NIKON Z 8 (40mm, f/2, 1/250 sec, ISO4500)
This is probably the cheapest lens I bought for a long time but is it good lens?
With a certain price expectations are set. If you spend a small fortune on something you expect perfection or close to it. But that works the other way around too. If you spend very little on something you immediately think that the product has to have some serious flaws. But is that really the case?
What it is: 40mm is neither a 35mm nor a 50mm, it sits right in between. Thank you very much Captain Obvious! I know but it is important to know that if you love 35mm and/or 50mm it doesn’t mean that you will automatically love 40mm. My idea was to replace a 35mm and a 50mm with just one lens and save money and weight. I was wrong. 40mm is neither nor. It’s too tight to replace a 35mm and for portraits I prefer 50mm over 40mm. For some it might be perfect for street photography but for me it is more like a slightly wider lens for people photography.
Mechanical quality and design: Bad news first: the lens has a plastic lens mount. I hate plastic mounts. I know that they will probably last forever too but I still don’t like them and I think they are out of place on every lens except on the cheapest kit lenses where it’s likely that the customer would never get a second lens. Beside the plastic mount there is nothing to complain simply because there is nothing except the focus/multi-function ring. There is not even a lens hood but I don’t think the lens needs one.
AF performance: AF is silent and fast but there is hunting in poor light. I mention this because this is my only Nikon Z lens so far that has this problem. It doesn’t hunt forever though cause AF is quick but it is still enjoying.
Optical quality: The lens performs surprisingly good for its price but it is not an S-lens. Don’t get me wrong before Nikon Z this would have been a great lens but standards have changed. The lens is a little soft wide open up close (i.e. portrait distance) but it’s sharp at higher distances and sharp up close if stopped down. That being said I would still use the lens at f2 up close if I want the subject isolation and Bokeh is really nice. I took some portraits of my wife when we were in Kanazawa, Japan and I really love the look of those pictures.
wish list: If Nikon would ever revise this lens I recommend a metal lens mount and a marked aperture ring as this lens begs to be used on the Zf.
Summary: It’s good not only for its price and that’s good enough.