Suggestion on a couple of lenses (Z vs F)

Hi everyone,

There are a couple of lenses that I would like to add to my Z6 and I would love to hear your opinion:

1) Tele that doesn’t make me bankrupted

So I want to get something that gets me to 200mm or 300mm. The Z 70-200mm 2.8 is out of my budget (I’m a hobbyist shooter and I can’t justify the price for what I do). I see some alternatives:

- The Z 24-200 f/4-6.3: not as fast but cheaper and lighter. Apparently sharp enough too. Probably I would sell my 24-70 f4 if I buy this one.

- Adapt an F lens (I already own the adapter): there are 70-200 and 70-300 much cheaper, even a 70-200 f/2.8 by Tamron for 650€.

- The Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 and use crop-mode. I haven’t read about this lens, and cropping in the Z6 is not ideal, but it’s pretty cheap and… perhaps “good enough”?

- Sony E-mount tele + adapter: good alternatives here. Tamron 70-180mm for 1000€

2) Tilt-shift lens

There is none in the roadmap for Z lenses, and being such a niche, may never see one (or take a few years to arrive). Do you think there would be one, eventually? Does it make sense to wait? There are a couple of alternatives on F (probably I would go with the Samyang as Nikon's are pretty expensive too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your opinions

Can certainly vouch for the relatively inexpensive Nikon AF-P 70-300mm f4.5-5.6E ED VR lens, as on both my Z6 and Z7 it is tack sharp at both ends of the focal length. A cracking lightweight little lens.

Would love Nikon to make a Z version of this lens so that I didn't have to also carry the FTZ adapter as well.

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Lets make pictures, not war........

For telephoto lenses, you may also want to consider Sigma 100-400 or Tamron 100-400. Both are great options for value and money.

If you prefer lightweight more to aperture and if 200mm is enough for you, Nikkor Z 24-200 will not disappoint. You mention the combination of some E-mount lenses, in this case, you may also look at Tamron 28-200 which has brighter aperture and better image quality (as per Cameralabs review) than Nikon but lacks 24mm and VR.

If 200 or 300 mm is enough telephoto for you, I’d go with the 70-300 mm AF-P FX lens. It’s a great compliment to your 24-70 f4. It’s light and balances well on my Z7 and Z6 bodies with the FTZ. The optical quality is quite good, especially for the price. I have longer telephotos, but I often take the 70-300 when I want something light and/or don’t need more than 300 mm.

I do not have the 24-200 in Z mount, although I see it is getting good reactions from owners. One of my friends has one and likes it. I can’t compare the optical quality of the 24-200 to the 24-70 and 70-300. I suspect the lenses with smaller zoom ratios may be a bit better optically. But one difference is material — you get 300 mm with the 70-300. Of course, the single lens (20.2 ounces) weighs less than two lens (17.7 + 24 ounces) and you would not need to change lenses. Trade-offs, as usual.

On the tilt-shift side, I have the 19 mm PCE f4. Have been learning how to use it over the last year. Very nice lens and it works very well on a Z7 body with the FTZ. I haven’t tried it on my Z6, but expect it would be the same. Focus peaking on the Z7 is very helpful. Main problem is that it is an expensive lens. I have not tried the non-Nikon alternatives. Note too, there are tilt-shift lenses in other focal lengths. What focal length you may want may depend on your intended subjects.

I wanted a lightweight telephoto for shooting wildlife while backpacking. However, I couldn't justify buying an expensive model because I rarely shoot telephotos when not backpacking. A friend offered his AF-P 70-300 VR DX lens a couple of years ago and I bought it for this purpose when using my D500. I was amazed at how sharp this inexpensive lens was and how light (15 ounces) it was while hiking.

I now also own a Z7 with FTZ and have been similarly pleased using this DX telephoto on it. Don't know if Z6 DX resolution will be sufficient, but this lens works fine for my limited needs. This is an example of of this lens at the 300mm setting (450mm effective FL) with my Z7 + FTZ, NEF without any adjustments or cropping.

Just a suggestion since you mentioned DX lenses, YMMV.

My main focus is architecture, so I was thinking of 24mm. Either new Samyang or second hand Nikon

juntoalmar said:

1) Tele that doesn’t make me bankrupted

So I want to get something that gets me to 200mm or 300mm. The Z 70-200mm 2.8 is out of my budget (I’m a hobbyist shooter and I can’t justify the price for what I do). I see some alternatives:

- The Z 24-200 f/4-6.3: not as fast but cheaper and lighter. Apparently sharp enough too. Probably I would sell my 24-70 f4 if I buy this one.

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Probably the best choice IF f/6.3 on the long end is okay. Its cost is also only a couple hundred if you sell your 24-70.

juntoalmar said:

- Adapt an F lens (I already own the adapter): there are 70-200 and 70-300 much cheaper, even a 70-200 f/2.8 by Tamron for 650€.

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This is the route I'd go, especially if you have a FTZ already. I'd want faster than f/6.3. The 70-300 AF-P is great as others mentioned. I opted for the 70-200 f/4. It's even better, especially at the borders and its a constant f/4. I also have a TC-14EII if I need 300mm f/5.6. It's a bit bigger but f/4 at 200mm is useful.

juntoalmar said:

- The Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 and use crop-mode. I haven’t read about this lens, and cropping in the Z6 is not ideal, but it’s pretty cheap and… perhaps “good enough”?

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Said to be quite good and 10 megapixels is still a lot. What do you do with the large images? If you aren't printing it probably won't matter.

juntoalmar said:

- Sony E-mount tele + adapter: good alternatives here. Tamron 70-180mm for 1000€

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I came from Sony and don't feel they adapt well enough (AF suffers) plus Techart isn't reliable. If you're doing tracking etc. I wouldn't go this route.

juntoalmar said:

2) Tilt-shift lens

There is none in the roadmap for Z lenses, and being such a niche, may never see one (or take a few years to arrive). Do you think there would be one, eventually? Does it make sense to wait? There are a couple of alternatives on F (probably I would go with the Samyang as Nikon's are pretty expensive too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your opinions

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The 70-300mm FX (E) is my go to for when I use a tele. Very happy, crisp, fast focusing, and not too heavy.

juntoalmar said:

My main focus is architecture, so I was thinking of 24mm. Either new Samyang or second hand Nikon

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I tried both Nikon 24mm PCE and Canon 24 TSE, I would recommend Canon 24mm instead. They are priced very similar, but Canon offers better edge performance when shifted, as well as independent shift and tilt control. What you need is a Canon EF to Nikon Z adapter: like from Fringer, which I recommend.

With an EF-Z adapter, you can also consider some high performance EF lens, and I saw plenty 2nd hand copies recently in the market.

AdaptedLenses said:

I came from Sony and don't feel they adapt well enough (AF suffers) plus Techart isn't reliable. If you're doing tracking etc. I wouldn't go this route.

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I agree. I would recommend to adapt Canon EF lenses instead.

Why Canon EF though instead of Nikon F on FTZ? Then you basically get native, and Nikon has plenty of excellent long glass.

rokoko said:

AdaptedLenses said:

I came from Sony and don't feel they adapt well enough (AF suffers) plus Techart isn't reliable. If you're doing tracking etc. I wouldn't go this route.

Click to expand...

I agree. I would recommend to adapt Canon EF lenses instead.

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AdaptedLenses said:

Why Canon EF though instead of Nikon F on FTZ? Then you basically get native, and Nikon has plenty of excellent long glass.

rokoko said:

AdaptedLenses said:

I came from Sony and don't feel they adapt well enough (AF suffers) plus Techart isn't reliable. If you're doing tracking etc. I wouldn't go this route.

Click to expand...

I agree. I would recommend to adapt Canon EF lenses instead.

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Besides native F mount through FTZ, I prefer adapting Canon EF lenses to Sony FE lenses, because of better AF performance, and better built-up quality of the Fringer adapter. I had both adapters, and now rarely I would mount a Sony lens on Z.

OP is interested in PC lenses. And I had both Canon and Nikon 24mm, I liked the Canon version better.

Best available data so far:

juntoalmar said:

2) Tilt-shift lens

There is none in the roadmap for Z lenses, and being such a niche, may never see one (or take a few years to arrive). Do you think there would be one, eventually? Does it make sense to wait? There are a couple of alternatives on F (probably I would go with the Samyang as Nikon's are pretty expensive too)

Click to expand...

I would agree with the 70-300 AF-P as a great alternative lens. But what about tilt-shift?

There will not be a native Z tilt-shift lens for a long, long time. What's a long time? 5 years? 10 years? Who knows. When there is one it will be expensive just like the F mount lenses.

What about Samyang? I assume you're talking about wide angle. I don't have it but it's a good lens for the money I think. It doesn't compare to the 19mm Nikon lens, which I own.

Since you don't want to pay for a really good lens I guess I would wonder what you want to get out of it. Tilt function or shift function? If just for the shift function I might just get a very good wide angle lens and use post-processing to correct perspective distortion. Tilt correction is another matter.

juntoalmar said:

Hi everyone,

There are a couple of lenses that I would like to add to my Z6 and I would love to hear your opinion:

1) Tele that doesn’t make me bankrupted

So I want to get something that gets me to 200mm or 300mm. The Z 70-200mm 2.8 is out of my budget (I’m a hobbyist shooter and I can’t justify the price for what I do). I see some alternatives:

- The Z 24-200 f/4-6.3: not as fast but cheaper and lighter. Apparently sharp enough too. Probably I would sell my 24-70 f4 if I buy this one.

Click to expand...

As others have said, the 70-300 is popular, and I had that lens on my Z’s for a while, but in the end got the 24-200 as it’s

1. Native Z mount, so no need for the adapter, which makes it smaller in comparison, and
2. Performance over the 24-70 range is pretty much up with the 24-70 f4 if you don’t mind the hit of f stops, which gives you a handy 70-200 f6-6.3 as an extra
3. No need to change lenses between that 24 to 200 range, which may or may not be something to consider

Which does make this the cheapest option IF you sell the 24-70 and that’s something I’m still undecided on myself as I may keep both. On the other hand the 75-300 can be picked up cheap, but go for the AF-P version if you go down that route

juntoalmar said:

- Adapt an F lens (I already own the adapter): there are 70-200 and 70-300 much cheaper, even a 70-200 f/2.8 by Tamron for 650€.

- The Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 and use crop-mode. I haven’t read about this lens, and cropping in the Z6 is not ideal, but it’s pretty cheap and… perhaps “good enough”?

- Sony E-mount tele + adapter: good alternatives here. Tamron 70-180mm for 1000€

2) Tilt-shift lens

There is none in the roadmap for Z lenses, and being such a niche, may never see one (or take a few years to arrive). Do you think there would be one, eventually? Does it make sense to wait? There are a couple of alternatives on F (probably I would go with the Samyang as Nikon's are pretty expensive too)

Thanks a lot in advance for your opinions

Click to expand...

Andy

Thanks for your answer, Mike.

Yes, about Samyang, I was thinking of wide-angle (24mm). I am interested in architecture photography and looking for a lens to correct the perspective. Although I don't expect to make money out of it, that's why it's not worthy (to my needs) to spend 2k on a tilt/shift lens that I will use from time to time.

Thanks for your suggestion of post-processing. Do you think I would lose a lot of detail if I use a Nikon Z 14-30mm f4 and straighten the lines in post, compared to using a Samyang tilt/shift 24mm?

Thanks!

juntoalmar said:

Thanks for your answer, Mike.

Yes, about Samyang, I was thinking of wide-angle (24mm). I am interested in architecture photography and looking for a lens to correct the perspective. Although I don't expect to make money out of it, that's why it's not worthy (to my needs) to spend 2k on a tilt/shift lens that I will use from time to time.

Thanks for your suggestion of post-processing. Do you think I would lose a lot of detail if I use a Nikon Z 14-30mm f4 and straighten the lines in post, compared to using a Samyang tilt/shift 24mm?

Click to expand...

It's really hard to answer those questions definitively. It all depends on the amount of correction needed and the size of the output. A really good wide angle lens will have better sharpness across the entire image than the Samyang as a starting point before correction in post.

If you had a Z7 you would have extra cropping room to lessen the perspective distortion to begin with. If you only view your photos on a computer screen (and don't pixel peep) I doubt you would notice much loss of resolution from fixing in post.

You won't get exactly the same look by correcting in post as you would by using a shift lens to begin with. The Samyang is a decent alternative. I'm not saying not to buy it. But you might want to try post processing first to see if that is good enough for you. Also, how wide to you need? There are Nikkor 28mm PC lenses out there for $400 used.

Now, if you want to add tilt to the mix to get wider DOF you don't really have much choice except to get a tilt-shift lens.