New Z lens – Nikkor Z 17-28mm f2.8
Nikon announced a new Z lens today, basically right out of the blue. This lens wasn’t on their lens roadmap, and Nikonrumors posted a possible release just three days (17.9.2022) before the actual announcement by Nikon (20.9.2022). Nikonrumors expected that the announcement would include either the 600mm (f4 ?), 85mm (f1.2 ?) or the 200-600mm. The next day they changed this stance and mentioned the Tamron based Nikkor Z 17-28mm f2.8 for the first time, just two days ahead of its launch. Nobody else among all the ‘experts’ with ‘connections’ and ‘sources’ had any predictions at all. This shows how little is known about upcoming Nikon launches these days – unless Nikon wants us to know.
The Z 17-28mm f2.8 – what is it?
Compared to the Z 14-24mm f2.8 S it is considerably cheaper, a bit lighter, and again lacking the extreme wide point of view of 14mm. Still, for event and street work it should do fine, but it certainly won’t excel at all disciplines. Unlike the 14-24mm f2.8 S you will want to step it down for scenery and architecture, but it’s range makes it actually a bit more suitable for event and street imagery – at a much lower price. The price will be very important here, are you going to spend the big bucks for the excellent all-rounder Z 14-24mm f2.8 S or can you do with the much cheaper Z 17-28mm f2.8 – which might well be the case if you shoot in particular people, events and street.
But back to the new lens, the Z 17-28mm f2.8, based on a Tamron design. It offers f2.8 at a much lower price, size and weight than the top of the line f2.8 Nikkor zooms. Initially priced at US$1200 it might be worth to wait for a moment as we have seen the similar Z 28-70mm f2.8 offered with a US$200 discount not that long after its launch. It comes with a customizable ring, stepper motors for fast and quiet autofocus and is quite compact and light for a f2.8 lens, just a little heavier than its Tamron counterpart. This comes at the expense of a somewhat shorter and less wide zoom range, of course – there’s always a trade off somewhere.
The internet reaction
Of course there’s the talk about a Nikon “tax” as this lens costs US$300 more at launch than the original Tamron at its launch (US$1200 vs US$900). As mentioned above not before too long this lens might get a good discount if the price development of the Z 28-70mm f2.8 is anything to go by. Add to this having a Z mount lens from Nikon, which ensures it will play nice with Z bodies no matter what firmware or bodies attached to. This alone is worth the extra cash in my opinion, along with a better resell value, perhaps.
How does it fit into the Z line?
As usual the big question is ‘where does this lens fit in the Z system?’ There are already two super-wide zoom lenses in the Z system, and this lens does a bit of both but nothing in particular – or does it?
Compared to the Z 14-30mm f4 it is a bit bigger and offers much less range, in particular at the wide end, at a similar price. However it’s a full stop faster, so if you shoot events and street at lower light, where corner performance isn’t that important, then this lens might be for you. Stepped down to f5,6-11 it should perform quite well across the frame and do a good job for scenery, architecture and interiors, with the caveat of the narrower field of view of 17mm at the wide end compared to the 14mm of the ‘S’ lens. The use case might be the deciding factor here. A preference for people, events, street for the Z 17-28mm f2.8 and scenery, architecture and interior for the Z 14-30mm f4 S.
The big picture
Another aspect not to forget is the ‘big picture’ of course, and that’s this lens fitting into the ‘new trinity’, the Z 17-28mm f2.8, combined with the Z 28-70mm f2.8 and the upcoming 70-180mm, which might well be based on the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 lens. These three lenses combined will give you 17-180mm at f2.8 substantially lighter and smaller than the top of the line S zooms – no need to mention the massive price difference! Let’s take a closer look at those two sets of fast f2.8 zooms:
Lens | Weight | Price | Lens | Weight | Price | |
Z 17-28mm f2.8 | 450g | US$1200 | Z 14-24mm f2.8 S | 650g | US$2400 | |
Z 28-75mm f2.8 | 565g | US$1200 | Z 24-70mm f2.8 S | 805g | US$2300 | |
Z 70-180mm f2.8 | 850g (est) | US$1400 (est) | Z 70-200mm f2.8 S | 1360g | US$2600 | |
Total | 1,865g | US$3800 | Total | 2,810g | US$7300 |
Preferences and use case
Personally I prefer the Z 14-30mm f4 over the Z 17-38mm f2.8 for the extra mm at the wide end, but them I am a wide angle junkie.
However, the Z 28-75mm f2.8 is a very intriguing option over the Z 24-70mm f4 as it suits my style better in that range – city walks at dusk, people, traffic, whatever. It could even replace two primes for this purpose. Definitely an interesting option and hence on my radar.
The upcoming Z 70-180mm f2.8 is a mixed bag. While I love it’s compact size – just 14.9cm (about the same as my AF-P 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR E at 14.6cm) it is for my taste on the heavy side at 805g (not for a 2.8 tele zoom, but for what I prefer!) and it sure is a bit short at 180mm only. I definitely prefer reach up to 300mm over f2.8 for my compact tele, so I will stick to my AF-P 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR E for the time being.
Of course it all depends on your preferences, so what suits me best is not necessarily the best for someone else. It’s important to find suitable lenses for each budget and use case, one can’t really go wrong with any of those lenses. Nobody is ever going to say ‘hey, you used a bad lens for this image, it is no good’. Not with today’s lenses.
Either there was an user error, or the wrong lens used for the wrong purpose, or the image was simply boring, it didn’t do anything for the viewer. The latter largely depends on your audience, of course. However, it’s the person behind the camera who affects the outcome, not the lens per se. It always was, in fact, but our possibilities were much more limited during the film days and with the lenses available then. In this sense find out which lenses fit your shooting style – and those new f2.8 zooms might be just the ones!
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