Nikon, a brand with a long history of quality in photography, continues its growth in the video market today with the development announcement of a new NIKKOR Z 28-135mm f/4 PZ lens with filmmakers in mind.
Aimed at videographers, documentary filmmakers, and solo shooters, the full frame lens covers an ideal range for capturing a wide variety of situations. “PZ” stands for power zoom. This allows for changing focal lengths along the zoom lens via dedicated zoom forward and back buttons on Nikon cameras (or buttons assigned to do so with custom buttons) or the dedicated Nikon MC-N10 handgrip. Essentially, rather than manually turning the zoom barrel, one can change the focal length with simple up or down buttons.
This is only a development announcement, so I haven’t gone hands-on with a unit to produce a full review. However, the development announcement signals the company's intention to further expand its offerings in the film and video space. I’m curious to see how this development dovetails with the company’s acquisition of RED Cinema Cameras and broader push into the motion world. I can envision a future where a lens like this might be mounted on either a RED camera (with a theoretical Z mount in the future) or any of the Nikon Z line of cameras to produce a neatly compact documentary or videography kit.
So what do you think? For those Nikon users out there, is this a lens you are looking forward to adding to your video kit?
I'm kinda confused as to what the use case for the PZ is? Maybe if it can be controlled remotely? Pressing a button to zoom just sounds worse than using a zoom ring.
I think the value of this lens will depend on how compact it is. F/4.0 is pretty slow so its going to need to be really lightweight to offset that.
F4... maybe a bit slow but I find much of my shooting to be 4 and higher - I shoot primarily desert racing in Nevada so this lens would work for my needs anyway - Yea, I like lenses capable of 2.8 or better but the weight gets to be a struggle especially when you're out there for a 12 to 14 hour day - The 28 to 135 spread hits a real sweet spot in my opinion for sure - BLM officials and/or the race promoters require we stay 100 feet from the course in a number of scenarios, not that less is a smart move on the photographers part - I have no issue with pressing a button for zoom, it seems to be more controllable to me in a rush situation, and likely no less controllable - In short, I like the specs of this lens.