Nikon India Pvt. Ltd. announces the launch of the NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S, a high-performance wide-angle prime lens designed for professional photographers and videographers. With its fast f/1.2 aperture, this lens delivers exceptional detail, depth, and beautifully soft bokeh, making it ideal for portrait, street, and wedding photography, as well as cinematic video production.
As part of Nikon’s S-Line series, the NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S ensures outstanding optical performance with three ED glass elements and one aspherical ED glass element, minimising aberrations and maximising sharpness. Advanced Meso Amorphous, Nano Crystal, and ARNEO coatings significantly reduce ghosting and flares for superior clarity. The lens’ multi-focussing system, powered by stepping motors (STMs), provides fast and precise autofocus for both stills and video.
Optimized for videographers, the lens ensures smooth exposure transitions, suppresses focus breathing, and features a click-less control ring for silent operation. With dust and drip resistance, it is built for reliability in challenging shooting conditions.
Sajjan Kumar, Managing Director of Nikon India, stated that the NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S exemplifies Nikon’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of optical excellence, offering professionals a powerful tool to elevate their creative expression.
The NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S will be available soon at authorized Nikon dealers and online stores.
Nikon’s latest prime lens, the NIKKOR Z 35mm F/1.4 is the first F/1.4 prime lens for the Z mount lineup. The second is the 50mm F/1.4, which we have also reviewed in the issue, so be sure to check that out as well.
35 1.4
35 1.4 with hood
Design, Build & Handling
At first glance, the Z 35mm F/1.4 looks strikingly similar to its sibling, the 50mm F/1.4. Nikon deserves credit for maintaining design consistency across these lenses. Weighing just 415 grams, it is compact and lightweight, making it a highly portable choice.
The lens sports a 62mm filter diameter and boasts a premium, robust build. When paired with the Nikon Z6III, it achieves excellent balance – a setup ideal for both photography and videography.
Handling – still from our review video
The design is minimalistic, featuring only two rings: the focus ring and the customizable control ring. Unlike some other lenses, it lacks additional buttons. Nikon’s reasoning here seems clear – photographers and videographers often use focal lengths like 35mm and 50mm for video work, especially on gimbals. The simpler design ensures quick lens swaps without the hassle of recalibration.
Autofocus Performance
Lowlight image
The Z 35mm F/1.4 is equipped with a stepping motor, offering fast, silent autofocus performance. While there’s no built-in image stabilization, the lens delivers smooth, quick focussing both during the day and in low light conditions.
For video shooters, the autofocus transition between points is remarkably smooth. Nikon has also done an excellent job correcting focus breathing, resulting in cinematic-quality footage that filmmakers will appreciate.
Image Quality
Daylight image
When it comes to performance, the image quality from this lens is impressive. Photos are sharp and well-detailed in daylight, while low light conditions allow for atmospheric shots with excellent depth and mood.
While there are minor focus-hunting issues in specific scenarios, you can work around them to achieve results. Edge sharpness exhibits slight softness, but overall, the lens delivers good performance.
Flaring & Ghosting
Very minimal flaring against a light source
Despite lacking the fluorine coating found in Nikon’s S-series lenses, the Z 35mm F/1.4 handles flaring surprisingly well. Even though Nikon includes a lens hood in the box, you can often leave it behind to maintain a minimal and stealthy setup.
That said, because of the absence of fluorine coating, the front element tends to attract dirt and oil more quickly. A microfiber cloth will be essential to keep the lens clean.
Bokeh Performance
If you’re a fan of creamy bokeh, the Z 35mm F/1.4 won’t disappoint. The lens produces smooth, round bokeh across most of the frame. However, in certain areas, the bokeh can appear slightly squished, resembling an egg shape.
Chromatic Aberration (CA)
Running the lens through the Quick MTF app gave an output of 0.42 pixels for chromatic aberration. For a prime lens in this category, that’s a solid result and within acceptable limits.
Verdict
So, what’s our take on the NIKKOR Z 35mm F/1.4? At a price point of ₹89,999, it’s ₹10,000 more than Nikon’s 50mm F/1.4. However, when you compare it to competitors like Sony and Canon, whose 35mm F/1.4 lenses start at around ₹1.4 lakh, Nikon’s offering stands out as a fantastic value-for-money option.
For many photographers, a 50mm can feel too tight, and a wider 35mm is the perfect solution – offering a broader field of view without noticeable distortion. Whether you’re a street photographer looking for versatility or someone who needs a lightweight, travel-friendly lens that performs in both daylight and low light, the Z 35mm F/1.4 is an excellent choice.
Nikon India Pvt. Ltd. introduces the NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4, a full-frame, FX-format compatible Z mount lens with a 55 mm diameter mount that provides abundant light and great flexibility of expression. Weighing 420 g and with a minimum focus distance of 0.37 m, it is designed for users who wish to expand their range of expression while wanting a lens compact enough to remain mobile on a budget.
“At Nikon India, we are committed to offering innovative solutions that empower photographers and videographers to push their creative boundaries. The NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 is a stellar new addition to our expanding NIKKOR Z line-up, offering a perfect blend of portability and performance. With its outstanding sharpness for both stills and video, along with the ability to produce beautifully smooth background blur, the NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 opens up new possibilities for capturing stunning imagery, whether you’re shooting stills or video, ensuring that every shot reflects the brilliance and precision unique to Nikon’s Z series,” said Mr. Sajjan Kumar, Managing Director of Nikon India Pvt. Ltd.
With a maximum aperture of f/1.4 and a minimum focus distance of 0.37 m, the NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 is perfect for capturing flowers and decorations indoors with bright and beautiful large bokeh to further emphasize subjects. This lens enables users to capture stills with outstanding three-dimensional rendering and large bokeh, offering soft, ethereal expressions. This rendering is achieved by taking advantage of the lens’s shallow depth of field. The lens is also reliable for shooting indoors or in low-light environments. Increasing shutter speeds reduces blurriness, letting users easily obtain cleaner images at low ISO sensitivity.
This len’s angle of view allows you to narrow the aperture, step back, and capture breathtaking landscapes and portraits. The lens accurately depicts depth, helping capture subjects with a striking presence. Meanwhile, the lens’ maximum aperture allows impressive capture of subjects with soft rendering and shallow depth of field.
The NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 is is designed to suppress focus breathing, providing a natural-looking image with a constant angle of view even while adjusting focus. Adopting a stepping motor (STM) enables fast and quiet AF operations, even while recording in quiet environments. This is ideal for shooting on a gimbal, maintaining balance with minimal shifting to the centre of gravity. While recording, the focus moves consistently relative to the focus or control ring’s speed, ensuring precision in focus.
This is the second non-S-Line NIKKOR lens to adopt the metal filter ring cover, delivering high quality and a sophisticated texture; Different knurling shapes for focus and control rings, helping users easily distinguish focus and control even while looking through the viewfinder; Designed to widen gradually from base to tip for stable camera holding during shooting; Superior dust and drip resistant performance, with sealing on various portions, including movable parts of the lens barrel, to effectively prevent dust or water droplets from entering the lens.
The NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 will be available by last week of September 2024 at MRP. ₹79,995 across India at Nikon outlets.
Sony India announced the FE 85mm F1.4 GM II – a premium lens offering a supreme blend of high resolution and stunning bokeh with fast autofocus (AF) in a compact body. This is a second-generation lens that inherits the optical design that achieved a high-level fusion of bokeh and resolution that was highly praised in the first-generation model, and generously incorporates the latest technology. When paired with the latest Sony’s Alpha series cameras, it is an ideal option for a wide variety of creative uses in both photography and videography, including portraiture, wedding, travel, and cinematic video. The advanced and refined optical design and elements of the FE 85mm F1.4 GM II brings together appealing bokeh and enhanced high resolution, making it ideal for portrait photography. Packed with two XA (extreme aspherical) and two ED (extra-low dispersion) lenses, the state-of-the-art optical design effectively suppresses aberrations. This combination offers corner-to-corner resolution and rendering, resulting in outstanding image quality. Moreover, Sony’s original Nano AR Coating II technology effectively subdues flare and ghosting for clear, crisp images. The 11-blade circular aperture and optimization of spherical aberration during the design and manufacturing process provide the beautiful, soft bokeh that is the hallmark of G Master lenses. The FE 85mm F1.4 GM II’s AF is agile, maximizing the speed advantage of advanced camera bodies. For stills, it is up to three times faster compared to the previous model, tracking moving subjects with high precision. It keeps up flawlessly with the Alpha 9 III’s 120fps continuous shooting, and subject tracking performance is improved by as much as 7 times. Compared to the current 85mm F1.4 GM1, the weight of the FE 85mm F1.4 GM II (642 grams) is approximately 20% lighter and 13% smaller in volume, which is achieved through the latest mechanical technology and optical design. The FE 85mm F1.4 GM II has a filter diameter of φ77 mm, diameter of 84.7 mm and length of 107.3 mm. For smooth movie creation at F1.4, the FE 85mm F1.4 GM II has an XD linear motor. Focus breathing is minimal, and in-body focus breathing compensation is supported. It has two customizable focus hold buttons and an AF/MF switch offer flexible operability, while an independent aperture ring and Linear Response MF focus control provide the kind of intuitive control that creative shooting demands. The front lens element features a fluorine coating, which makes it easy to remove fingerprints, dust, oil, and other contaminants from the lens surface. The dust and moisture resistant design provides extra reliability for outdoor use in challenging conditions. The FE 85mm F1.4 GM II will be available across all Sony Centers, Alpha Flagship stores, Sony authorized dealers, ecommerce websites (Amazon and Flipkart) and major electronic stores across India from 6th September 2024 onwards at a price of ₹ 180,990.
