Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

Does anyone have any experience with the Nikon 135mm 2.0d ? any thoughts?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Yup. It works as expected. (I am demanding).

I use it exclusively for portraits. I stay away from the bokeh thingy. I use it manual all the time. The wide opening is great for focusing. My 'normal aperture is 8 which seems to be the 'sweet spot' of that lens. Incredibly sharp sometime too sharp (who wants to see a pimple?) but that is why I/we retouch.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

The actual designation is AF DC Nikkor 135mm f/2.0 D.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

Why has Nikon not put the bokah technology in other lenses? This lens dates to 1995

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

[quote=Rongnongno] (who wants to see a pimple?) [quote]

A dermatologist?

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Nikon has, btw. there is no such thing as bokeh technology.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

Apparently there are only two Nikon lenses with the ability to change the bokah focus, this lens and the sister 105

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

"Bokah focus" :?: :?: :?:

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

These are/were probably the most popular portrait length lenses.
Makes no financial sense to put that feature in anything else.
And it's spelled bokEh.

klaus Loc: Guatemala City, Guatemala

What Mickey is talking about is the Defocus Control Nikkor AF 135mm f/2D DC. It's a unique lens design because it lets you deliberately emphasize the amount of foreground and background blur. As Mickey correctly stated the only other lens with this capability is the Nikkor AF 105mm f/2 D DC.

klaus Loc: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Here's a picture!

Rongnongno Loc: FL

:shock: :hunf: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The Defocus Control doesn't "emphasize" blur. And given the instant feedback we have today with digital cameras, the usefulness that it had with film is greatly reduced.

The Defocus Control adds over or under correction for spherical aberrations. It does that by moving the lens element just behind the front element.

That has the effect of reducing DOF either in front of the plane of focus or behind it. The control ring is marked with f/stop values, and when set to the same value as the aperture it places the edge of the DOF range just behind the plane of focus for the R values, or just in front for the F values.

With any other lens a virtually identical effect can be obtained by using a wider aperture to get the narrower DOF, and then either back or front focusing to place the subject at the edge of the DOF. That is somewhat difficult to calculate, so the Defocus Control makes it easy! It was important with film because by the time we were able to see the results it was too late to repeat the shoot. Today we can see the results instantly, and repeat if needed, so exact calculation is not nearly as important.

In actual use there are interesting effects. Not terribly useful, but interesting.

For example, if the aperture is set to f/4 and the DC ring to 0, the effect is what we'd expect from any lens. If we set the DC ring to R4, the DOF is cut in half and everything in back of the subject is out of focus. (With F4 it would be everything in front.) But if we set DC to R2 the back DOF edge is not moved as far, and there is some in focus area behind the subject. Or, if DC is set to f/8 the edge of DOF is moved past the actual subject and produces soft focus of the subject.

It's all fun to play with. But in use it's just as well to ignore the DC and use an appropriate aperture while positioning the subject as desired within the DOF at any given focus range.

amehta Loc: Boston

I had the 135mm DC, my dad has it now, and I still have the 105mm DC. I prefer the 85mm f/1.4 for portraits, so the DC lens sits idle. Perhaps I will include it in my big lens test I'm supposed to do? :-)

Old Al Loc: Litchfield County, Connecticut

I have all three of nikon's "portrait " lens, the 85f1.4, 105f2, and the 135f2. I use the 85 for Children/youths and the 135 for adults. With the extra distance provided by the 135 I found the perspective ideal and it is clearly my favorite "go-to lens". While
nothing can match the 85''s wide open backgrounds , I find most people choosing the shots made with the 135. Finally, while the 105 is also a wonderful lens (and if I owned only one it would be the compromised choice), I should probably sell it as I NEVER choose it over the other two.