The Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S has solid vignetting performance. As expected, its worst performance is at f/4 and 24mm. At most focal lengths, there’s just a hair more vignetting at infinity focus (IF) than close focus (CF), but it’s not enough of a difference to matter. Here’s the full vignetting chart, with the numbers measured in stops of light: Interestingly, a lot of photographers will never notice this lens’s distortion, even if they shoot at 24mm and photograph something with straight lines, like architecture. That’s because Nikon automatically applies a distortion correction profile to the 24-120mm f/4 S by default – so, you always see straight lines when you’re composing the photo in-camera. On top of that, Nikon and Adobe apply a distortion correction profile to this lens in post-processing software, which cannot be disabled. With the Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens set to its maximum aperture, there is some very obvious light fall-off in the corners, which you'll either need to correct in post-processing or stop-down the aperture to avoid. That’s some serious distortion! Thankfully, distortion is probably the easiest optical issue to correct in post-processing today (which is probably why lens manufacturers – not just Nikon – are starting to design lenses with more distortion than in the past). Even so, distortion levels of 5% are pretty ridiculous. Both lenses also have high pincushion distortion as you zoom into 50mm and beyond.

Curiously the Z-mount 24-120mm f/4 is optically both less and more complex than the F-mount version. Overall, it loses one element (16 elements in 13 groups), but adds some complexity in the elements that remain (3 aspherical and 3 low dispersion elements plus 1 combined aspherical/low dispersion element, compared to the F-mount's 3 aspherical and 2 low dispersion elements). The Z-mount lens also gets Nano and Arneo coating to reduce flare and ghosting, plus fluorine coating on the front element to better shed dust and water. The Nikon 24-120/4.0G VR shows it’s age in this comparison: It simply cannot hold up to Nikon’s new design. Even its current (lower) street price would not make me recommend using the F-Nikkor on a 45MP full-frame sensor. It is less sharp throughout the zoom range than the Z 24-120mm f4 S, is more prone to flare and glare, has higher colour aberrations, a slower focus, stronger focus breathing, and a less thorough weather-sealing. Even its optical image stabilization is not a real benefit – unless you use the lens on a Z fc or Z 50: The vibration reduction built into Nikon’s Z full-frame cameras is good for 4 stops. So the Z 24-120mm f4 S is clearly the better choice. Another change is in the focus ability of the lens. First up, the Z version focuses closer (0.35m versus 0.45m), which produces a near macro capability of 1:2.4 maximum magnification. For you Americans, that's a bit less than 15" for close focusing, with a working distance of just over 6" (0.16m). Focus is achieved with two stepping motors that move two different groups of elements within the lens. Nikon is careful to say that focus breathing is suppressed, not eliminated, with this lens.

Build quality is good, but not outstanding, for what is after all only an enthusiast -level lens. With a mostly plastic construction, the Z 24-120mm f/4 S feels fairly solid in your hand, and it commendably has a metal mount. While it works fine on APS-C cameras, you're paying a premium price for the privilege of covering full frame Using it on an APS-C camera throws away more than half of the image from this lens. Ideally use this lens on full-frame cameras for the results you deserve, or use the Nikon Z 18-140mm DX instead on APS-C because it goes wider and costs and weighs half as much because it doesn't need to cover twice the image area of the full frame. See also Crop Factor. I can't see any s p h e r o c h r o m a t i s m; this lens gets softer this close at f/4 which covers any that might be there, and I can't see any at longer distances where it's sharp. Excellent. There is a single switch on the left hand side of the Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens which is for choosing between auto-focusing and manual focusing.

If you shoot raw data rather than actual (JPG) images, whatever software you use to create visible images from that raw data may or may not correct the distortion as is done in-camera as JPGs. You're on your own there; I don't bother with raw data. Nikon’s Z 24-120mm f4 S is a worthy and well featured successor to the venerable AF-S 24-120mm f4G VR which the new lens surpasses in every aspect. It produces very sharp images with almost no field-curvature or colour aberrations and can confidently be used wide open and in challenging contra-light situations. Its Bokeh is relatively nice for a focal ratio of f4.0 and the vibration reduction of the camera provides a respectable 4 stops of stabilization. So the Z 24-120mm f4 S is the perfect choice for those wanting more reach than the standard 24-70mm lens and value a constant f4.0 focal ratio. Highly Recommended. When I began moving to the Nikon Z mirrorless system about three years ago, getting the Z 24-70 f2.8 S lens wasn’t a priority. Maybe this was partly because I already owned the first gen F mount G version of the lens, which I could use with the FTZ adapter. But it was also because I got a great deal on the Z6 24-70 f4 kit bundle. The 24-70mm f4 S isn’t a bokeh king like the 2.8, but this wasn’t much of a concern for the kind of work I did. However, after a few months of using it as a walkabout lens for street and cityscape photography, I did wish I had a longer focal range.

Build Quality

Rugged construction. Mine fell from 4 feet high and smashed to the ground. Apart from a broken UV filter, a few missed AF shots on the day, and some scuffing, it continues to work perfectly. An internal focusing mechanism means the lens barrel doesn't move, and it offers an impressive minimum focusing distance of 0.35m (1.15ft) and a maximum magnification ratio of 0.39x, whilst using 77m filters. The Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S produces very nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/22, as shown below, although it is prone to flare when shooting directly into the sun even with the lens hood fitted. Macro

The middle ring is the rather stiff zoom ring, which we hope will loosen up a little with use. It has focal lengths marked at 24, 28, 35, 50, 70, 85 and 120mm. It feels well balanced even when using it with a small sized camera body like the Nikon Z5 body that Nikon provided for us to test it with, as shown in the product photos, and would also be equally at home mounted on a larger Z6 or Z7 camera. Thankfully, both lenses improve dramatically upon stopping down and/or zooming in from 24mm. At landscape apertures like f/8-16, I have no real issues with either lens. Remember that most post-processing software directly reads information from the in-camera vignetting setting on your Nikon Z camera. So, if you want this distortion to be removed automatically in post, make sure to set Medium or High vignetting correction on your camera. Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of the Nikon Z 24-120mm f4 S is very good (measured 98.8% in Reikan FoCal) with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. The lens focuses in around 0.35 sec from infinity at 120mm focal length to 1.28m (1:10 magnification), which is very fast. Towards the lens mount end of the Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens, there’s the first (and smallest) of the lens’ three rings. This lens can be customised, too. By default it is set to control aperture, but you can also change it to adjust exposure compensation or ISO. Alternatively you can have it set to do nothing at all.Not in any menu, but Nikons are unique in always correcting for lateral color. Lateral color correction is always active and never appears in any menu. Focal ratio: The Z 24-120 has a constant focal ratio of f4.0 over its entire zoom range just like the F-Nikkor. The Z 24-200mm also starts at f4.0 on the short end but achieves its slowest focal ratio of f6.3 already at 80mm focal length. That is 1.3 stops slower than the Z 24-120. [0] That said, like with most lenses, the performance at the narrower apertures of f/11 and f/16 is similar enough that I’d be happy using either lens. That’s actually why I got the Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR for my landscape photography! I shoot at f/8 and narrower most of the time, when differences between almost anymodern lenses are pretty slim. Value and Recommendations If you're not getting ultra-sharp pictures with this, be sure not to shoot at f/11 or smaller where all lenses are softer due to diffraction, always shoot at ISO 100 or below because cameras become softer at ISO 200 and above, avoid shooting across long distances over land which can lead to atmospheric heat shimmer, be sure everything is in perfect focus, set your camera's sharpening as you want it (I set mine to the maximum) and be sure nothing is moving, either camera or subject. If you want to ensure a soft image with any lens, shoot at f/16 or smaller at ISO 1,600 or above at default sharpening in daylight of subjects at differing distances in the same image.

That said, I did measure a bit of field curvature on the Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S. It’s not enough to harm real-world landscape photos under most conditions, though.

Even so, if you’re an Adobe Lightroom user, I recommend turning your in-camera vignetting correction to medium or high (yes, even if you shoot RAW rather than JPEG). This signals Lightroom to apply a vignetting correction profile to your Nikon Z photos by default. Otherwise, you’ll need to fix any vignetting manually – without the lens-specific profile. It’s a time-saver to do it this way. NIKON Z 9 + NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S @ 120mm, ISO 64, 1/60, f/5.6 Distortion Manual focus is excellent. It's entirely electronic; the manual focus ring isn't connected to anything other than a digital encoder. In the hand the 24-120 feels like a better quality lens. This might just be the extra weight of the 24-120 telling my mind that it is more robustly built but after several weeks of use I do think it is very well made and edges out the 24-70. This Z 24-120mm is a marvelous general-purpose lens. It's super-sharp, handles well, is reasonably priced and covers a perfect range for just about everything