How Well Has the Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S Aged?

Nikon's NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S is the biggest, heaviest, and most expensive lens in a series that was supposed to be the lighter, more affordable side of the S-line. Six years after its release, it still has almost no native autofocus competition at 20mm and f/1.8 on Z mount, so how it performs today decides whether you get a bright ultra-wide prime at all without reaching for an adapter.

Dustin Abbott returns to the Nikon NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S as the fourth stop in his revisit of the line, after the 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. The size difference is obvious once you set it next to the Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G. Nikon's lens measures 84.5 mm across and 108.5 mm long, weighs 505 g, and takes 77mm filters, while the Sony is about 24 mm shorter, uses 67mm filters, and weighs 373 g. That gap adds up if you hike or travel with a full kit, and it also means pricier filters. In exchange, you get a build that has held up well over the years, with weather-sealing at roughly eight points and a coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture. Abbott puts the list price at $1,146, which makes it the costliest lens in its class across several systems.

The controls are sparse: an AF/MF switch and a single customizable ring. In practice, that ring usually works as an aperture control in autofocus mode and a focus ring in manual. Abbott finds a lag of about half a second after you stop turning it, so you learn to stop early, and you give up full-time manual override unless you sacrifice aperture control. Close focus is 20 cm with 0.19x magnification, and his up-close shots hold detail well toward the edges. Dual STM motors drive autofocus, which is quick and quiet for general shooting and slow subjects, though focus never caught up with his dog running straight at the camera, a limit he has seen across the f/1.8 S series. Video fares better, with smooth focus pulls, no hunting, and very little focus breathing.

Heavy vignetting at f/1.8, which Abbott corrects by maxing out the sliders, connects to one of the most common uses for a bright 20mm: shooting the night sky. The old 500 rule gives you roughly 25 seconds before stars start to trail at 20mm on a full frame body, and every extra stop of aperture lets you drop ISO instead of shortening that exposure. Lens profiles fix dark corners by brightening them, which also brightens their noise, so the corners of a wide-open astro frame can look grainier than the center even after correction. If your scene allows it, stopping down to f/2.8 brightens the corners naturally and leaves less work for the profile. If you need every bit of light, a few stacked exposures will clean up that corner noise more effectively than heavy noise reduction on a single frame. The same logic applies to dim interiors, where a slower shutter on a tripod beats a wide-open frame you have to rescue later.

The optical formula uses 14 elements in 11 groups, including three extra-low dispersion elements and three aspherical elements. Barrel distortion is mild and corrects cleanly with a linear adjustment, which keeps straight lines straight in the hotel interiors Abbott shot during a business trip. Color fringing is minimal, and lateral chromatic aberration, which tends to bother wide angle lenses most, is very clean, with crisp black-and-white transitions that reflect the lens' low astigmatism. The standout is flare resistance. Shooting directly into intense sun, contrast holds and ghosting barely registers, while the nine aperture blades produce 18-point sunstars. A frame of still, reflective water with the sun overhead, a tough combination for any wide lens, comes out with rich color and no ghosting marring the scene.

Abbott's full resolution testing on a 45-megapixel Nikon Z8, aperture by aperture from f/1.8 to f/16, is in the video above.