Amateur Photographer verdict
A low-cost, small and lightweight all-in-one lens perfect for holidays. As an affordable entry for the budget conscious full-frame user, it has some cost saving limitations you shouldn’t overlook.
- Cost-effective
- Light-weight and compact
- Good range of focal lengths covered
- Maximum aperture doesn’t close down too quickly
- Not as sharp as it could be at open apertures
- Filter size a bit tight and causes vignetting
- Vignetting at the wider focal lengths
- Nikon saving pennies by not including the hood
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 at a glance:
- Price: $550 / £519
- Filter thread: 67mm
- Min focus: 20cm
- Dimensions: 106.5×73.5mm
- Weight: 350g
- Mount: Nikon Z
The new Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 lens is designed for Nikon’s Z series cameras with a full-frame sensor. It provides an easier entry into the system for new users and those on a budget. Photography has always been an expensive pastime, but costs seemed to take a leap when some brands introduced their mirrorless systems, and bodies and lenses suddenly became out of reach for a lot of people. I guess camera companies wanted their first offerings to be impressive, so they launched their best products first, but now we are seeing something of a balance appearing, and lower-cost lenses coming into the market.
At $549 / £519, this 24-105mm may not look that low-priced when, for example, you can get the Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR for less than £100 more. But that initial standalone price is a something of a red herring, and the 24-105mm looks destined to become kit zoom for Nikon’s full-frame cameras which will add relatively little extra to the total cost, while being a more versatile alternative than the existing 24-50mm f/4-6.3. However, an f/4-7.1 zoom may not be everyone’s ideal. So how does it measure up?
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 – Features
The Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 is a full-frame lens designed to be used on Nikon’s Z series of FX cameras. Its compact dimensions and light weight make it a good match for the Nikon Z5II in particular, which is the camera with which I tested it. However, the size and weight are also a clue that the maximum aperture is variable and not especially wide.
We get f/4 at the wide end, and by the time we’re at 105mm the aperture drops to f/7.1, so it isn’t really a low-light lens. It isn’t supposed to be though, as Nikon is promoting it as a travel companion whose weight and size is of greater benefit than its restricted apertures are a limitation. Minimum apertures range from f/22 at 24mm to f/40 at 105mm. Nikon has used 7 blades in the iris of the lens to create these aperture values.
Nikon is pleased with the close focusing abilities of the lens, and cites the 0.5x magnification as a selling point. At 24mm we can get as close as 20cm from a subject, but between 70mm and 105mm is where we can get that best magnification at distances between 20cm and 28cm. Internal focusing makes use of Nikon’s STM system with super-light focus elements to keep the focus group movements quick and silent, and the focusing ring positioned at the body-end of the barrel allows manual intervention at any time should it be needed.
The optical construction uses 12 elements in 10 groups. This includes 1 Extra-low Dispersion (ED) and 2 aspherical elements to help minimise optical aberrations while keeping the lens compact. Filter users will need screw-in models or adapter rings with a diameter of 67mm.
There is a hood for this lens but it doesn’t come in the box, so you’ll need to spend $36.95 / £34.99 to get the Nikon official Lens Hood HB-93B. I’m sure it would have added a tiny fraction of that cost to the price had it come as part of the kit. Predictably though, compatible hoods from third-party manufacturers can be had for a fraction of the price. It seems a self-defeating move not to include it.
While it’s designed for full-frame, the 24-105mm can also be used on DX cameras such as the entry-level Nikon Z50II, where it would offer the sorts of views we’d expect from a 35-160mm type lens. But the catch is that unlike Nikon’s DX zooms, it’s not optically stabilised, and in contrast to full-frame models, Nikon’s DX cameras don’t have in-body stabilisation. So you’d end up with an unstabilised system combined with a small aperture, which is a bad idea.
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 – Build and handling
Very much at home on the Nikon Z5ll I used it with, the Nikkor 24-105mm f/4-7.1 adds only 350g to the weight of the kit, and it extends a moderate 106.5mm from the body when set to the 24mm position. It is small and light, and creates a small and light kit with that camera. It’s easy to see how this will appeal to a lot of photographers who don’t want big, heavy setups. The pairing is indeed ideal for a holiday, city tour or daily photography in places where the light is plentiful.
Despite its plastic construction, the lens feels well enough made, and it looks rather smart as it has clearly been designed to be visually impressive. I am very keen on the large rubber zoom ring, and found the ribbing just right for a good grip with either gloved or ungloved hands. The much smaller focus ring is different enough and distant enough that we’d never get them confused. Nikon suspects, as I do, that few of the users of this lens will feel the need to engage manual focus, so the focus ring is customisable in order that it can be given more useful roles – such as aperture controls, to adjust exposure compensation or ISO values. The Nikon menu system makes this customisation easy to achieve, even for beginners.
I noted quite a lot of intake and exhalation of breath as the zoom ring is turned, to the point I could feel it on my fingers. But I didn’t notice dust being drawn into the lens – at least during the fortnight I had it. Nikon says the lens is ‘dust and drip’ resistant, which isn’t quite the same as weather proofing. I think I’d be quite careful in the rain and in very dusty environments.
We used to think a plastic mount on a lens was a weak point, but I think now they are considered more flexible when dropped than thin metal ones that buckle or snap, so I’m quite happy with the rear of this 24-105mm. There’s a heavy baffle very tight to the rear element that should help to avoid flare and internal reflections if the elements aren’t coated quite as well as those used in Nikon’s premium lenses.
Some manufacturers of lower-cost lenses, and indeed some not-so lower-cost lenses, will cheat a little with their stated apertures, and an f/4 24-105mm lens might have shifted to f/5.6 by the time it gets to 26mm. This lens though retains its f/4 aperture until a respectable 33mm, shifts to f/5.6 at 65mm, f/6.3 at 85mm and doesn’t hit the f/7.1 mark until fully at 105mm. That’s quite impressive. It only takes a 90° turn of the zoom ring to get us from one extreme to the other too, so shifting focal lengths is quick and easy.
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 – Autofocus
I found the focusing system in this lens works really very well, and between the quick movements of the focusing group and the clear instructions from the camera focus is found promptly and without fuss. The small and light focusing group clearly helps here, and the silent motors do indeed produce motion without very much noise.
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 – Image Quality
Chromatic errors are well controlled in the images this lens produces – to the point I had to remember to go looking for them, and didn’t find much when I did. Nikon though, hasn’t spent as much time dealing with vignetting. At the wide end of the lens and with the aperture open all the way, there is significant corner shading. This is moderated by f/5.6 but is still in evidence at f/8. In the middle focal lengths, it remains until f/5, and at the longer focal lengths, there’s none to speak of – though using the f/40 aperture affects the metering system so that exposure drops by about a stop.
The 67mm filter thread perhaps could have been a little larger in diameter to prevent mechanical cut off when filters are in use and the lens set to 24mm. I think 72mm may have offered enough clearance, though this would have made for a larger lens.
The 24.5MP sensor of the Z5ll may not have posed the greatest challenge to the resolution of this lens, but it was still enough to demonstrate where the lens is at its sharpest, and where it isn’t. I found that at the wider and middle focal lengths, f/8 and f/11 are the better for resolving fine details, such as grass in a landscape or shingle on a beach. At the longer end we are given more options, as I found apertures between f/7.1 and f/16 to all be good. That f/7.1 is good is particularly important, as that will be an oft-used aperture at 105mm, as we try to get as much light to the sensor as possible.
Optically, this isn’t a particularly stunning performance. But if you work mostly in the middle ground, you will probably be quite happy.
Nikon Nikkor Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 – Verdict
This isn’t supposed to be a thrilling lens that makes us all oooh and ahhh, and neither is it supposed to possess optical theatricals that shine through as unique properties in our pictures. It is supposed to be a low-cost, small and lightweight lens that allows people to take an all-in-one lens on holiday, and to afford new users and those on a budget access to a wide range of focal lengths in a convenient format. And it does that very well.
Having said that, if you can afford the extra money for a better lens like the 24-70mm f/4 or 24-120mm f/4, and don’t mind the extra weight, I would suggest you do so. However, if cost and weight are issues, this Z 24-105mm f/4-7.1 will keep you happy, so long as you’re realistic about your expectations of what it can offer.
