Travel Photographer's First Impression of the NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S

With floods of photographers moving to mirrorless — and a good portion of those to the Nikon Z 7 — new mirrorless intended lenses are always interesting. In this video, travel photographer Jimmy McIntyre shares his first impressions of the new wide-angle lens.

The first thing to note with this video is it's published and produced by Nikon themselves. That removes the likelihood of an unbiased and balanced first impression. However, what it does do instead is show you the lens and what it's capable of creating.

Wide angle zoom lenses are hit and miss in my experience, with the ones that hit being almost staple for landscape and cityscape photographers. This new mirrorless lens by Nikon does have the feel of the latter rather than the former. Initial reviews have been very strong which caught some people off guard given that the overwhelming concern before it was released was that it was too expensive and too slow. That is, f/4 instead of f/2.8 was disappointing given so many of its rivals — albeit not all of them dedicated mirrorless lenses — offered wider apertures.

However, as McIntyre touches on in the video, one selling point is the weight, or lack there of. Contrasted with comparable wide angle zoom lenses, the 14-30mm f/4 S comes in at less than half the weight, at under 500g. Few photography genres require more strenuous lugging around of gear than landscape, and so that will be a welcome perk of the lens.

I'm certainly interested in seeing the lens in Fstoppers' hands so we can put it through its paces. What are your thoughts on the NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S?