Z7ii + 135/1.8 Plena

[MEPER]

Yesterday evening I went out for a small walk with my Z7 and Plena lens for some light capturing.
Probably the sharpest general purpose wide aperture lens I have. The Z50/1.8 is also pretty good.
I did not use any sharpening. I see no real use for it as images are sharp enough "out of box" and I often don't like the enhanced contrast "unsharp mask" causes.
I like the colors and contrast of the lens and the absence of CA.
The images are in pairs (reduced to 1900 pixels at longest end + a 100% crop).
ISO 64 was the setting.

This one is shot at aperture 2.5.

[MEPER]

Aperture 1.8.

[MEPER]

Aperture 1.8

[MEPER]

Aperture 2.8

[MEPER]

Aperture 2.8

[MEPER]

A few more pairs.
Aperture 1.8

[MEPER]

Aperture 1.8

[MEPER]

Aperture 1.8

[Erik Lund]

That is a very pleasing rendering, foreground as well as background. Also the color transitions are great, reminds me of APO Lanthar 125mm f/2.5 and Noct- Nikkor 58mm f/1.2

[MEPER]

Yes, I am surprised how good the wide-open performance of the lens is.
When I got the Plena I went to an old factory building close to where I live to take some pictures but I forgot the narrow angle of a 135 mm lens so it was a bit of a challenge.
The building was first a Piano factory (Søren Jensen) and later factory for the Penol brand pens (Christian Olsen).

Building here at 2nd page (how it looked many years back):
https://tompens.com/en/1046-the-pen-maker-christian-olsen/

Here how it looks today through the Plena.

This image taken at Aperture 5:

[MEPER]

Aperture 8 (great performance also closed down):

[MEPER]

Background blur at 1.8:

[MEPER]

I can see that the 100% crops I provided for the DSC_0250 and DCS_255 was not 100% where focus point is.
I think the two crops here makes more justice to the lens.

The lens is most fun to use wide open because the performance is very good at f/1.8.

[Erik Lund]

Really versatile lens, there should be plenty of inspiration for the approximate focal length if you search this site for APO Lanthar 125 f/2.5 the capabilities and rendering is very similar although the APO Lanthar is manual focus
Mentioning similarities; The 105mm Micro Nikkor fro the Z system is also relatively similar, there you can use the close up performance to achieve similar results, sharp, out of focus smoothness front and rear, Bokeh and color transitions so smooth and blending in such a nice way.

[MEPER]

Yes, it is nice to be able to isolate objects in city environments to get more less stressful looking images.
The small DOF at 1.8 can create a 3D like look.