A very kind and patient reader recently sent me both lenses, and I’ve spent time shooting them over the last couple of months. While both Nikkors are interesting, collectible, and well-performing lenses, the one which really impressed me has been the newer of the two, the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P. Though I no longer own an FM3a, I was able to use the 45mm on another interesting classic camera, the Nikon N2000. I also paired it via adapter to my Nikon Z series mirror-less digital, to delightful and surprising results.

The Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P has immediately joined my list of must-have favorite classic lenses.

Specifications of the Nikon Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 P

• Lens Mount: Nikon F Mount (AI-S and CPU contacts)
• Focal Length: 45mm full frame (approx. 67.5mm APSC)
• Aperture: Maximum aperture of f/2.8; Minimum aperture of f/22; 7 rounded blades
• Focus: Manual focus only; Minimum focus distance 45 centimeters (17 inches)
• Dimensions (Diameter x Height): 4.5 x 0.7 inches (114 x 18 mm)
• Weight: 4.2 oz (119 grams)

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Brief History of the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P

In the early 2000s, Nikon embarked on an unexpected task: to create their last, great manual focus 35mm film SLR camera. Yoshiyuki Nakano served as development leader and Masaaki Tsukamoto lead mechanical design of the camera that would be called FM3a.

I’ve written in great detail about the FM3a in my review, but I’ll here quickly reiterate the importance of this amazing camera.

By 2001, auto-focus was the established norm and digital photography was being adopted en masse by pros and amateurs alike. That Nikon decided to develop and release one last truly high-quality manual focus 35mm film camera was special indeed. And it was during the development of this special camera that Nikon designers started to wonder if it would also be possible to make a new standard manual focus lens to match with the FM3a.

The FM3a, though it was the most advanced, reliable, and capable manual focus 35mm film SLR that Nikon had ever made, was also extremely compact and lightweight. Nikon knew that the accompanying lens must also be compact and light.

In the 1990s, Nikon optical designer Kouichi Ohshita had developed a super compact and lightweight lens for the Nikon Pronea S. To its designer’s chagrin, this lens never made it to production. However, given his expertise in designing such high performance compact lenses, Kouichi Ohshita was entrusted to design the optics for the proposed lens that would accompany the FM3a.

It was decided that the lens should be a 45mm lens, as an homage to the older GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8. Like that lens, the new lens would employ a similar optical design of four elements in three groups. This design would feature the classic Tessar formula: one convex element at the front, one concave element in the center, and a concave-convex doublet at the rear.

Tessar lenses have two weaknesses – great spherical aberration, and having an image plane that’s not as flat as Gauss lenses. Kouichi Ohshita developed two formulae in preliminary design and testing, one which prioritized flattening the image plane (which reduced contrast at maximum aperture), and another which prioritized sharpness at all apertures by reducing spherical aberration and coma. Ultimately, the latter was used, as it was believed that a standard lens should be consistent at all apertures.

Nikon had recently developed a new high-refractive-index glass, and this was used for the second convex element. The radius of curvature of the doublet was also increased, which flattened the image plane and corrected spherical aberration and coma.

Once the optical formula was decided upon, it was determined that the lens should be compact, sophisticated, versatile, and of exceptional quality. The barrel was made of metal, and a custom metal screw-in lens hood was designed (internally, Nikon designers called this the “barnacle hood”). A very close minimum focus distance of 45 cm (17 inches) was achieved, and the lens was fitted with CPU contacts so that EXIF data could be recorded when the lens was used with digital cameras.

Nikon FM3a Review - A Nearly Perfect SLR

I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect camera. Beyond the quirks of design that cause even the best of cameras to annoy, there’s personal preference to account. Some people like large cameras, some people small. Some shooters prefer SLRs, others are wrong. But despite this, there does exist a camera that’s closer to perfect than any I’ve used. It’s the Nikon FM3a. Before your eyes complete that roll and before your cursor drifts to the next site in your browser’s reading list (fannypackaficionado.com can wait a few more minutes), let me tell you why I’ve made such a […]

Using the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P Today

The obvious first impression of the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 is that its designers achieved their goals.

The lens is supremely small and incredibly well-built. The gorgeous geometric knurling of its all-metal focusing ring is magnificent, and the focus dampening is simply luxurious. The aperture ring clicks beautifully into its detents, and the engraving and paintwork are all top shelf.

When fitted to a camera, the lens nearly disappears, creating a truly wonderful shooting experience in which taking a picture with a full-featured SLR is like using a compact camera. The zone-focusing scale makes it possible to set and forget our aperture, after which we need only point and shoot. Of course, for those interested in complete control, we have the usual aperture and focus rings, which control beautifully.

Some users with big hands might find the lens too small. My hands are average size, and I found the lens a joy to use.

When mounted to Nikon’s new mirror-less Z series cameras (or to other brands’ cameras, like the Sony A series) the camera loses some of its compactness by virtue of its requiring an adapter. That said, mounting this pancake to a mirror-less camera via adapter will be smaller than mounting almost any other classic manual focus lens to the same camera with the same adapter.

Image Quality

For me, the biggest surprise about this nearly 25-year-old lens has been that it performs like a lens designed yesterday. Though using it feels as though we’re using a classic lens from the 1970s, it makes images that are thoroughly modern.

Sharpness is exceptional. Contrast is strong, even at maximum aperture. Distortion is nearly non-existent. When close-focusing, the lens loses none of its capability.

When shooting wide open there is a slight loss of sharpness at the edges of the frame. Similarly there is minor light falloff at the corners of the image at maximum aperture, and contrast drops off similarly at this setting.

However, to be clear, these optical problems are so slight that they will never interfere with our final image. I’ve shot many of the sample photos in this review at wide open aperture. For the perfectionists, stop the lens down to f/4 and all of these problems virtually disappear.

When close focusing it’s possible to achieve some level of bokeh and subject isolation. However, the bokeh is in no way the star of the show. Subjects may be isolated nicely, but there’s no real way to achieve a totally blurred background. That’s not the purpose of this lens. Its purpose is to capture sharp, vital images.

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The Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P Compared to Other Nikkors

The Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 pancake lens shares a lot of the qualities of the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P, and in some ways it’s a better lens. It has a faster aperture, produces nicer bokeh, and is less expensive to buy today. However, the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P is much smaller, feels as though it’s better built, and (in my experience) makes nicer photos.

Compared with the older GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8, upon which the newer lens is based, the original GN lens does have some minor advantage. The GN lens uses nine aperture blades and produces rounder, cleaner bokeh (most noticeable in highlight bokeh). It also has a more retro imaging character (i.e., it has worse image quality). Where the more modern Nikkor beats the older GN, however, is that the newer lens has a closer close-focusing distance, is significantly smaller and lighter, and offers AI and AIS compatibility and CPU contacts, where the older lens does not.

The big question is this: should we buy this somewhat uncommon and expensive lens?

The answer depends on what sort of camera we’re using.

For users who want a lens that can be used on a Nikon film camera and also adapted to mirror-less, this is a great choice. For users who only plan to shoot digitally, and specifically with a Nikon Z series camera, the choice isn’t so clear.

I recently reviewed the Z mount Nikkor 40mm, a thoroughly modern lens which shares many of the same design touch points as the older Nikkor. The new 40mm Z series lens is an auto-focus lens, it’s super compact, it makes images that are simply untouchable in their quality, and it’s even available as a limited edition which proudly features the old-style Nikkor lens barrel design. It’s my favorite standard lens in the system. For ease of use and performance on a mirror-less Nikon Z series camera, it’s better than the old 45mm and makes the old Nikkor redundant.

However, we can’t mount the Z mount 40mm lens onto a Nikon FM3a. For users seeking an ultra-compact 40-50mm Nikkor lens which can be used with a mirror-less digital camera and with a Nikon film camera, the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P is a great choice.

Final Thoughts

I knew that I’d like this lens before I ever used it. But it has still managed to surprise me. Most of those good feelings come from just how beautifully it performs, optically. Though the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P looks, feels, and carries itself as if it were an ancient optic, a classic legacy lens from the heyday of 35mm film, it makes photos that are as impressive and sharp and punchy as a modern Nikkor, and its versatility (that of being able to mount to both Nikon film and digital cameras) is a big selling point, too.

Fitting the 45mm to my Nikon N2000, my Nikon Z5, and my on-loan Nikon Zf has been a truly wonderful experience. I never expected it, but this lens helped me make images that I’ll adore for the rest of my life. That’s something that very few lenses can do.

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Nikon Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P – a Classic Pancake Lens Review appeared first on Casual Photophile.

Nikon does not often name its lenses. Since its beginning in 1933, the company has manufactured over 110 million lenses, and very few indeed have been engraved with any names other than Nippon Kogaku (Nikon’s old name), Nikon, or Nikkor. When Nikon names a lens, it’s because they want us to notice. It’s because they feel they’ve made an extraordinary lens, one which rises above their own typical optical excellence.

The Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena does just that. It is practically an optically perfect lens, it handles beautifully, with only a few minor drawbacks, and it’s not even that expensive (relatively…).

I’ve been shooting the Plena in real-world scenarios for the last three months. Let me share some thoughts on the newest named Nikkor, the Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena.

Specifications of the Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

• Mount : Nikon Z mount
• Focal Length : 135mm
• Maximum Aperture : f/ 1.8
• Minimum Aperture : f/ 16
• Format : Full Frame (FX)
• Maximum Angle of View (DX crop-sensor cameras) : 12°
• Maximum Angle of View (FX full frame cameras) : 18°10′
• Maximum Reproduction Ratio : 0.2x
• Lens Formula : 16 elements in 14 groups; 4 ED elements, 1 aspherical element; 1 SR (short wavelength refractive) element
  
• Diaphragm Blades : 11 rounded blades; smooth opening and closing
  
• Vibration Reduction Image Stabilization : Only with Z series cameras with in-body VR
• ARNEO Coat : Yes
• Meso Amorphous Coat : Yes
• Fluorine Coat : No
• Focus Mode : Auto/Manual, user-selectable; 2 STM (stepping motor); Internal focusing
  
• Minimum Focus Distance : 2.69ft (0.82m) from focal plane
• Filter Size : Screw-in 82mm
• Approx. Dimensions (Diameter x Length) : 3.9 in. (98 mm)  x  5.5 in. (139.5 mm)
• Approx. Weight : 35.1 oz. (995 g)
• Price : $2,499 USD [B&H Photo Affiliate Link]

What’s a Plena?

When Nikon issued the press release announcement of the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena, the brand elaborated on the name.

“The name “Plena” is derived from the Latin term plenum, which denotes the state of a space being completely full. This name was chosen to reflect the lens’ ability to fulfill the user’s creative vision with superior light gathering capability, beautiful well-rounded bokeh and outstanding sharpness and clarity throughout the frame.”

I suppose this means that the lens is full. Full of stuff. And it is!

It has 16 lens elements in 14 groups, 4 extra low dispersion glass elements, 1 aspherical element, 1 short-wavelength refractive element, 11 rounded aperture blades, 2 auto-focus stepping motors, two function buttons, a focus switch and a focus ring, a programmable function ring, a weather-sealed body made of metal, and both the largest front and rear lens elements that I’ve ever seen.

That is indeed a lot of stuff, the purpose of all of which is to help us take gorgeous photos.

Nikon touched on this in their press release as well. They claimed that the Plena is a lens like none before it. Nikon promised astonishing edge-to-edge clarity and dreamlike circular bokeh, both at the same time, and affirmed that the lens was designed to be shot wide open at f/1.8.

Tired old photo nerds will know that the two mentioned optical characteristics aren’t particularly  rare. There are many lenses which provide edge-to-edge clarity, and many others which provide dreamlike circular bokeh. The trick, as the experienced among us also know, is to find a lens that does both at the same time. And wide open, no less? That really is a trick.

Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens featuring Full-Frame | f/1.8 to f/16, Fast, Lightweight Telephoto Prime, Multi-Focus System, Round Bokeh from Edge to Edge, ED, SR, and Aspherical Elements, Programmable Linear Focus Ring, Customizable Control Ring, ARNEO and Meso Amorphous Coatings, Dust- and Water-Resitant Design. Review Nikon Plena

Ergonomics of the Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

The Plena is a heavy lens.

It weighs 35 oz (995 grams), which is about 2.2 lbs. That’s 75% the total weight of the Nikon Z9, Nikon’s heaviest mirror-less camera, and almost double the weight of the Z5, their smallest and lightest mirror-less. So, with the Plena fitted to a Z9 we’re carrying 5.15 lbs of camera and lens; fitted to a Z5 we’re carrying 3.5 lbs. Pretty heavy, and for extended photo shoots, such as a wedding, it could become tiresome. (In fairness, this is true of basically all modern, fast, mid-tele portrait lenses.)

It’s also big. When not fitted to my Nikon Z5 or the on-loan Nikon Zf, it occupied essentially all of the space in my everyday carry camera bag, and about half the space in my photo gear travel backpack.

That said, it’s hard to care about weight and size when we see the images the Plena can make.

We realize pretty quickly that it’s a lens that defies comparison. Nikon’s 85mm f/1.8 Z lens is smaller and lighter by about half, but it can’t match the Plena’s images. The closer optical contender, Nikon’s excellent Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S, is similarly out-shined, and that lens is even heavier than the Plena. Then there’s the Sigma Art 135mm lens for the Nikon F mount weighs even more than the Plena (even before we fit the F mount to Z mount adapter).

And then there’s the fact that, from the perspective of build quality and finish, the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is the finest lens in the Z lineup.

While most of the lenses in the Z series are housed in plastic bodies, with some (like the otherwise amazing 40mm having even their mount made of plastic), the barrel, body, and mount of the Nikkor Plena are all made of metal. It feels amazing in the hands, with a gorgeous finish of high sheen satin black paint (or powder coat, or anodized metal?) that matches perfectly with the sheen of the black bodied Nikon Zf.

The knurled rubber focus ring is precise and positioned well, with a static rubber knurled ring sitting ahead of it on the barrel so that holding the lens steady while rotating the focus ring with an extra digit becomes effortless.

The diamond knurled customizable function ring is tucked closer to the lens mount, and this too actuates with luxurious and click-less fluidity. It can be mapped to control ISO, aperture, exposure compensation, and many other functions. The two function buttons are positioned well, with the top-mounted button being most useful when using the camera in portrait orientation.

Drawbacks of the design are nearly non-existent. The only real qualm that I’ve had with the ergonomics being that there’s a tendency to accidentally actuate the customizable function ring in between photos.

This might happen due to behavior brought on by the combined weight of the camera and lens. The whole kit weighs so much that when not using the camera, I’m reluctant to let it hang from a neck strap. But I also find that the lens is so chunky that holding the rig by the camera body feels awkward and front-heavy, and holding it from just the lens feels equally weird. Thus, a natural place to hold the camera and lens when not in active use seems to be the base of the lens barrel. It balances nicely, but this is also where the function ring lives.

The chain of events in real-world use is such that I might shoot some photos, and then I’ll hold the camera in the manner mentioned while I’m repositioning for a different angle or otherwise occupied not taking photos. The function ring spins without my realizing it, this way or that, and when I next raise the camera to take a photo I find that whatever function I’ve mapped to the ring has changed in its setting – the aperture that was once set to f/1.8 is now f/4, for example.

This problem can be easily mitigated by simply holding the camera in a different way, or remembering to check my settings with a glance every time I raise the camera to my eye, or by setting the function ring to a less critical control, or by deactivating it entirely.

In truth, I seek to find problems in every lens and camera that I review. That’s my job. The fact that this lens’ biggest issue is one so trivial should give a good indication of its ergonomic soundness.

And don’t forget that it’s a weather-sealed lens. Peace of mind is nice.

Image Quality of the Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

Nikon has been keen to emphasize that there is no more important metric when measuring the effectiveness of the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena than that of image quality. The lens was made for one purpose – to be an artful and optically perfect lens. They have striven to make a lens which can provide crystal clarity from edge to edge when shot wide open, as well as dreamlike bokeh in both foreground and background elements of a shot, all at maximum aperture.

And they’ve done it.

The Nikkor Plena is unlike any other lens that I’ve used. It does indeed create incredible sharpness. When shot wide open, this sharpness is simply astonishing, and true to Nikon’s claims, this sharpness does extend from one edge of the image to another. Individual strands of hair are easily discernible. A shot that I made of a boat floating in a harbor some twenty yards away from me (at night, and lit only by a streetlamp) shows minuscule droplets of water clinging to a fine line. I can count my daughters’ eyelashes in hastily-shot, badly-lit portraits.

Bokeh is smooth and uniform both in front of and behind the point of focus. Bokeh highlights are pleasant and bubbly and show almost no cat’s eye warping effect as the out of focus highlights reach the edge of the image area. Even when we stop the aperture down, bokeh is still quite round as a result of the many curved and rounded aperture blades. Transition from in-focus to out-of-focus elements is subtle and gradual, never jarring.

There’s no effective vignetting, as the frame is evenly lit at all apertures, edge to edge. Nikon has achieved this through the lens’ massive and curved rear element. It is physically larger than any other lens they’ve yet made, and coupled with the Z mount (which is similarly enormous) the lens is able to project light evenly across the camera’s full-frame sensor.

Chromatic aberration is non-existent. Color bokeh and “onion ring bokeh” is controlled through Nikon’s optical coatings. Glare is mitigated with ARNEO and Meso Amorphous coat technology (Nikon’s highest spec anti-reflection coating), so that backlit subjects remain well-defined and clarity remains high even when shooting directly into sunlight. Flares are incredibly hard to achieve. Only by shooting directly into the sun on an extremely bright day was I able to create a small, purplish flare.

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The Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena in Real World Use

There is a tendency amongst reviewers (and human being, generally) to compartmentalize things, to put things in boxes so that the world is easily understood and digested. Following this tendency, it’s almost natural to assume that since the Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is a 135mm lens, it must therefore be a portrait lens suitable only for people who make a lot of headshot photos. It is specialized, and shouldn’t be considered for use by everyday photo takers.

I can’t really agree with that. I’m not a portrait photographer. I don’t know any models, or actors, or financial advisors looking to spruce up their resume with a photo. I’m just a person who likes to take photos of my family and the places we go, and to take pictures of neat stuff that I see as I’m living my life.

In the time that I’ve had the Plena, I’ve fallen in love with it and used it in surprisingly varied scenarios.

Sure, I’ve used it to make portraits of my kids, a task which it performed better than any lens I’ve ever used. But I’ve also used it for birding. I’ve used it for street photography and landscapes. I’ve used it for product photography and abstract work. I’ve used it on Christmas Eve, in the middle of the night, when the only light to be seen came from a few feeble Christmas lights and a half-dozen candles.

The thing about the Plena is that it’s a lens that offers something no other lens can offer, and half of the fun of using it has been in discovering what it can do in scenarios that aren’t necessarily its raison d’etre. It’s a low light vacuum, a bokeh factory, a scalpel so sharp it can split the atom.

The only really limiting factor which keeps me from recommending it to literally every single Nikon Z series camera owner, is that it costs $2,500 USD, which is a lot of money.

I can rationalize the cost. I can tell myself that a lens like this is unique and special, and I wouldn’t be lying to myself. I can amortize the cost, remind myself that a lens like this will be owned and loved and used over a span of a decade, two decades, three! And all of it would be true. But $2,500 is still a lot of money. And I won’t tell people how to spend theirs.

Sample Images

[click or tap to enlarge]

Final Thoughts

When I began writing this review some days ago, I was in the midst of a bout of the flu. My head was splitting and my entire body ached. I was tired, and my eyes felt as if they’d retreated deep into their sockets. I rubbed my temples with my fingertips and blinked stupidly at the blank page headlined, Nikon Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens Review. But no words sprang to mind. I simply stared and thought about the Plena.

I thought about how great it was, how lovely it felt to hold, how dense and solid it seemed, how shiny and beautiful it was, and the way its front lens element reminded me of a deep, clear lake. I tried to write my review through the pounding aches, but after typing and deleting paragraph after paragraph, after starting and stopping for a half hour and raking my face and forehead for thirty minutes longer, I knew that no effective words would trickle out of me that day. I’d try again in the morning.

But before I stood from my desk and stumbled off to a fitful nights rest, I scrolled a bit down the page and typed a placeholder – a three word review.

I love lens.

That just about says it all, I think.

Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena Lens featuring Full-Frame | f/1.8 to f/16, Fast, Lightweight Telephoto Prime, Multi-Focus System, Round Bokeh from Edge to Edge, ED, SR, and Aspherical Elements, Programmable Linear Focus Ring, Customizable Control Ring, ARNEO and Meso Amorphous Coatings, Dust- and Water-Resitant Design. Review Nikon Plena

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

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You see the point. Death makes you a hero. Now, back to my buried treasure moment. You’ve been waiting patiently.

The moment in question came from an inheritance from my late grandfather, as unexpected as it was sizable. In one fell swoop, I became the owner of a Minolta SRT-101 camera body, carrying case, flash, and five lenses (including the MC W Rokkor HG 35mm f/2.8 with which this article is concerned). The gear came heavy with the weight of legacy.

The year was 2016. I had grown up with a deep respect for my grandparents, and it was very important to do right by them. At that time, it was my solemn duty to decorate my grandmother’s house for Christmas. That year, poring over a forgotten corner of her attic, I came to a soft-sided nylon case inscribed with “GWM” and tore open the zipper. The chrome contraption within was obviously an old camera, but the name Minolta meant nothing to me. I hunted on, until I reached a more recognizable machine. It turned out to be a Canon EX Auto. Putting it gently, brand recognition was probably that camera’s only virtue. My grandmother, excited simply to see them after more than a decade in storage, offered me the whole lot as a Christmas gift.

Some of you may now be shouting at the screen about life’s unfairness. Let it all out.

Though the Canon’s aperture blades were stuck and its light seals quickly disintegrating, it managed to whet my appetite. After a brief love affair, it perished during Winter Storm Stella, and I was forced to move on. As the proverb says, “a single reprimand does more for a discerning person than a hundred lashes for a fool.” Though I’ll make no claims about my own foolishness, this single reprimand was definitely enough to teach me a thing or two. First, that brand recognition will only get you so far. Second, that research will always pay off. And research I did.

Forum after forum and page after page began to impress upon me that a veritable treasure trove had been bequeathed to me. The way people used that name, Minolta, began to intrigue me. These had been my grandfather’s companions through graduations, family trips, and even on assignment for the United States Air Force. Combing through negatives and prints, I found pictures which range from the sentimental to the spectacular. Then came that nagging tug of legacy.

I have to use this stuff.

So I did, and in the years since, I’ve formed some opinions. Here they are.

History and Technical Specifications

The Minolta MC W. Rokkor HG 35mm f/2.8 is a moderate wide-angle lens. Just what is all that gobbledegook on the lens bezel? MC stands for “Meter Coupled,” W stands for “Wide,” Rokkor was Minolta’s name for their best lenses at the time, and HG refers to the optical formula. Hexa means six in Greek and G is the seventh letter of the English alphabet, so HG gives us seven elements in six groups. The reasons for this system are, I think, because Ancient Greece is cool, and America has a lot of money. A better explanation might be found elsewhere on the internet, but I’m an artist, not a historian.

This lens has a pretty old design. Not quite Ancient Greece old, but it predates Watergate, the Lunar Landing, and Yellow Submarine. Seems Minolta introduced it in 1958, gradually revising the ergonomics, coatings, and aesthetics through my version and beyond. Seven elements in six groups is actually a lot of glass to cram into a lens of this size, but Minolta hung onto this formula in one version or another until 1975. My copy cannot be older than 1966. It therefore comes pretty much in the middle of this lens’ production run, and “middle option” is perhaps an apt description.

As James and others on this site have opined, the general perception of “standard lens” may be shifting wider than 50mm. As far as standard lenses are concerned, I own two fifties, a 35-70 zoom, a 35-105 zoom, and even the mighty 55mm f/1.2 Nikkor. All fine lenses, yet seldom is any of them my go-to for film travel photos. More often, I pack the humble 35. Thus we can say that it’s my de facto standard. Some folks will tell you the standard has crept all the way out to 28mm. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn’t. My standard apparently is a little wider than 50mm, so the point must be conceded. Very long justification simply to admit that I agree with something somebody else said.

Contrarian much?

What to Expect from the Minolta MC W Rokkor HG 35mm F/2.8

So, my Rokkor is a middle option between the old standard of fifty and the new standard, if you will, of twenty-eight. The maximum aperture of f/2.8 is also a middle option between the slow f/4 and hotshot f/1.8 thirty-fives which Minolta offered contemporaneously. Fast enough for walk-around photography, particularly if you’re loaded up with a 400 speed film. After the sun goes down, however, reach for your tripod, your flash, or a faster lens.

The minimum aperture also presents its own limitation, albeit not an obvious one. The Minolta MC W. Rokkor HG 35mm f/2.8 stops down only as far as f/16, and the shutters of the Minolta cameras with which it was designed to work generally top out at 1/1000s. That takes you all the way out to EV 18 at 100 ISO, but it simply cannot yield a proper exposure in such conditions if shooting, say, Portra 800 or the trusty Tri-X at 1600. It may behoove us here to recall that in the 1960s, 200 was considered high-speed for color film. Thirdly, it’s a middle option in terms of recommended shooting conditions, being poorly-suited to extremes of both dim and bright light.

Aside from usage limitations, which are simply the consequences of design and construction, the Rokkor’s age affords a fair share of weaknesses. How severe and how numerous are more than I can say. Lens sharpness is tricky to define. If by saying “sharp,” we mean to say “resolves fine detail,” then it is sharp at every f-stop. At f/2.8 and f/4, it exhibits spherical aberration, which reduces contrast, but makes for flattering people-photos and dreamy landscapes. Similarly to the spherical aberration issue, at wider apertures, the corners and edges of the frame darken from vignetting. I don’t know by how many stops they darken, but I’d estimate one-and-one-third stops at max aperture and a half-stop at f/4. Having never made a darkroom print from a negative, the inevitable dodging and burning headaches are not a cross I’ve had to bear. Consequently, these defects have never stopped me from shooting at the larger f-stops.

One bona fide weakness of this lens is its tendency to ghost. Upon the Sun’s least intrusion into frame, ghosts are conjured with alarming ease. Given the emotional significance I’ve imparted to all of my grandfather’s gear, perhaps the frequency of ghosts should come as no surprise. Hamlet comes to mind, as he steps onto the parapets of Elsinore. Like him, I dialog with these spectral visitors, rather than balk at them.

Color rendition is an entirely different case. The Rokkor’s consistency in this area, regardless of lighting conditions, was a welcome surprise. Its blue-tinted optical coatings produce images with a uniformly (but not excessively) cool cast. Contrast tests yielded another welcome surprise. Stopped-down, the lens showed an almost-Nikonian reluctance to surrender contrast, even when I deliberately sought out flares and ghosts.

The last word on this lens’ optical performance takes us back to the very basics of photography. If the light is favorable, expect good performance. In adverse conditions, the Rokkor begins to misbehave. Of what classic lens is that statement untrue, though? I even have a zoom made in 2017 that flares in high sun. This one is simply less adept at compensating for poor light than  those which have come since. This is actually a good thing for those who wish to learn photography, because they won’t be pampered when mistakes are made.

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Ergonomically, the Minolta MC W. Rokkor HG 35mm f/2.8 is a joy, as anybody who’s used an old Minolta lens could tell you.

The aluminum aperture ring turns smoothly and clicks in half-stops from f/4 to f/16. The all-metal focus ring is likewise very smooth, and the engraved depth-of-field scale is usable. Here, a nitpicker could point out that the Rokkor falls short of Nikon lenses from the same era. The latter possess focusing scales which extend all the way up the lens barrel, while this one does not. If that meaningfully impacts your shooting style, beware.

At 6.3×4.5cm, it’s roughly the same dimensions as an espresso cup in the trendy cafes we film shooters seem drawn to. Weight is a miniscule 210 grams, exactly half that of its big brother, the MC Rokkor 35mm f/1.8. For those of us committed to Minolta, weight savings are a worthy goal wherever they may be had. My own SRT-101 (hardly the grossest offender among Minolta’s stable) weighs in at a hefty 675g. On that camera, this little lens looks quite at home. Its tiny size comes with a drawback that Minolta shooters need to know ahead of time. The MC W. Rokkor HG 35mm f/2.8 sports a 52mm filter thread, not Minolta’s standard 55mm.

I primarily shot this lens on my Minolta SRT-101, where its meter coupling (the “MC” in MC Rokkor) gave me good exposures with the convenience of open-aperture viewing. I also mounted it to my Nikon Z5 via the Urth MD-Z adapter. With that setup, I was still able to use the camera’s “Non-CPU lens data” function for purposes of vibration reduction and exposure, which surprised me. I had expected that feature to be locked if the camera couldn’t detect Nikon’s FTZ adapter. For those who like to review their EXIF data, however, there is a drawback. The adapter I used has no CPU contacts whatsoever, so the camera does not record any information about which focal length or aperture were used. Since not even the proprietary FTZ adapter records set aperture, I can scarcely call this a major flaw. Again, if this meaningfully impacts you, beware.

Final Thoughts

It would be easy to write disparagingly about this lens, and imply that its limitations or weaknesses would lead to bad photos. While I could write such a thing, I could never believe it, because it smacks of a certain shortsighted materialism, and is therefore nonsense. Still, the Rokkor has got shortcomings, and quite clear ones at that. What’s to be made of them?

For starters, it means that this lens does not merit a universal recommendation. Shooters with exacting standards would probably be happier elsewhere. Beginners and travel shooters are the best fit. It is quite small and unassuming, focuses smoothly, and works well for both color and B/W. The images it produces are consistent enough and sharp enough. Beginners will like its low price-point, while travel shooters will enjoy its small footprint.

We Minolta aficionados tend to have quite the chip on our shoulders, and I’d like to speak to that. Put aside any notions of competing with the Wetzlar folks just this once, and you’ll have a wonderful time. Thankfully, the Rokkor 35 is still entirely worth using, but even if it weren’t, I’d be in for the long haul. Utility, it would seem, is outweighed by legacy.

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Of course, to satisfy the requirements of the nifty fifty, Nikon had to keep an eye on size and cost. For this reason, the Nikkor Z 40mm naturally lacks some of the finer features of the more expensive lenses in the system, and though it has let me down in a couple of ways, on the whole, the Nikkor Z 40mm is a remarkable lens and a worthy successor to the traditional nifty fifty.

Just try to ignore that it’s not exactly a fifty.

Specifications of the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm f/2

• Focal Length: 40mm FX (full-frame sensor cameras); 60mm DX (APS-C crop-sensor cameras)
• Lens Mount: Nikon Z
• Optical Design: 6 elements in 4 groups
• Focus Type: Auto focus, user-selectable manual focus
• Minimum Focus Distance: 11.4 inches (29 cm)
• Angle of View: 57°
• Maximum Aperture: f/2
• Minimum Aperture: f/16
• Diaphragm Blades: 9, rounded
• Image Stabilization: No
• Filter Size: 52mm front-mounted filters
• Size and Weight: 2.8 x 1.8 inches (70 x 45.5 mm); 6 oz (170 grams)
• Price: $276.95 (B&H Photo affiliate link)

Nikon NIKKOR Z 40mm f/2 Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z 40mm f/2 Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2 to f/16, Two Aspherical Elements, Super Integrated Coating, Stepping Motor AF System, Programmable Control Ring, Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm. Review Nikon null

Why this 40mm Matters

Before the Nikkor Z 40mm, Nikon offered a number of standard prime lenses compatible with their full frame mirror-less cameras, but none satisfied the criteria of the nifty fifty. None were a standard, affordable, every-day lens. I’ve tested them all.

The Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.8 S came closest to the traditional nifty fifty’s basic specs, but it’s a big lens, and priced high at $620.

The Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S was a beautiful piece of kit, but it’s simply enormous, and costs $1,900.

The Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 macro is a special lens indeed, and one that adds versatility and utility to the nifty-fifty formula. But, predictably, it’s bigger than the traditional 50mm, and costs $600.

None of these 50mm lenses satisfied the needs of someone seeking a traditional nifty fifty.

But then, at the end of 2022 Nikon released the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm F/2. While not exactly the same as the nifty-fifties of old, the Nikkor Z 40mm delivers on the promise of the nifty fifty; it’s a truly compact standard focal length lens with high performance offered at an incredibly low price (in fact, it’s the least expensive full frame lens in the entire Z series ecosystem – tied with the Nikkor 28mm f/2.8).

First Impressions

The most instantly notable trait of the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm f/2 is its size and weight. It’s tiny. At just 1.8″ long it feels exactly like the compact manual focus lenses of the olden days, and since it’s entirely made of plastic, it weighs very little (just 6 oz). Mounted to my Nikon Z5 it feels perfectly sized and perfectly balanced.

Next we notice the build quality. While lightness is a benefit in portability, usability, and comfort, it can also lend a sense of cheapness. I get a bit of that with this lens, even though I tested the Special Edition version, which is styled to look like the old manual focus Nikkors of the film days. It just doesn’t feel as dense or solid as the pricier, fancier lenses.

It’s entirely made of plastic. This includes the filter threads, lens barrel, control ring, and worst of all, lens mount. I imagine that Nikon’s engineers in the lab were really feeling the pressure from the bean-counters at the office. There’s not an engineer or designer on Earth who would willingly choose to make a lens mount out of plastic. But I’m sure it shaved a dozen (or so) dollars off the price.

And then we get to the important part – the shooting.

Controls and Focus

Unlike the more expensive lenses in the Z series system, the Nikkor Z 40mm has few controls. In fact, it has just one, a large multi-purpose control ring encircling the lens barrel. This control ring’s default control parameter is focus – by spinning it, we can focus the lens manually. For this purpose, it works well, automatically activating manual focus even when the camera is set to auto focus.

Manual focus is precise and refined, and of all of the focus-by-wire electronic manual focus systems that I’ve ever used (and I’ve used them all) Nikon’s modern system is the best. It’s smooth and responsive, and it acts progressively (more aggressive spins yields faster focusing).

It’s also possible to change the function of the control ring so that it no longer controls focus, but rather controls other settings, such as lens aperture or exposure compensation or ISO. This is particularly useful in certain shooting modes for users who don’t care about manual focus. The ISO control, in particular, is nice.

In auto focus mode, the lens works beautifully. There’s no external moving parts, and focusing is snappy and responsive. There is very minor focus breathing, but it’s not bad enough to really impact anybody, including video shooters. (Focus breathing is defined as a measurable optical change in the image when focusing from far to near.)

Image Quality Pros

The Nikkor Z 40mm makes really interesting images that combine the technical excellence of modern lens technology with a dash of old film-era lens character. This film-era character comes largely from Nikon’s desire to keep down cost and size by using a somewhat archaic optical formula – it’s made of 6 lens elements in 4 groups. Just compare this lens’ formula to the massive and expensive Nikkor Z 50mm F/1.8 S lens – that one has 12 elements in 9 groups.

But such a stark contrast in quantity doesn’t necessarily result in a similar drop in quality.

The Nikkor Z 40mm has two aspherical lens elements to limit aberrations and distortion, resulting in high sharpness and accurate rendering. The lens also uses Super Integrated Coating to suppress flares and ghosting, to improve contrast and render accurate colors.

This blend of minimal optical formula and ultra-modern lens technology creates a very interesting dynamic. Images are crisp, clean, sharp, and punchy. There’s no flaring or ghosting. Chromatic aberration and color bokeh are virtually non-existent. So we achieve most of the most desirable benefits of a modern lens.

However, the relatively simple optics also create images with fundamental flaws (which I call character).

The center of images are super sharp at all apertures (including wide open), but corner and edge sharpness and contrast decline to certain degrees at varying apertures.

Wide open at f/2, we see a very classic rendering which will feel familiar to shooters who remember the days prior to manual focus. As we stop the lens down, all of the optical issues smooth out greatly, as expected, until f/8. Above f/8 we begin to lose sharpness and quality due to diffraction.

This blend of old and new style image quality lends itself best to everyday shooting, street photography, travel, and editorial photography. Users who focus on these types of photographic styles will adore the rendering of this lens.

Landscape photographers and portrait artists will likely find fault (though a 40mm lens likely won’t be on these photographers’ wish lists anyway).

I should also quickly mention that the lens suffers no distortion and very little vignetting. In fact, the latest firmware update for this lens updated its lens profile to further correct any native flaws (the camera does some electronic magic to correct our photos before they’ve even finished writing to the SD card).

Image Quality Cons

Bokeh is not bad, for a 40mm lens. But if we’re comparing it to the other standard lenses in the range, it’s really not great.

The out of focus areas are a bit busy. Bokeh highlights aren’t perfectly round. And the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus elements of an image is a bit abrupt and lacks subtlety. That said, get close to our subject and it’s possible to make some nice subject isolation and decent bokeh. (Especially at this price point!)

Which brings up the next little complaint. Focusing close tends to lessen sharpness at all apertures. This is most noticeable at f/2, as one might expect, but it’s present through the range of f/stops.

Image Samples

Final Thoughts

Right now, the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm F/2 is a special lens. There’s no other directly comparable lens for the Nikon Z system.

I reviewed the 40mm Voigtlander lens not very long ago. However, that lens doesn’t offer auto focus. And there are a couple of Chinese-made 40mm Z mount lenses, as well, but these are made for APS-C cameras, not full frame.

There are plenty of 35mm lenses, but these aren’t directly comparable, often they’re manual focus only, and often they cost more money. The 50mm lenses mentioned earlier don’t fit the bill, and there are none others that offer the performance to value that this Nikon 40mm offers.

In short, it’s an amazing lens. For Nikon Z series users who want an every day lens with superb performance at a wonderful price, a lightweight travel lens, or a fond reminiscence of the old days of cheap nifty fifties, the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm F/2 is it.

Nikon NIKKOR Z 40mm f/2 Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z 40mm f/2 Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2 to f/16, Two Aspherical Elements, Super Integrated Coating, Stepping Motor AF System, Programmable Control Ring, Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm. Review Nikon null

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Compared to Nikon’s only other Z series macro lens, the Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S which I reviewed earlier this year, this 50mm Macro is a real bargain. But it’s also a compromise. Thus, we are left to ponder. To buy, or not to buy? That is the question.

Unlike Hamlet, I won’t soliloquize. Let’s get to the review.

Specification of the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8

• Mount : Nikon Z Mount

• Focal Length : 50mm

• Maximum Aperture : f/ 2.8

• Minimum Aperture : f/ 22

• Format : Full Frame (FX)

• Maximum Angle of View (DX crop-sensor cameras) : 31°30′

• Maximum Angle of View (FX full frame cameras) : 47°

• Maximum Reproduction Ratio : 1:1, Life Size

• Lens Formula : 10 Elements in 7 Groups; 1 ED Element, 1 Aspherical Element

• Diaphragm Blades : 9

• Fluorine Coat : Yes

• Focus Mode : Auto/Manual, user-selectable
  

• Minimum Focus Distance : 0.53ft (0.16m) from focal plane

• Filter Size : Screw-in 46mm

• Approx. Dimensions (Diameter x Length) : 3 in. (74.5 mm)  x  2.6 in. (66 mm)

• Approx. Weight : 9.2 oz. (260 g)

Build Quality, Ergonomics, Functions

Mounted to my Nikon Z5, the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 feels balanced and easy to handle. There’s a super-sized focusing ring for manual focus, and two switches on the side of the barrel. The topmost switch toggles between Auto and Manual focus modes, and the bottom switch is a focus range limiter which allows the lens to focus either throughout its entire focus range or in close-focusing distances only (a useful mode when we’re shooting exclusively macro for any length of time).

The large focusing ring activates the focus-by-wire electronic manual focus when the focus switch is toggled to Manual mode. This is natural, but there’s also an additional bonus. When we have the lens set to Auto focus we can set the manual focus ring to control other camera parameters, such as exposure compensation or ISO, which is a nice touch.

The Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is not a part of Nikon’s high-end S series lens lineup for their Z series cameras. This means that it lacks some of the niceties which make the S series lenses so, well, nice. It’s made mostly out of plastic, not metal, and it doesn’t contain the special ARNEO and Nano coatings found on some of the lens elements of the S series lenses. Nor does it pack vibration reduction and internal focusing, nor such luxuries as OLED info displays and special function buttons.

But these omissions also bring benefit. A more restrained optical assembly, external focusing, and compromises in the areas of pure performance mean that the 50mm Nikkor is smaller and lighter than most of Nikon’s lens lineup. This lightness lends itself well to a lens which is supposed to fill the role of both a specialized macro lens and a standard everyday lens. The Z MC 50mm ostensibly replaces two lenses in our camera kit with one. If we substitute the Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm F/1.8 S and the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S for the Z MC 50mm, we’re saving 27.8 ounces (1.73 lbs) in weight and approximately $880.

Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22, One ED Element, One Aspherical Element, 1:1 Magnification, 6.3″ Minimum Focus, STM Autofocus System, Focus Range Limiter, Magnification and Focus Distance Indexes, Weather-Sealed Construction…

Image Quality and Performance

Savings in weight and money don’t mean much if we’re left with a poor lens that makes sub-par images. While the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 doesn’t make images as nice as those made by some dedicated 50mm lenses nor Nikon’s macro 105mm, it more than holds its own.

Shot wide open at normal focusing distance, the lens is extremely sharp in the center of the frame. While there’s softness at the edges, this actually creates a pleasing effect in portraiture and everyday shooting. There’s also significant vignetting at maximum aperture, but both of these issues resolve significantly with the lens stopped down to f/4, and by f/5.6 the lens is uniformly sharp and bright at the edges. Peak sharpness is achieved at f/8, after which diffraction begins to creep.

Black peppercorns at 1:1.

Chromatic aberration is non-existent, distortion is so low as to be a non-issue (and it’s correctable in Lightroom), flares and ghosts don’t really occur, and images, generally speaking, are gorgeous.

When focusing close at 1:1 reproduction ratios, to make true macro photos, the lens’ aperture actually decreases to a maximum of f/5.6. This phenomenon has been typical of macro lenses through the decades. As we focus closer and closer, the aperture must close smaller and smaller. The only appreciable impact that this has on our image-making is that we must ensure we have ample light when shooting macro. This is far easier today than it was a decade ago, or certainly in the days of film, since digital sensors have become so sensitive in recent years. But it can still be an issue when we’re shooting low-light macro or photographing a moving subject.

When making true 1:1 macro photos, our working distance is about two inches. This means that the point of focus will be just two inches in front of the front element of the camera lens. Thus, it may be tricky to take photos of skittish flying insects or hairy spiders, but this is a trade we must make to have a standard 50mm walk-around lens contained within our dedicated macro. It should also be noted that we can achieve further working distances by decreasing the reproduction ratio (the ratios and their working distances are helpfully engraved on the extending macro lens barrel).

Where the lens most obviously stumbles is in auto-focusing at close working distances. While the lens snaps to focus very quickly and almost silently when shooting at normal, standard working distances (ie. taking photos of people, landscapes, snapshots, etc.), it does have a tendency to slide and hunt when shooting extreme close ups.

But we do have options. First, we can switch the lens to close focus mode via the toggle on the lens barrel. Flicking this switch from FULL to close focus mode will tell the lens to only attempt to achieve focus on close-up subjects (from 0.3 to 0.16m distant). Second, we can switch the lens to manual focus mode, set our distance manually via the focus ring, and hover the camera closer to or further from our subject in order to achieve focus. These two built-in solutions are instantly accessible via physical switches, which beats fumbling through menus, and the use of either or both mitigated any poor AF performance that I encountered throughout my time with the lens.

Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S Macro Lens Review

Nikon offers two dedicated macro lenses in their Z Series lens range. Here we review the longer of the two, the Nikkor Z MC 105mm.

Compared to the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S

I’ve already touched upon the many ways that the Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is different from the 105mm. Briefly, I’ll repeat.

The first and most obvious difference is that the 50mm lens is a 50mm lens. That means it’s smaller than the 105mm, shoots more “normal” photos, and will probably be more useful to everyday and casual photographers. It would be possible, and indeed possibly preferable for many people, to buy and mount the Z MC 50mm and use it as an all-around lens that can also take true 1:1 macro photos. People have been doing this since the original Nikon F and the pre-AI Nikon 50mm Micro Nikkor.

The Z MC 50mm is smaller and lighter than the 105mm by a wide margin.

It costs about $400 less than the 105mm.

The macro photos it makes will be just as good for the vast majority of non-professional photo nerds.

The Z 50mm MC is not part of Nikon’s S lens series. Thus, the 50mm’s optical formula, coatings, and build are of a supposedly lower standard. Will the lack of Nano Crystals and ARNEO coatings be missed if we choose to buy the 50mm? Probably not. But maybe so. It depends on the pixel peeping habits of the user.

The Z 50mm MC’s focusing is external, which could allow dust and contaminants to enter the 50mm lens over time.

Finally, the 50mm lacks the OLED display screen of the 105mm.

Still, it’s hard not to choose the Z 50mm MC when we see what it can do and how much it costs compared to the 105mm. With those savings, we could buy the amazing ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter, which fits to the front of the Z 50mm MC and allows us to digitally “scan” 35mm film negatives and mounted slide. For me, a film shooter, that’s a very attractive product, and one that cannot be used with the larger Z 105mm MC.

There exist a number of alternative, non-Nikon, macro lenses for Nikon’s Z Mount system from in numerous focal lengths from Venus Optics, Voigtlander, and TTArtisan, to name a few. These lenses, however, are all manual focus lenses. For this reason, I hesitate to dive too deeply in comparing these to Nikon’s AF lenses since the core functionality differences are so great.

Final Thoughts

The Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is essentially two great lenses in one. It works beautifully as a standard 50mm lens and again as a dedicated 1:1 true macro lens. Additionally, it’s the smallest and lightest 50mm lens in the Z Series system. For users who are looking to minimize their weight and cost, it’s a wonderful prime lens to add to the collection.

However it’s also a compromise, and users who value pure performance over all else will likely find themselves wishing they’d spent the extra money on a dedicated 50mm and the 105mm macro from Nikon’s S line.

I think of the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 as the perfect starting point in a photographer’s macro journey. It’s a lens that will pleasantly surprise its owner with years and years of amazing photos, both standard photos and macro photos. To be fair, it may be the only macro lens a person ever needs.

Get your own Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 from B&H Photo

Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22, One ED Element, One Aspherical Element, 1:1 Magnification, 6.3″ Minimum Focus, STM Autofocus System, Focus Range Limiter, Magnification and Focus Distance Indexes, Weather-Sealed Construction…

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Anachronism was all around me, in the natural history museum which felt suddenly more like a mausoleum. In the towering glass cases full of dead animals, in their rigid skins stuffed with desiccated straw, in the tanks of formaldehyde, in the grotesque jars of suspended sea creatures and in the thousands of pinned beetles and butterflies. I wondered; in the era of 4K video and augmented and virtual realities, in the era of 100 megapixel medium format digital sensors, the era of the internet, are these dead trophies in stuffy galleries of any real use?

Anachronism was there, too, in my hand. I was spinning it into focus to take another shot.

Nikon’s Z series mirror-less digital cameras are technically incredible. They do all the math, all the complicated arithmetic of calculating the exposure triangle. They can choose our ISO, shutter speed, and aperture in a millisecond. They can auto-focus near-instantaneously.

Along with their counterparts from Canon and Leica and Pentax and the other camera makers who make brand new cameras today, the Nikon Zs are the newest, brightest, fastest, and best cameras ever made. That is, they are if we mount the right lens.

But all of that stuff, that technical innovation and computerized magic, all of it evaporates when we pair the camera to a manual focus, manual aperture lens. Suddenly, the newest and best camera in the world becomes, at least in practical use, akin to a camera from the 1980s. It becomes an anachronism. It also becomes a paradox.

Because the Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F/1.2 Aspherical fast prime lens is amazing, and yet some photographers will hate it. It makes beautiful photos, and yet for some photographers, it won’t. It’s the best value fast lens on the market, and yet some would say that it’s not worth the $799. The lens is both very good, and not. It all depends on who’s holding it.

Specifications of the Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F/1.2 Aspherical

• Focal Length : 40mm
• Focus Type: Manual focus only
• Optical Design: 8 elements in 6 groups, 2 aspherical elements
• Maximum Aperture: f/1.2
• Minimum Aperture: f/22
• Diaphragm Blades: 10
• Lens Mount as Tested: Nikon Z (also available in Leica M and Sony E mounts)
• Lens Format Coverage: Full-frame (60mm equivalent focal length on crop sensor cameras)
• Angle of View: 54.8°
• Minimum Focus Distance: 11.8″ (30cm)
• Filter Size: 58mm front threads
• Size and Weight: 2.7 x 2.1″ (67.6 x 53.9mm); 11.1 oz (315g)

What’s a Voigtlander?

Voigtlander is one of the oldest names in photography. Founded by Johann Voigtlander in Vienna in 1756, the brand got their start producing mathematical instruments, precision mechanical products, and optical objectives. Voigtlander continued successfully in this business for decades, and by 1839, the company had passed to Johann’s grandson, Peter, who expanded the Voigtlander’s scope to include photographic optics.

Over the subsequent century, Voigtlander created numerous firsts in the photographic industry which would later go on to become commonplace. Voigtlander was the first company to create mathematically calculated precision lenses. These were developed by the German-Hungarian mathematics professor Josef Maximilian Petzval, with technical aid by Peter Voigtlander. They soon developed the fastest lens ever produced, the Petzval Portrait Lens, with an aperture of f/3.6. They invented the world’s first zoom lens for 35mm still photography (the 36-82mm f/2.8 Zoomar in 1959), and the world’s first compact 35mm camera with a built-in electronic flash (the Vitrona in 1965).

The German optical industry experienced great turmoil from the 1970s through the 1990s. Voigtlander’s factory closed in the early 1970s, and throughout the next twenty-odd years ownership of the Voigtlander name passed to various companies.

In 1999, the most recent holder of the Voigtlander name (Ringfoto GmbH & Co. ALFO Marketing KG) licensed the brand identity to the Japanese optics and camera company Cosina, who have produced Cosina Voigtlander lenses ever since. Today, Cosina’s Voigtlander lenses are available in Sony E, Leica M, Nikon Z, Fuji X, and other mounts, and they’re revered among photo nerds for their exceptional quality and relatively affordable prices.

The Voigtlander Nokton in Use

The Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical for Nikon Z mount is paradoxically old and new, at once.

It was just released at the end of 2022, and features much of what we’d expect of a brand-new, very modern lens. It’s an optically sophisticated lens that makes gorgeous images (with exceptions allowed for its extreme character when shot wide open). It has a super fast aperture that allows for both exceptional bokeh and superb low-light performance. It has electronic communication with the camera body, which allows transmission of EXIF data, allows in-camera image stabilization, and allows focusing aids such as focus confirmation, focus peaking, and focus enlargement.

But it’s also an old-fashioned lens.

Made of beautiful knurled and scalloped chunks of metal, as in the olden days, it feels wonderful in the hand and balances beautifully on the camera body. It’s extremely compact, and impeccably crafted, and includes a metal screw-in lens hood which reminds me of the many Zeiss and Leica lenses I’ve used in the past. The manual aperture control ring and manual focus methodology hearkens back to the heyday of film, and for people who enjoy manual focus, it’s a truly lovely lens.

I was sent this lens for testing, and when it arrived I was thrilled with the chance to shoot a lens with such a luxuriously fast aperture. At f/1.2, I knew that I’d be able to achieve dreamy bokeh and exceptional subject isolation. I mounted the lens to my camera, focused on a nearby curio, and fired the shutter. This instantly locked my camera. Frozen solid. Dead.

After a moment of controlled panic, I figured out what went wrong. Firmware update required. Now my testing could begin in earnest.

I spent the next three weeks using the lens in all manner of situations. Portraits at sunset, with a good working distance and the aperture set to f/4 for nice subject isolation. Snapshots in nature at f/1.2, f/5.6, f/8 and beyond. Craft nights with my children, shot wide open to draw attention to the exact point of focus. It handled it all very well.

And then came the lens’ best use-case, at the dimly-lit and subject-dense Harvard Museum of Natural History.

In the darkened galleries of the museum I spun the aperture ring to wide open and shot, and shot, and shot. In this place, my photographic talent aside, the lens performed masterfully. No corner of the museum was too dark, no specimen too shrouded in shadow. That massive aperture devoured the light and turned it into pictures like very few lenses can.

I was able to focus on one specific beetle amongst hundreds. And if more context was needed, a quick spin of the dial brought more depth of field.

Focusing manually is naturally not as simple as using a fast auto-focus lens. But it’s not prohibitively cumbersome either. The Voigtlander lens is capable of focus confirmation, focus peaking, and focus enlargement. I used them all, and they all work well.

Different users will need to determine their own particular favorite focusing aid. Mine is focus confirmation. Simply spin the focus ring and the focus indicator in the viewfinder or on the camera’s LCD will light up green when the point of focus is in sharp focus. An afternoon of this is all it takes to become familiar, and while it’s never as fast as a fast auto-focus lens, zone focusing is (and in fact, it’s faster). With the Nokton’s depth of field scale, zone focusing is as easy as it is with any manual focus lens.

Image Quality Wide Open and Stopped Down

The Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical is not just paradoxical in its practical methodology, blending dichotomous elements of old and new, it’s similarly dichotomous in the images it can make.

Shot wide open at f/1.2 it makes surprisingly dreamy images. They’re diaphanous and soft and low in contrast. Even with the lens slightly stopped down to f/2, there’s a significantly dreamy quality to the images this lens makes. Shots at this aperture remind me of those from a sixty-year-old Japanese lens more than they do images from a modern one.

While this dreamy softness will certainly be off-putting to photographers who live and die by the pixels they peep, there’s another camp of photo nerd who will simply melt. These photogs would describe the lens as characterful.

The optical aberrations I’ve found with the lens are pretty typical of fast lenses. Vignetting is fairly extreme at f/1.2. Naturally this vignetting resolves as we stop the aperture down, and by f/4 it’s restrained enough to be correctable in post-processing, but at f/1.2 through to f/4 we need to consider the vignetting with every photo we make. And when shooting wide open or at f/2, we should also remember that chromatic aberration does occur. This resolves significantly by f/2, but does not disappear completely until f/4. Distortion is a non-issue.

Bokeh is quite beautiful. Backgrounds are blurred very well. When shooting into bright light sources wide open, highlight bokeh is round in the center of the frame, but turns to cats-eye shape on the edges of the frame. Bokeh highlights become geometric when we stop down even incrementally, so those who want pure, round bokeh balls will need to stay wide open at f/1.2.

But if we stop the lens down, things change considerably.

At f/4, the lens has resolved to a sharp imaging device. Gone is the dreamy blur and the low contrast. Gone is the vignetting. At f/5.6 and f/8 the Voigtlander Nokton is a scalpel, capable of impressive sharpness and fantastic micro-contrast. Yet even at these stopped-down apertures, the lens retains the artistic rendering that we enjoy wide open.

Voigtlander NOKTON 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical Lens for Nikon Z

Buy Voigtlander NOKTON 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical Lens for Nikon Z featuring Z-Mount/Full-Frame Format, Aperture Range: f/1.2 to f/22, Lens Construction: 6 Groups, 8 Elements, 10-Blade Aperture Diaphragm, Manual Focus for Reliable Fine-Focus, Minimum Focusing Distance: 300mm, 3-Axis Image Stabilization.…

Image Samples Gallery

Final Thoughts

The Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F/1.2 Aspherical (available in Nikon Z, Leica M, and Sony E mounts) is an interesting lens. Anachronistic in its methodology and paradoxical in its rendering, it’s a lens that will appeal to as many photographers as it offends. It makes dreamy and characterful images wide open, yet clinically sharp ones when stopped down. It’s old fashioned, with its manual focusing, and yet modern enough in the ways that it implements that old-fashioned manual input.

That said, for the thoroughly modern photographer who needs a fast aperture and who enjoys fast auto-focus and the absolute highest image quality, there are better options (though they’re all much larger and much more expensive than this $799 Voigtlander lens).

The simple breakdown is this – there are no auto-focus lenses available with an aperture this fast, in a size this small, at a price this low. For those of us who love to turn focus rings and who enjoy the unidentifiable artistic flourishes that come with shooting older, fast lenses, the Nokton 40mm F/1.2 is one to own.

Get your Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F/1.2 Aspherical from B&H Photo here!

Voigtlander NOKTON 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical Lens for Nikon Z

Buy Voigtlander NOKTON 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical Lens for Nikon Z featuring Z-Mount/Full-Frame Format, Aperture Range: f/1.2 to f/22, Lens Construction: 6 Groups, 8 Elements, 10-Blade Aperture Diaphragm, Manual Focus for Reliable Fine-Focus, Minimum Focusing Distance: 300mm, 3-Axis Image Stabilization.…

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