The Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB Z Mount: Better Than Nikon’s 135mm?

Viltrox lenses are a better choice than Nikon’s Z-mount native lenses. There, I said it. And this is coming from someone who has used Nikon for 40 years and may even be somewhat of a “fanboy.” I’ve been impressed with Viltrox lenses for a few years now—and own three—but the new Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB full frame is a whole new level of impressive.

When Nikon announced their 135mm f/1.8 Plena, I did a little day-dreaming and drooling. At the same time. It’s an absolutely fabulous lens, the only Nikon lens for the Z system that I really desired. I could see myself using it for video work, in particular. But I couldn’t justify the huge $2,500 price tag for the number of times I would use it.

A year or so later, having got over my fantasizing of a fast 135mm, along comes the Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB full frame. Now my interest has been reignited. LAB is a new line of uncompromising premium lenses from Viltrox that sit above their PRO lens range.

Those lovely folks at Viltrox sent me one. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The second you slide off the sexy black box lid, peel away the plastic wrap, and hold it, you know you’ve got a premium lens in your hands. It feels as good as Nikon’s Plena. A Plena weighs 995 g, and the Viltrox is a little heavier at 1,265 g. I can live with that. Both use 82mm filters, which pleases me as my best filters are all 82mm, and I don’t like using step-down rings if I can help it.

So the Viltrox 135mm feels as well built and reassuring as the Nikon 135mm. But how does it perform? I don’t have a Plena to do a side-by-side comparison, but I’ve played with the Plena, so I’m familiar with it—but that doesn’t matter anyway. What’s important is taking Viltrox’s 135mm out and about and using it in real-life situations, and looking at the results.

Testing the Viltrox 135mm LAB f/1.8

A 135mm lens is perfect for tight portraits, still life, and wildlife. For me, I use this focal length for travel and landscape. It’s great for picking out building details or a lone tree in a field.

I’m late to the party with this lens review because I wanted to live with it for a couple of months and use it for a variety of scenarios—from food, portraits, to outdoor action.

My first priority was to test the autofocus, paired with my Nikon Z6 III. I was keen to see how the eye tracking performs in tricky low light or backlit scenes, and how the lens performs for close-up photography such as food or picking out flowers in a field.

The lens, working with the camera’s eye tracking, did a superb job. OEM lenses are said to perform the best with focus tracking, but this lens handled a variety of conditions as well as any of my native Nikon Z-mount lenses.

Wide open, shooting into the sun with eye focus tracking.

The Viltrox 135mm, shooting wide open, worked a treat with the Nikon Z6 III. This dog was really moving, and the tracking kept up.

Autofocus eye detection worked flawlessly in tricky lighting conditions.

Shooting wide open at f/1.8, the image quality is incredible. The corners are sharp, and there’s no noticeable vignetting—something that is common when shooting with fast lenses at their widest aperture. As for distortion, I didn’t really notice anything.

The sweet spot for sharpness appears to be around f/4. Although at f/1.8 and f/5.6 it performs incredibly well and remains very good to f/11. This is the kind of lens I doubt you would use beyond f/5.6. I certainly wouldn’t, because this lens is all about separation of your subject from the background. We want a lovely creamy blurred background, and this lens delivers it in spades.

Out-of-focus backgrounds are certainly beautifully rendered, and bright highlights are smooth circles that impress at f/1.8 to f/2.8, thanks in part to the 11-blade aperture. They start to be less buttery beyond f/4.

Background blur renders beautifully.

The Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 is a good lens for capturing details, with a minimum focal distance of 0.72 m—slightly better than Nikon’s 135mm minimum distance of 0.82 m.

In a studio, the Viltrox 135mm becomes a useful lens for food photography.

The main appeal of a 135mm lens for me is for video work. There are a few thoughtful features on this lens that cater to videographers and filmmakers, which I appreciate.

There’s the ability to select manual focus, and although you won’t pull focus on a focus-by-wire lens as well as you would on a helicoidal cine lens, there is a second FN (function) button on the lens that allows you to set A and B focus points and toggle between them with minimal focus breathing. It’s a little fast, so it works best if you’re shooting 60 or 120 frames per second and slow the clip down in post.

The lens also features a de-click switch for the aperture ring, should you need smooth aperture racking—something Nikon’s native 135mm doesn’t have.

What I Love

• The Viltrox 135mm feels good to hold and operate. You can feel the quality, and this gives one confidence.

• Sharpness is virtually faultless.

• The dust and weather sealing is superb.

• The lens comes with a long hood, flocked inside, and featuring a rubber front edging—a thoughtful detail.

What I Don’t Like

With other Viltrox lenses, you can go to their website to download the latest firmware updates. Simple. It’s a slight inconvenience that you even need to update a lens, but easy to do.

With the 135mm LAB, you can’t do that. You have to download an app for your phone. I don’t do apps, but I caved in and tried. And couldn’t get it to work. After half an hour, I abandoned it. Alternatively, you can download an app for your computer. So I tried that, but my MacBook Pro wouldn’t let me install the software for fear of malware, and I had to override that warning. Not something I feel comfortable doing, really.

I needed the latest firmware update because the lens wouldn’t work on my Nikon Z6 III or Z9. Once I got past all that messing about, everything was fine.

Viltrox AF 135mm f/1.8 LAB Full Frame Specs

• Mounts: Nikon Z-mount or Sony E-mount

• Lens Elements: 14/9

• Focal Length: 135mm

• Aperture: f/1.8 – f/16

• Number of Aperture Blades: 11

• Shooting Distance: 0.72 m – ∞

• Focus Mechanism: Internal focus-by-wire

• Focus Mode: MF, AF

• Lens Size: Φ93 x 147.6 mm

• Weight: 1,265 g

• Filter Size: 82mm

Conclusion

Viltrox has gone from strength to strength over the past couple of years, making some fabulous lenses. This is the most impressive lens I’ve had my hands on to date. I highly recommend this lens if portraiture, still life, and even wildlife is something that is important to you, and you want incredible—dare I say virtually faultless—performance for a very reasonable price.

This lens feels good to hold, it’s well built, and the added functionality—should you require it—is very well thought out and implemented.

It performs as well as the Nikon Plena 135mm f/1.8—at a third of the cost.

You can buy it here for $899.