I am in the market for a 105/135 lens and had narrowed my choices down to Zeiss Milvus 100mm, Zeiss Milvus or Apo Sonnar 135mm, Nikon 1.4E, Nikon 105 DC and Nikon 135mm DC.
I had a chat with Jakov about it and he was kind enough to borrow his 135mm DC, especially to test the CA issue (a reason why I ditched the 105mm 2.8 VR in the past). I also compared the lens with the 70-200 f4 VR for portraits. Camera used: D810. Herewith my findings.
1. The 135mm suffers from quite a bit of CA, both purple and green up to f8. At f8 and beyond it becomes better. I did not test the 70-200 in this area.
2. I also noticed the front-focusing issue on my camera but did not bother adjusting it.
w.r.t. Bokeh at f4 both do equally well. I did not see much difference. Obviously the f2 is a plus for the 135 if you want narrower DoF. The DC feature makes it an even better solution for isolating a subject.
3. The build of the 135 is beautiful. Better than the 70-200 f4. But AF of the 70-200 is snappier. In my opinion the 70-200 is sharper and has more contrast. I have to be somewhat careful because the VR function may have helped me. On the other hand, I shoot mostly out of hand, so this is closer to reality to me.
4. The color rendering is different but both are believable IMHO.
There is definitely one area where the 135 (and 105) shines and that is the what I call "crazy-effects". That is something that Jakov has mastered. I have not. My miserable attempt:
