Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena lens announced
Nikon has announced the Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena lens, which is said to be optimised for out-of-focus highlights, after teasing the new model on YouTube. The Plena lens adopts 16 elements in 14 groups and includes one element using a relatively new type of glass from Nikon called an SR (Short-wavelength Refractive) element: “Nikon’s original SR (Short-wavelength Refractive) lens is a high- and specialized-dispersion glass lens featuring characteristics to greatly refract light with wavelengths shorter than that of blue. By controlling short-wavelength light that is difficult to compensate, light of various specific wavelengths can be more effectively collected achieving highly precise chromatic aberration compensation. Because this lens can…
Nikon Plena lens to appeal to cinematographers
Some features are leaking on the internet about the previously mentioned Nikon Plena and the lens apparently is now said not to include Nikon’s defocus image control. Even if the lens doesn’t feature ‘DC’, the Plena’s optical design mitigates polishing rings (aka ‘onion rings’). There’s also a lack of vignetting that typically results in truncated blur disks or “cat’s eyes.” Some effort has also gone into mitigating slight overcorrection of SA usually seen as bright rings at the edges of the blur disks, which is usually achieved via an apodization element, however, the bright rings remain in some of the darker disks. All of the above indicates to me that…
Nikon Plena lens teaser debuts on YouTube
UPDATE: Nikon has announced the Plena lens. Nikon has published a video teaser for a new lens called Plena, which is due to be announced on Wednesday, 27th September. While not much is known about it at this time, the yellow-coloured font is similar to that used by Nikon with the Nikkor Z 58mm F0.95 S Noct and a nod to the Zeiss cine primes. The new Plena lens therefore is almost certainly aimed at the cinematography/filmmaking crowd and targeting the rental houses. While it could feature AF, if it is a cinema lens it is likely manual focus only and expensive (upwards of £3.5K more likely above £5k). Judging…
