The Nikon Nikkor Z 24mm f/1.8 S is the only Nikon 24mm with Z mount. 24mm on a full frame camera is quite wide at the verge of ultra wide angle, which can create dramatic images but at the same time it is not so wide that it makes composing images difficult. It is great for landscape photography, but due to its f/1.8 wide aperture it can also be easily used indoors or in other low light situations. It is a relatively expensive lens for being a 24mm f/1.8, but if this lens’s qualities show to be excellent then it can be considered as a reasonable price. Bear in mind that as Nikon’s only available Z mount 24mm prime it should appeal to all users, including the professionals and if its qualities are satisfactory for professional users then it is a relatively cheap lens. So, let’s see how it performs! Show Sample Images Contents DisclosureI bought this lens with my own earned money for test/review purposes. SpecificationsFocal Length: 24mm Aperture Range: f/1.8 – f/16 Number of Aperture Blades: 9 Min Focus: 0.25 m Filter Size: 72 mm Lens Mount: Nikon Z Weight: 450 g Diameter x Length: 78 mm x 96.5 mm Elements/Group: 12/10 HandlingThe Nikkor Z 24mm f/1.8 is like most of the other Z lenses relatively large and slick, seemingly of good quality plastic and robust, but the rear mounting plate is of metal. It is environmentally sealed. There are no other variations of this lens yet. There is only one switch on the lens for choosing manual or autofocus and a single but large metallic ring that is very easy to find without removing your eye from the viewfinder. The ring is normally used for autofocus override and manual focusing but can be programmed to be an ISO, Exposure compensation or aperture setting ring. The manual focusing is responsive and the rotation of the ring has good resistance. The autofocus is, like all the other Z lenses, focus by wire using a stepping motor (STM), accurate, quiet and acceptably fast. Despite the relatively big size there is no built-in image stabilization in the lens. The lens is built with 12 elements in 10 groups (including 1 ED glass and 4 aspherical lens elements, and elements with Nano Crystal Coat). It has 9 rounded aperture blades. The elements have Super Integrated Coating. The front element also has fluorine coating against moisture and dust. Optical FeaturesSharpness (Infinity)Let’s first have a look at its MTF chart at f/1.8 provided by Nikon: From the curves you can expect that the lens should have excellent contrast over the whole frame with excellent sharpness from center to at least the long edge of the frame and very good sharpness to the short edge of the frame with no field curvature, astigmatism or lateral CA. Looks very promising, let’s check it out in real world. 1.8: The sharpness is very good at the center, the midframe and corner are slightly weaker but still very good. F/2.8: Center sharpness is excellent, the rest of the frame has improved a lot, especially the mid-frame. F/4: The center sharpness is perfect and mid-frame excellent. corners have improved even more. F/5.6 even the corners are excellent now, so excellent everywhere. F/8: Excellent everywhere. F/11: A slight hit by the diffraction effect, which draws down the sharpness level a little. F/16: A little less overall sharpness due to diffraction. The micro contrast is very good and generally this is, although not perfect, an excellent performance. This is the sharpest 24mm lens Nikon has produced ever. Sharpness (Portrait)Let’s look at the portrait distance (for a 24mm lens about 55-60 cm) at the very center, center’s inner periphery and center’s outer periphery (points of interest for portraits). Here all test points at all tested apertures look almost the same, equally good, excellent. It is difficult to see any difference between the different apertures and different points in the test on a 24 Mp camera. It may show a slight difference if it was on the more demanding 46 Mp sensors. Generally even there the difference should not be that big. Excellent again. Sharpness (Close-up)Even here you can get excellent results right from f/1.8 but not perfect. At 2.8 it gets perfect though, excellent sharpness and contrast. At f/11 you get a slight decrease in the sharpness but not much that is more visible at f/16 but not with huge fall. That’s completely normal and the same for all lenses as this is an effect of diffraction. Lens DistortionThere is a very mild degree and negligible amount of barrel distortion and normally you do not need to worry about it. If you use Adobe Lightroom (or any of Nikon’s own raw processors) it is corrected automatically without you knowing about it. VignettingAt f/1.8 there is about 2 stops of light fall-off at the extreme corners. At f/2.8 it reduces a lot to about 1 stop. At f/4 and f/5.6 it is about 2/3 of a stop, which is much less compared to the Samyang 24mm 1.8 AF as well as the Sony FE 24mm 1.4 GM. Flare ResistanceAs I hoped for and expected from a Nikkor Z S lens the flare is controlled very well, and so it is indeed. If you really push it to the extreme situations you can see some veiling and ghosting but even in those situations they never are even close to ruin the image. A fantastic job from Nikon in controlling the flare. In the following series you can see when I really tried to get some flare by changing the camera angle and see where it looks worse. There are some flare in all the three pictures with the worst case in the last one. Chromatic AberrationsLateral CA is very low as expected from the MTF chart and negligible (see the tree branches in the corners of the image in the Sunstars section, no CA correction applied). The longitudinal CA, on the other hand, is noticeable at wide apertures but improves a lot at f/2.8 and disappears almost completely at f/4. Here you can see a real life example. To see lab tests of LoCA see the images under Focus Shift section to see the effect at different apertures. Focus ShiftThere is some small but negligible amount of focus shift, this is very good. You can also see the LoCA manifestation in this test shot series at different apertures. ComaThe lens shows some very small coma, it is hardly noticeable but it’s there. It gets a little better by stopping down but never goes away completely. SunstarsSunstars’ beauty is subjective. You can get nice 18 pointed sunstars with this lens from f/5.6 but for my taste they get very beautiful and distinct from around f/9. Focus BreathingAlmost no focus breathing at all, excellent performance here, this is great especially for video makers. BokehThanks to the relatively large aperture of this lens you can get decent background blur if you take photos with large apertures at closer distances. Normally a 24mm lens is not used mainly for creating images with dreamy bokeh and you should not expect that either especially if there are aspherical elements in the lens; in this case 4 of them. The beauty of the bokeh is subjective though and I don’t think that bokeh of this is bad at all, it is actually quite smooth for a 24mm lens in my eyes. It can be a little less smooth at mid-distances but I’ll let you judge for yourself if the bokeh is beautiful or not. Here is an image taken at f/1.8, focus near MFD and its 100% crops of center, mid-frame and corner of the image, which demonstrate some very slight indication of onion rings but not obvious at all. They also show that the lens vignetting is much better than average as the bokeh balls towards the edges and corner are not that much deformed or truncated. This is very good for a fast lens at f/1.8. A few examples of background blur, I add a few others to the sample images as well. Close distance Medium distance Long distance ConclusionI LIKE AVERAGE I DON’T LIKESharpness across the frame Contrast Flare Resistance Lateral CA Correction Distortion Control Sunstars Bokeh Coma Build Quality Autofocus Programmable Ring Environmental Sealing Size Weight Longitudinal CA Correction Price Lack of Stabilization This is the most modern and sharpest 24mm lens Nikon has ever made. Maybe not the sharpest of all 24mm lenses though as pixel peepers might find one or two possibly slightly sharper 24mm lenses for other camera brands. Anyhow this is an extremely sharp lens right from its widest aperture and for Nikon Z users the sharpest 24mm prime money can buy. Good control of aberrations, flare and distortion with beautiful sunstars. It has excellent optical qualities that leaves very little to wish for, is built, looks and behaves as a modern lens should do. High build quality and environmentally well sealed. If you need or like a robust and fast 24mm lens capable of creating excellent results with good sharpness, contrast and out of focus backgrounds, this is the lens for you. I enjoyed using this lens a lot during the review period and can easily recommend it. If you are interested in buying this lens or any of the lenses in the Alternatives section you can support our efforts by using the links below or given under each lens. It won’t cost you a penny and it won’t affect the price but helps us a little. Nikon Nikkor Z 24mm f/1.8 S Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $850 (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) AlternativesViltrox 24mm f/1.8 Z The only autofocus Z mount alternative to date. Smaller and lighter. Good build quality and optically not very far from Nikkor Z 24/1.8 except the distortion and vignetting, which are not as good and also no weather sealing but less than half the price of Nikkor Z 24/1.8 at about ~ $380 today. Buy new: Viltrox Store, amazon.com, amazon.de for $380 (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.8G ED This is the predecessor of the reviewed lens in Nikon F mount. Also optically very good but not quite as good as the new Z mount version. A little cheaper than the Z version though. If you have a Z camera go for the Z lenses, otherwise this is a very good choice both on Nikon DSLR and Z with adapter. Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $745 (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED 2/3rd of a stop faster from the same generation as the aforementioned lens but 5 years older and optically a little weaker than its little brother, the 1.8 version, while its price is more than twice as the f/1.8 version. This one has better corner performance though. If you need the extra speed go for it, otherwise take the f/1.8 version. Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $ (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s Manual focus from Nikon’s heyday, excellent mechanical instrument, compact and lightweight. Good optical characteristics. Very soft in corners wide open but very good 2-3 stops closed, which normally is the case if you do landscapes. Ideal manual 24mm for street and landscape photography on film cameras and for manual focus enthusiasts. Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 AF and AF-D Exactly the same lens as the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s but with autofocus. If you prefer autofocus and are on a tight budget take this one, otherwise the AF-S version is a better choice. Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Sigma’s top line Art series. Faster at f/1.4 with autofocus but in F mount (like Nikkor AF-S 24/1.4G). It is about 50% heavier than Nikon Z 24/1.8 but physically comparable with Nikon’s AF-S 24/1.4 G lens. Almost as good as Nikon’s 24/1.4 G but not quite. However, the Nikon 24/1.4 is more than twice as expensive. Actually in the center of the image at its widest aperture it competes successfully with the Z mount version, which is better than Nikkor AF-S 24/1.4 but not further stopped down and not anywhere else other than the center. So, it’s faster and sharper in the center up to about f/4 but, lo and behold, it’s cheaper than the slower Nikon Z lens, new, as it is still in production. If you need the extra speed but on a budget go for this one, otherwise the Z lens if you have Z body or the AF-S f/1.8. Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.dr for $820 (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro Nikon An older and cheaper design from Sigma. About the same weight (actually 35g heavier), a bit shorter but larger diameter compared to Nikkor Z 1.8. Very slow and noisy autofocus in F mount, generally the weakest of most of the listed alternatives but it can focus very close and therefore able to create nice bokeh (at close distances). If the only thing about the 24mm lens is the bokeh and close-up photography, consider this one otherwise you would be better off choosing any other lens in the list. It is not produced anymore but you can buy it used. Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED IF UMC 2/3rd of a stop faster manual focus lens in F mount. Larger and heavier though. Being from 2001 it’s a quite old optical design compared to more modern lenses from 3-4 years ago to now and that can be seen in the images. You can buy this lens new for about $480 at Amazon Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $ (Affiliate links) Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au (Affiliate links) More Sample ImagesFurther Reading
Support UsDid you find this article useful or just liked reading it? Treat us to a coffee! (Donations via Paypal) The following two tabs change content below. Martin M.H. lives outside Stockholm, Sweden. He is a M.Sc. in Computer Technology but he has been a passionate photographer for over 45 years. He started his photographic adventures when he was thirteen with an Agfamatic pocket camera, which he soon replaced with a Canon rangefinder camera that his mom gave him in his teenages. After that he has been using Canon SLR, Nikon SLR manual focus and Autofocus, Sony mirrorless crop sensor, Nikon DSLR and Nikon Mirrorless. He has photographed any genre he could throughout the years and you can see all kind of images in his portfolio. During the later years though it has been mostly landscape, nature, travel and some street/documentary photography. Post navigationSony α | Leica M | Nikon Z New article every weekThis website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More |
