mightiest of lenses, however, so expect diffraction to start to soften the image by F11 and more obviously by F16, which is minimum aperture (though this lens is still sharper than many lenses at its weakest!)

You’ll have all the portrait sharpness you’ll ever need, with perfect amounts of sharpness and contrast and beautiful skin tones.

In fact, one of the best applications for a lens like this is to shoot environmental portraiture at F1.8, where you can shoot at longer distance, compress the scene, but still get a nice separation of your subject from the background.

This is a lens that is pretty obviously overengineered for the full frame image circle. I’d actually be curious if Viltrox would ever consider bringing the LAB series to the Fujifilm GFX platform and to see how well they would cover that larger image circle. I noted, for example, when reviewing the Sony version that the LAB 135mm consistently metered a little faster than the Samyang in my comparisons while delivering similar brightness levels, so I also believe that the T-stop is about one third stop faster than the Samyang. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find that the LAB’s T-stop is very similar to its F-stop.

The Viltrox LAB 135Z clearly delivers near APO levels of sharpness and contrast. What is rarer still is the lens that can deliver incredible sharpness and contrast while also delivering soft bokeh…and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that this is one of them.

First of all, it does very well with specular highlights. Here’s an F1.8 image that shows that there is some geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, but overall the bokeh looks great. You can see just how big and soft the bokeh can be when you’re close to your subject.

If you really want all round specular highlights, stop down even to F2.5, and it is nearly perfect there.

But perhaps my favorite application is for portraits. First of all, the general rendering looks great.

But what’s harder to see when viewed full is how all of those different layers of snowflakes are being turned to varying sizes of specular highlights. It’s really pretty stunning.

The general rendering is just fantastic.

In the early stages of Viltrox’s lens development their optical glass was, well, more budget oriented, but that has radically changed in the past couple of years. I find Viltrox’s current optical glass to be excellent, and it also tends to be very neutral. Colors are rich, but not oversaturated. The images are neither warm nor cool, allowing you to choose your preference either in camera with the white balance or in post.

That intense contrast just makes the colors look very rich and, well, expensive.

Flare resistance was also very good on the LAB 135Z. The lens hood isn’t necessarily small, but it is smaller than many other 135mm lenses that I’ve tested because frankly it isn’t overly needed. Here’s a variety of positions and apertures shooting into very bright sun and you can see that contrast holds up fine, without ghosting or veiling.

I did test for coma on the Sony version, which I’ll share here (snowstorms don’t make for good astro tests!). This makes yet another interesting application for this lens, as the longer focal length lends itself to a different perspective on astrophotography. Coma was very well controlled even into the corners, and the extremely low fringing assures that bright heavenly bodies aren’t ruined by some nasty color smears around them.

The bottom line is that this is one the most complete lenses that I’ve tested optically, and I would be hard pressed to point to a better optical performance from any lens priced under $1000, and could probably count the number of better optical performances, period, on one hand. If you’d like to see more images in my extensive image gallery, just click here.

Conclusion

I found reviewing the FE version the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB a real treat, and I felt no differently about covering the Z mount version. To do my job correctly I need to invest a lot of time and care into using and evaluating a lens whether I personally enjoy it or not. It can be very frustrating to have a camera in hand in a beautiful photographic opportunity and be stuck with a lousy lens attached to the camera because that’s what I happen to be testing. Not so with the LAB 135Z; this is a lens that I would choose to shoot with. It’s also a fabulous match for my Z8 in the larger size of the camera, the great autofocus system, the stellar VR, and of course the gorgeous images that the LAB/Z8 combo can produce.

I’m so glad that Nikon has opened up to third party brands, and while this lens will certainly steal some potential Plena purchases, the availability of high end, affordable lenses like the Viltrox LAB series has the potential to sway customers debating between Canon and Nikon in Nikon’s direction.

I’ve come out this review impressed all over again. I recognize that LAB 135Z will be too big and heavy for some potential buyers, but if this happens to be something that you can look past, you will find an absolutely stunning lens that will produces images that are richer, sharper, and more compelling that what you can get with just about anything else in your bag. Yes, please!

Pros:

• The LAB series is supposed to be Viltrox’s BEST…and it shows
• Beautiful built lens
• Feature rich
• Very good weather sealing
• USB port for firmware updates along with Bluetooth for wireless access
• New Hyper VCM motors are fast and accurate
• Focus pulls are nicely damped
• Exceptionally sharp lens that matches or bests the very best in the center and mid-frame
• No distortion or vignette
• Exceptional control of fringing
• Colors look great
• Amazing contrast
• Gorgeous bokeh
• Great flare resistance
• Low coma
• Amazing price to performance ratio

Cons:

• Big and heavy
• Don’t love the aperture ring design
• Some might be put off from the “clunk” of the floating elements

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