The first frame you take with a new lens tells you very little. It is from the hundredth onwards that you understand who you are dealing with. Viltrox Italia had sent me their 135mm F1.8 LAB to try out, and the first outing was in a wheat field at the end of June, with Alice, in the good hour before the sun disappeared behind the hills. Nothing dramatic to report: no mishaps, no impossible light to handle, just a new lens mounted on my Z8 and the curiosity to find out where it would give in.
It never did.
A lens that weighs as much as it promises
Let me say it straight away, because it is the first thing you feel: this lens is not light. Viltrox quotes around 1265 grams for the bare optic, 147.6 mm long and 93 mm in diameter. On the Z8, with its substantial body and generous grip, the whole thing stays balanced and pleasant to work with; on a more compact camera like the Nikon Zf I imagine it would be a different story altogether. Inside there is a magnesium alloy structure, a polycarbonate outer barrel and hood, a metal mount, and a dust- and splash-resistant build — not the full weather sealing of a high-end professional optic, but enough to work without worrying in normal conditions.
The features you do not expect at this price
Looking at the lens from above, you understand where Viltrox decided not to cut corners. There is a small colour LCD panel on the barrel showing focus distance and selected aperture, which you can customise over Bluetooth with the dedicated app. There is a proper aperture ring, with a click/de-click switch — a rare luxury at this price, and an obvious nod to anyone shooting video. There are two programmable Fn buttons, placed so they fall under your thumb in both landscape and portrait orientation, an AF/MF selector, a three-position focus limiter and firmware updates over USB-C.
These are things that are not a given on a thousand-euro lens, and that make more of a difference in daily use than a spec sheet would suggest.
The bokeh, which is why you buy a 135mm in the first place
You choose a 135mm F1.8 mainly for one reason: to separate the subject from everything else. And here the Viltrox does exactly what it should. Backlit under the trees, with the sun filtering through the leaves, the background lights turned into round, clean balls, smooth all the way to the edges of the frame, without the nervousness that gives cheaper lenses away. The eleven aperture blades do their job with a consistency I never had to correct in post.
Out in the open field too, with the hills of Molise behind, the compression typical of a 135mm does the rest: the landscape flattens, softens, and stays there purely as atmosphere. It is a focal length that decides on its own what matters in the frame.
F/1.8 and F/4: the test I ran on location
During the shoot I took two identical frames eleven seconds apart, one wide open and one stopped down to F/4, to get a real reference instead of an impression.
But the real comparison only shows up when you go deep, on the eyes. I cropped the same area from both files, with no sharpening added in post: at F/1.8 the lashes are separated one by one, the iris keeps its texture and the edge of the eyelid stays defined. At F/4 there is a gain, but it is marginal — you see it in a crop like this one, not in a print and certainly not on Instagram.
In practice: you can use this lens wide open without feeling guilty, which is exactly what you ask of an F/1.8. If I buy an F/1.8 it is because I want to use F/1.8, not because I want an F/4 with the theoretical option of opening up.
Backlight, contrast and colour fringing
Towards the end of the session I pointed the lens straight into the low sun, with Alice fully backlit and the light source inside the frame, at F/1.8. This is the condition where a mediocre lens gives up: contrast collapses, a milky veil appears, the blacks lift. Here instead the image held — the glow around her hair stayed what I wanted it to be, an effect I chose rather than a flaw I suffered, and the file kept enough material to work on comfortably.
I went and checked the files at full size on exactly the most critical edges, the backlit hair against the blown-out sky, which is where purple and green fringing usually turns up without being invited. I did not find any of significance. To be fair, these are files that have already been through post-processing, where certain corrections apply themselves these days: rather than “this lens has no chromatic aberration”, the useful conclusion is that in a normal workflow it is not something you need to worry about.
The whole session, it should be said, was shot at ISO 64 with shutter speeds between 1/800 and 1/1250: comfortable conditions. But it is worth knowing that wide open, with the sun in the frame, this lens does not flinch.
Beyond the wheat field
The session with Alice was the test, but it was not the only use. I have used this 135mm on other shoots as well, some weddings among them, and that is where a lens stops being a spec sheet and becomes a tool: the HyperVCM motor locks on quickly and quietly, autofocus stays accurate even when time gets tight and there is no second chance at the shot, and the out-of-focus rendering that was an aesthetic indulgence in the wheat field becomes the fastest way to isolate a subject in the middle of chaos.
The limit, if anything, is always the same one: the weight. Over a long day it makes itself felt, and this is not a lens you keep mounted all the time for convenience. It is a lens you pick up when you need it — and when you need it, it pays you back.
The comparison with the Plena
I have also had the chance to try the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena, but too briefly to compare them optically in any serious way — and I would rather say so than invent a verdict I do not have the data to support.
What I can compare with certainty are the numbers, and they are unforgiving in both directions. The Plena weighs 995 grams against the 1265 of the Viltrox: almost 270 grams less, which over a full day is not a detail. It is also a little shorter — 139.5 mm against 147.6 — although wider in diameter. On paper, the Nikkor is the easier one to carry around, and anyone working all day with a 135mm around their neck should factor that in.
Then there is the price, and that is where the distance becomes something else entirely: the Viltrox starts from a list price of around 999 euros — and is often found discounted, which makes the gap wider still — while the Plena is close to 3,000. I am not saying they are the same lens. I am saying that with the difference you could buy another camera body.
The 135mm is no longer a territory for the few
What is interesting is that in the meantime the field has become crowded. The 135mm F1.8 in Z mount has been joined by the Samyang and, since May of this year, by the 7Artisans AF 135mm F1.8 as well: aluminium alloy barrel, 1014 grams, 82 mm filter thread and a starting price of around 690 euros, the most aggressive of the group.
I have not tried them yet, and I have no intention of saying a word about how they perform until I have actually worked with them — but it is a test I would very much like to run, ideally putting them side by side on the same subject in the same light. For years a 135mm F1.8 was a luxury you had to budget for carefully; today it has simply become a choice, and that is the best news of all. If I get to try them, I will write about it here.
The spec sheet in brief
- Mount: Nikon Z (also available for Sony E)
- Optical design: 14 elements in 9 groups, with 2 high-refractive-index and 4 ED elements
- Aperture: f/1.8 – f/16, 11 blades, aperture ring with click/de-click
- Minimum focus distance: 0.72 m
- Autofocus: HyperVCM motor, three-position focus limiter
- Extras: colour LCD panel, two programmable Fn buttons, Bluetooth app, firmware over USB-C
- Filter: 82 mm
- Dimensions and weight: 147.6 × 93 mm, about 1265 g
- Price: around €999 list, often available for less
The verdict
The Viltrox 135mm F1.8 LAB is not the right lens for anyone chasing the lightest possible kit: the weight is its real price, far more than the thousand euros it costs. But it is a complete 135mm F1.8, with no excuses and no asterisks — sharp already wide open, consistent bokeh, autofocus that holds up when the day gets serious, and a set of controls that far more expensive lenses do not offer.
If you shoot portraits and you have always put off buying a 135mm because it cost as much as a holiday, this is the moment to reopen the conversation.
You mount it, you look through the viewfinder, and in a moment you understand why this focal length has always been loved.
All the portraits in this article were shot with the Viltrox 135mm F1.8 LAB on a Nikon Z8, during a session with Alice. The lens was supplied to me by Viltrox Italia for this test.