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It’s no secret that Nikon’s been struggling. Ever since Sony went full-on into their Alpha mirrorless system, both Nikon and Canon saw some serious competition. It hit Nikon a lot more than it hit Canon, but that might be changing.
According to a new report from BCN Retail on lens sales covering the first six months of 2023, Nikon Z mount takes the number two spot and finally escaping its single-digit market share. Not surprisingly, Sony still has a massive lead.
After yesterday’s announcement of the Nikkor Z 70-180mm f/2.8 (buy here) and Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5-6.6.3 VR (buy here) lenses, two new lenses have popped up on Nikon’s latest lens roadmap. Both lenses are primes, with one offering a 35mm focal length, perhaps an f/1.2, given its position in the layout. The other is more telephoto, at 135mm, possibly with an f/1.8 or f/2 aperture.
Nikon did have a 135mm f/2 prime lens (buy here) in its F-mount DSLR lineup. It was a lens that proved very popular, particularly amongst location portrait and event shooters. Canon also had an EF mount 135mm f/2 (buy here). Since Sigma’s 2017 release, the 135mm f/1.8 Art (buy here), Nikon might be looking to open up that aperture a bit more this time around.
7Artisans has announced its new (and tiny) 18mm f/6.3 pancake lens (buy here) for Micro Four Thirds and APS-C mirrorless cameras. In the APS-C mounts, we’ve got Nikon Z, Fuji X, Sony E and Canon EF-M. No sign of a Canon RF mount one, but given how swiftly Canon has been enforcing its intellectual lens property, that’s not much of a surprise.
As is the nature with pancake lenses, the 7Artisans 18mm f/6.3 is extremely compact. In fact, it’s not much bigger than a regular standard body cap. It’s not optically complex and comes with a relatively cheap price point. Looking at some of the sample photos from Robin Wong’s video below, though, it looks pretty good!
Nikon has announced its widest APS-C lens for Nikon Z mount mirrorless cameras. The Nikon Nikkor Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR (buy here), as all of the letters in its name suggest, is a an APS-C (DX) lens, with Power Zoom (PZ) and Vibration Reduction (VR – or optical image stabilisation in generic terms). Designed for content creators and vloggers, the new lens offers up to 4.5 stops of stabilisation with focusing as close as 11 inches.
The lens offers the full frame equivalent field of view to that of an 18-42mm focal length range, making for some wide close-ups for vlogging as well as being able to dial things in a little narrower when you want to focus on a subject. According to Nikon, extra-low dispersion and aspherical elements provide a high level of sharpness and distortion control throughout the zoom range.
There have been many rumours about this one over the past few months, but now it’s official. Sigma has announced development their first Nikon Z mount mirrorless lenses. Three of Sigma’s popular lenses are going to be coming to Nikon Z to kick things off, but there’s a catch. You see, we’re not going to get the fancy Art or Sports series lenses. We’re not even getting full-frame lenses. Not yet, anyway.
What Sigma is releasing are Z mount versions of the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary, the 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary and the 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary lenses. This is their APS-C lineup that’s also available for Sony E, Canon EF-M, Fuji X, Micro Four Thirds and L-Mount. All three lenses are to be released simultaneously.
As well as the Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8 Pancake lens, Nikon has also today announced the release of the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S lens for the Nikon Z mirrorless system. Billed as “extraordinary”, it’s a lens that Nikon Z shooters have wanted for a long time. As with the 26mm f/2.8, the development announcement for the 85mm f/1.2 S came at the beginning of the year while being shown off at CES.
It’s Nikon’s new premium portrait lens, offering a traditional focal length for the genre while providing the super wide aperture that lets you get a creatively shallow depth of field, as well as allowing you to shoot in darker conditions. Nikon says that it’s a “truly unique optic” with outstanding optical performance that “goes beyond the impressive sharpness”.
Nikon has announced its new Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8 lens, which it describes as “a premium pancake for everyday carry”. Despite being such a small and light lens, it’s designed to cover a full-frame sensor, with Nikon claiming that it “packs a tremendous punch with superior sharpness and beautiful blurred backgrounds” thanks to its f/2.8 aperture. It’s the first lens Nikon has made for the Z system that they consider to be a true “pancake” lens.
It measures less than 1″ in length (23.5mm to be precise) and weighs a mere 125g for shooting things such as street photography, travel vlogs and landscape photography. Nikon says that its small stature and weight have been achieved thanks to an “all-element focusing system” powered by an STM stepper motor for fast and accurate positioning.
This is a bit of an interesting one and it potentially explains why we’ve seen a handful of autofocus Z mount lenses over the last few years – but not the flurry we’ve come to expect with other systems like Sony E mount. According to a report on Nikon Rumors, Nikon hasn’t gone full-on Canon when it comes to third-party autofocus lenses, but they are being somewhat restrictive.
It seems that Nikon apparently does officially license third-party manufacturers to create autofocus lenses, but it does so on a lens-by-lens basis. This only seems to be the case for autofocus lenses, though. They will approve them, but only if they don’t directly compete with something already in the Nikkor Z lineup but complement the lineup instead.
Cosina has announced two new lenses for the Nikon Z mount mirrorless system. One is an extremely impressive-sounding Voigtlander NOKTON 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical full-frame lens. A standard field of view with an ultra-wide and bright aperture that’s anything but standard. The other is the Voigtlander SUPER WIDE-HELIAR 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical lens, which is also full frame, offering an extremely wide field of view.
The lenses aren’t entirely new. The Nokton 50mm f/1.0 is already available in Leica M mount. The Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 is also available for Sony E mount. But the addition of another mount expands the possibilities for Nikon Z mount shooters – even if they are both manual focus lenses.
Nikon has announced the development of two new Nikkor Z mount lenses. There’s a fast Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S mid-telephoto portrait lens and a 26mm f/2.8 pancake lens. Both lenses are designed for full-frame Nikon mirrorless cameras but they will, of course, work on APS-C bodies, too, with a narrower field of view. Beyond the focal length and apertures, not much else has been said about the new lenses yet.
We don’t know when they’re going to be released nor how much they’ll cost, although there are a few things we can pick up from the images. Things like the fact that the 85mm f/1.2 will take an 82mm screw-on filter and it doesn’t look like the 26mm f/2.8 takes filters at all.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 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.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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