Nikon is going to speed up their Z mount lens roadmap
May 22, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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According to an interview on French website, Phototrend, Nikon plans to step up the speed when it comes to their Z mount lens roadmap. Nikon also talked about some of the needs and feedback they’ve received from users about the types of lenses they want.
Phototrend says that they had planned to put these questions to Nikon face to face during their visit to Japan in February. Due to COVID-19, however, this could not take place. Now they’ve received answers from Nikon’s marketing department.
The interview begins, naturally, with DSLRs, and where Nikon sees them in the current and future climate. Nikon says that they still see a place for both DSLR and mirrorless systems, and each has advantages over the other, so they will continue to develop both their D series DSLRs and Z series mirrorless systems side-by-side, at least for now.
One of the biggest advantages, Nikon said, about their DSLRs was the vast amount of lenses available for them. And, they’re right. But the F mount has been around for over fifty years. This argument won’t be a big enough sway in a few years once Nikon’s own Z lens lineup increases, not to mention the number of 3rd party manufacturers who are already producing Z mount lenses.
While the FTZ mount adapter allows F-mount NIKKOR lenses to be used with Z-series cameras, expectations for expanding the NIKKOR Z lens range are high. Therefore, we plan to move faster on the schedule presented with the introduction of the Z mount system for expanding the range of lenses.
All the objectives of the current roadmap are important, but the demand for a faster release of an f / 2.8 trinity is particularly strong.
Of course, as Nikon points out in the quote above, you can use F mount lenses on Z mirrorless cameras using the FTZ adapter. And for many of them, you can do it without any loss of function. Sure, you won’t get autofocus with lenses that aren’t AF-S or AF-P, but if you’re happy to manual focus you can use pretty much any Nikon lens made in the last 50+ years on Nikon’s Z mirrorless cameras.
Other points of note include the acknowledgement that DX-format APS-C hybrid cameras are an important category for a great number of people. Essentially, cameras like the Nikon Z50, and similar bodies that would compete with the Sony A6x00 series and Fuji mirrorless cameras. Of course, Nikon didn’t say anything specifically about any new DX-format bodies that might be coming, not would they make any comment on the potential announcement of a high-end Nikon Z8.
Nikon also say in the interview that they have seen a lot of demand for tiny pancake-type lenses, designed to help take advantage of the small size of the mirrorless cameras themselves. If Nikon plans to release a few of those, then this is something I could definitely get behind.
There’s no mention of exactly how quickly they’ll speed up the roadmap to release and announce more lenses, but maybe Nikon’s finally waking up and ready to compete properly again.
You can check out the full interview over on Phototrend.
What lens do you want to see for the Nikon Z mirrorless system?
[via Phototrend]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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12 responses to “Nikon is going to speed up their Z mount lens roadmap”
Better hurry I’m ready to switch.
Tbh….I wouldn’t invest in a Nikon system right now. I don’t really see how they’ll hold up in the next decade. Sure, they’ve had some great stuff in the past but I just don’t see their camera division making enough money to trade blows with Sony and canon. Even canon is shaky (this coming from a die hard canon fanboy).
Whoever puts computational photography in their mirrorless will dominate the market, and I just don’t see Nikon doing that unless alphabet buys them (which could work. Nikon gets computational photography in their mirrorless, and Google gets better optics for those 108mp cell phone cameras that desperately needs better glass rn. The pixel line of phones has fallen off since the pixel 2, so it’d actually be a good merger)
Philip La Lumiere I really see Nikon falling and someone like Fuji moving up
why would anyone using computational photography dominate the market? a lot of people are thinking, looking at the benefits it brings on a tiny sensor, it will be even greater when applied to a big sensor. But the way I see it, the point is to delivery clean images from sensors that can’t do it. If we were to use it on a FF sensor, we could have a clean ISO 51200 or something. But that would be interesting to 5% of the users. And there’s the issue of the lens itself, I don’t see how they’re going to fit multiple FF sensors + lenses or how it would look.
And whoever wants to try it with let’s say a 1″ sensor has a big chance of killing their own FF line, or whatever they’re selling. I don’t see it coming from a camera manufacturer…
70-200 f4
As a Nikon mirrorless owner and user, I am personally extremely happy with and love my Nikon Z6 and Z7 and in all honesty, Nikon lenses have far superior glass over the competitors. The only thing I think Nikon needs to do is start bring out F/1.2 lenses. Yeah the F/0.95 NOCT lens was interesting to see, but it is a one off novelty type lens that no true working professional can wisely budget for or purchase and then it would be one of those rarely used except for special projects lenses. Hell I still use F Mount lenses on my Z6 and Z7 with the FTZ adapter plus third party Sigma and Tamron F/3.5 and F/2.8 lenses respectively adapted and they work phenomenal!! Anybody who knocks Nikon must be a Canon and Sony shooter. Plus like Matt Irwin pointed out in his video, the Canon 70-200 F/2.8 is (a) huge (even if they did shrink it down) and with that lens hood, or even without it, it makes is susceptible to weather, bangs, cracks etc..with how far out it sticks when zoomed out, unlike either the Nikon 70-200 F/2.8 or even the F Mount 70-200’s lor 70-300 F/4.5-5.6 which I own and absolutely love!! So I am Nikon for life!!
i want to see a compact 70-200
a nice 35-85 f2
or 50-100 f2
Were are new f mount lenes?
Like the one they released in January? :)
https://www.diyphotography.net/nikons-new-120-300mm-f-2-8e-zoom-is-a-beautiful-monster-of-a-lens/
What I really wish is the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens for the mirrorless cameras and a 12-24mm f/4 for fullframe (or DX) mirrorless cameras of Nikon
Z mount 500 f4 or faster.
And a z body D500.
See you in 10 years..
As a landscape photographer I am waiting for two lenses in the first place: An optical excellent
Z 24-105mm F4.0 S and an outstanding Z 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 S lens!
Unfortunately I do not see a compact 70-200mm F4.0 S- lens on the roadmap.
When weight is important as for example on a mountain hike I will restrict myself to the 24-200mm lens, eventually completed with the 14-30mm F4 wideangle.