Most marques offer a premium quality 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, put a lot of effort into making it as good as it possibly can be and charge a pretty high price for it. Nikon now join the fray with this offering for their already known to be outstanding Z system, so expectations are very high. Will the other fine lenses in the range be a hard act to follow? We find out, using the 24.3MP Nikon Z5 body.
Nikon Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Handling and Features
There is no escaping the fact that any 70-200mm f/2.8 full-frame lens is going to be fairly hefty, but the new Nikkor weighs in at a reasonable 1360g without the tripod collar, or 1440g with. It fits well size-wise with the Z5 body provided for the review and balance-wise the lens is where the natural centre of gravity lies. This works well.
Starting our tour of the lens at the front, a large petal lens hood is provided. This bayonets securely into place and is held firmly by a locking catch that is secure and has no tendency to be accidentally released. Within the bayonet fitting is a standard 77mm filter thread.
The zoom ring is wide, does not change the length of the lens, and is smooth in operation. It is clearly marked with focal lengths of 70, 85, 105, 135 and 200mm. Behind this is the bank of L-Fn2 buttons, equally spaced around the barrel, and pressing one of these will perform an action assigned from the camera menus.
Behind this lies the manual focusing ring, which is active during AF, so small tweaks can be made as desired. Minimum focusing distance depends upon the focal length. Maximum magnification is 0.2x, or 1:5.
| 70mm | 0.5m | 1.64 feet |
| 85mm | 0.63m | 2.07 feet |
| 105mm | 0.68m | 2.23 feet |
| 135mm | 0.8m | 2.62 feet |
| 200mm | 1.0m | 3.28 feet |
Immediately behind this is the OLED information panel, which can be set to indicate aperture, focus distance, depth of field, focal length or ISO. Also at this point is the L-Fn1 button, also able to be assigned various functions from the camera menus.
Moving closer to the camera body, the rotating tripod collar can be removed if desired, but is very useful on a tripod for moving the camera easily from landscape to portrait orientation. Behind this is the control ring, which can be assigned different functions such as aperture control or exposure compensation. Again, these are set via the camera menus. When set to aperture control the aperture change is totally silent and totally smooth, ideal for videographers.
Finally, closest to the lens mount, is the AF/MF switch and the focus limiter. Focus can be set to full range, or limited to infinity to 5m. There is no VR switch as this is controlled from the camera menus. The lens is moisture and dust resistant and the front element also has a Fluorine coating to repel dust, water and grease.
Optical construction is 21 elements in 18 groups. There are 6 ED (Extra Low Dispersion), 2 Aspherical, 1 Fluorite and 1 SR (Short wavelength refraction) elements. The diaphragm comprises 9 rounded blades for improved bokeh.
In terms of handling, the lens cannot be faulted. Fast and accurate AF locks on every time. The VR system promises 5 stops advantage, and certainly, 4 stops can be secured reliably and sometimes 5 stops. Of course, this does nothing to address subject movement such as wildlife, but it is still a huge benefit in reducing camera shake.
Nikon Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Performance
Looking first at sharpness, there are very few lenses that reach this standard and so consistently as well. At 70mm, the centre is outstanding from f/2.8 to f/8 and excellent from f/11 to f/22. The edges are outstanding from f/2.8 to f/8, excellent at f/11 and f/16 and still very good at f/22.
At 105mm, the centre is outstanding from f/2.8 to f/8 and excellent from f/11 to f/22. The edges are outstanding from f/2.8 to f/5.6, excellent from f/8 to f/16 and still very good at f/22.
At 135mm, the centre is outstanding from f/2.8 to f/8 and excellent from f/11 to f/22. The edges are outstanding from f/2.8 to f/8, excellent at f/11 and f/16 and still very good at f/22.
At 200mm, the centre is excellent at f/2.8, outstanding at f/4, excellent from f/5.6 to f/16 and still very good at f/22. The edges are excellent from f/2.8 through to f/16 and very good at f/22.
Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S MTF Charts
How to read our MTF chartsThe blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution and sharpness as LW/PH and is described in detail above. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon Z5 using Imatest. Want to know more about how we review lenses? |
CA (Chromatic Aberration) is extremely low all throughout the range, both centre and edge, and is very unlikely to need further correction. This was measured with any accessible in-camera corrections switched off, so it is indeed a superb result.
Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Chromatic Aberration Charts
How to read our CA chartsChromatic aberration (CA) is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Nikon Z5 using Imatest. |
Distortion is modest for a zoom lens and at 70mm is pretty much as good as a macro lens might be. Pincushion distortion can be measured throughout the focal length range, at +0.05% (70mm), +1.25% (105mm), +1.67% (135mm) and +1.99% (200mm) – further correction could be made in software if required.
Bokeh, the quality of the out of focus areas, is beautifully smooth and could be described as “buttery” in some images. Very nice indeed.
No flare could be induced even with very strong backlighting.
Vignetting is modest and is not particularly obvious in most images.
| Aperture | 70mm | 105mm | 135mm | 200mm |
| f/2.8 | -1.6 | -2 | -2.5 | -2.6 |
| f/4 | -1 | -1.2 | -1.4 | -1.6 |
| f/5.6 | -0.7 | -1 | -1.1 | -1 |
| f/8 | -0.7 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -0.7 |
| f/11 | -0.7 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -0.6 |
| f/16 | -0.7 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -0.6 |
| f/22 | -0.7 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -0.6 |
In summary, this is outstanding performance and the lens is right at the top in terms of quality of results and handling.
Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Aperture range
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Value For Money
The Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lens is priced at £2399. Considering that the FTZ adapter makes use of Nikon F lenses possible, then we could also consider the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR at £1999.
To put the VFM equation into perspective, other marques offer various similar specifications.
Mirrorless systems:
- Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master, £2149
- Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, £2659
- Panasonic Lumix S Pro 70-200mm f/2.8 OIS, £2599 (L Mount)
DSLRs:
- Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2, £1249
- Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Sport, £1099
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM, £2149
- HD Pentax-D FA* 70-200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW, £1871
- Sony A Mount 70-200mm f/2.8 G SSM II, £2379
The conclusion is that although the price is high, considering the quality the price is also not unexpected and is fair. It may yet fall over the coming months, but we get what we pay for here, and we get a lot of quality. For more options have a look at the Top 28 Best Telephoto zoom lenses.
Nikon Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Verdict
The quality is there, so much quality, and basically this is a truly outstanding zoom lens. The focal length range is highly desirable, giving so much scope and versatility in subject matter from portraits to landscapes to sport and much more. Sometimes lenses with such high sharpness can be a bit ragged in terms of bokeh, but here even the bokeh is as smooth as butter. The cost may be high, but falls within expectation and what we get in return for our cash is a lens that is outstanding in every respect. Without doubt an Editor's Choice.
| The Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S gives an outstanding performance and superb handling. |
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