nerwin
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2015
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- Vermont
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I've had this lens now since last summer and I'll be honest it was kind of an impulse buy. Nikon frequently runs good sales on the Z lenses and this one was $150 off at the time so I snagged one up. I've always wanted to try this lens because I heard many mixed reviews about this time and I think generally it comes down to the price not the overall performance. It is a bit pricey for what it is, I agree. But if you get one on sale or at a good used price, it's not so bad.
If you're looking for specs, this isn't that kind of review. I just want to share my experiences I had for several months of use. But to be honest, I didn't grab for it as much as I thought I would.
I'm going to be comparing this to the 50 1.8 S which is an outstanding 50mm prime - the best 50mm I ever used.
BUILD
When got the 35mm and unboxed it, the first thing I noticed was the weight, it was noticeable lighter than the 50mm. It also feels if I may say so myself a little bit cheaper in terms of quality and I don't know if it being made in China vs Taiwan has any difference - perhaps it's just because its a little lighter. I personally like the fact that it is lighter.
The focus ring has more movement and clunk in it than the 50mm, perhaps it's just my copy but something I noticed.
The lens hood is also a little bit bigger than the 50mm if that matters to you
But in general the lens feels fine, just like any other Z lens Nikon has made. I'm really nitpicking and these are ALL minor things.
AUTOFOCUS
This is where I see mixed reviews mostly. Some people have complained that it's the slowest focusing Z lens and others say its the fastest and I agree with the latter. It focus extremely quick on my Z6II. I think a lot of reviews are older reviews when they used early firmware Z6 models which was significantly slower or they reviewed the lens on a Z5 which is also slower to focus but on the newer bodies, it was extremely quick to focus and definitely a little bit faster than 50mm in my experience this far.
Now one thing that I did notice was the 35mm had a tendency to hunt more than the 50mm and this might be just because the lens is a little bit more wider and so the autofocus algorithm has more to process. I don't know. But generally, I don't have a problem.
Now one thing I really didn't like about this lens is the focus noise. It's the most loudest Z mount lens I've used yet. The new 26mm is pretty loud too but that's to be expected as its a pancake. Anyways the 35mm has a weird focus sound and vibration that can be heard easily and felt through the camera. Is it a big deal? No not really but I can't help but say it kind of annoyed me enough to the point I thought my lens was actually faulty but after research, this is normal sound. I even recorded a clip. One thing to note though, the lens does not make any focus noise during video recording it's completely silent. I feel like Nikon could possibly make a firmware to rectify this a little, but I don't know.
The lens doesn't exhibit any focus breathing so it's a good contender for a video orientated lens.
IMAGE QUALITY
Just like any other Nikon Z lens, especially the "S" line of lenses, the image quality is outstanding. It's probably one of the best 35mm 1.8 lenses out there. It's sharp edge to edge, corner to corner there is nothing to complain about at all. In fact, I believe this is the sharpest Nikon Z lens I own and the sharpest lens I ever had. It's almost too sharp, I find myself in Lightroom lowering the sharpness. The lens is well controlled for distortion, maybe a little bit of vignetting wide open which I like personally. Chromatic aberrations is basically non-existent however it can so some purple/green fringing in very high contrast extreme conditions wide open but it's easily fixable and quickly disappears even if you stop down to even f/2 or f/2.2.
I also find this lens to be the most contrasty lens I've used and the black & whites are beautiful from this lens. Some might find it too contrasty but you can always make it look less contrasty in post if you need to.
The bokeh is generally very clean, I don't really notice any onions. It's not distracting and can be creamy. The lens has that 3d separation effect that fast wide angle lenses tend to have. In some cases it can look a bit nervous depending how close the background is to the subject, I feel like this can be from any lens, even the 50mm. I don't really have any complaints about the bokeh, it looks fine to me.
CONCLUSION
Overall it's a wonderful lens with minor complaints. There isn't any other 35mm lens for the Z mount yet that's as good as this. I know people who hated this lens is looking forward to the new 35 1.2 S that is on the road map but it's going to be one expensive piece of glass!
My problem with this lens isn't really the lens itself, it's the focal length. I've always struggled with 35mm but I loved 35mm when I had the Fujifilm X100V. So maybe it's not the focus length perse but the fact that I see the 35mm focal length as kind of everyday-do-it-all kind of lens and I find it just too big me to use it in that manner so it often sits on my desk. I have to force myself to use this lens and when I do I just feel like its too wide or not wide enough most of the time. It's not the say I haven't made images I'm happy with it but I haven't made a lot with it either. According to Lightroom, it's my least used lens!!
I'm not sure what I want to do with this lens moving forward whether or not if I should give it more time or sell it for something else that I might more useful. But that was my review and experience of this lens this far. If you stumble upon this review, I hope it helps in some fashion.
Some photos I've taken with the Z6II and the Z 35mm 1.8 S below.
If you're looking for specs, this isn't that kind of review. I just want to share my experiences I had for several months of use. But to be honest, I didn't grab for it as much as I thought I would.
I'm going to be comparing this to the 50 1.8 S which is an outstanding 50mm prime - the best 50mm I ever used.
BUILD
When got the 35mm and unboxed it, the first thing I noticed was the weight, it was noticeable lighter than the 50mm. It also feels if I may say so myself a little bit cheaper in terms of quality and I don't know if it being made in China vs Taiwan has any difference - perhaps it's just because its a little lighter. I personally like the fact that it is lighter.
The focus ring has more movement and clunk in it than the 50mm, perhaps it's just my copy but something I noticed.
The lens hood is also a little bit bigger than the 50mm if that matters to you
But in general the lens feels fine, just like any other Z lens Nikon has made. I'm really nitpicking and these are ALL minor things.
AUTOFOCUS
This is where I see mixed reviews mostly. Some people have complained that it's the slowest focusing Z lens and others say its the fastest and I agree with the latter. It focus extremely quick on my Z6II. I think a lot of reviews are older reviews when they used early firmware Z6 models which was significantly slower or they reviewed the lens on a Z5 which is also slower to focus but on the newer bodies, it was extremely quick to focus and definitely a little bit faster than 50mm in my experience this far.
Now one thing that I did notice was the 35mm had a tendency to hunt more than the 50mm and this might be just because the lens is a little bit more wider and so the autofocus algorithm has more to process. I don't know. But generally, I don't have a problem.
Now one thing I really didn't like about this lens is the focus noise. It's the most loudest Z mount lens I've used yet. The new 26mm is pretty loud too but that's to be expected as its a pancake. Anyways the 35mm has a weird focus sound and vibration that can be heard easily and felt through the camera. Is it a big deal? No not really but I can't help but say it kind of annoyed me enough to the point I thought my lens was actually faulty but after research, this is normal sound. I even recorded a clip. One thing to note though, the lens does not make any focus noise during video recording it's completely silent. I feel like Nikon could possibly make a firmware to rectify this a little, but I don't know.
The lens doesn't exhibit any focus breathing so it's a good contender for a video orientated lens.
IMAGE QUALITY
Just like any other Nikon Z lens, especially the "S" line of lenses, the image quality is outstanding. It's probably one of the best 35mm 1.8 lenses out there. It's sharp edge to edge, corner to corner there is nothing to complain about at all. In fact, I believe this is the sharpest Nikon Z lens I own and the sharpest lens I ever had. It's almost too sharp, I find myself in Lightroom lowering the sharpness. The lens is well controlled for distortion, maybe a little bit of vignetting wide open which I like personally. Chromatic aberrations is basically non-existent however it can so some purple/green fringing in very high contrast extreme conditions wide open but it's easily fixable and quickly disappears even if you stop down to even f/2 or f/2.2.
I also find this lens to be the most contrasty lens I've used and the black & whites are beautiful from this lens. Some might find it too contrasty but you can always make it look less contrasty in post if you need to.
The bokeh is generally very clean, I don't really notice any onions. It's not distracting and can be creamy. The lens has that 3d separation effect that fast wide angle lenses tend to have. In some cases it can look a bit nervous depending how close the background is to the subject, I feel like this can be from any lens, even the 50mm. I don't really have any complaints about the bokeh, it looks fine to me.
CONCLUSION
Overall it's a wonderful lens with minor complaints. There isn't any other 35mm lens for the Z mount yet that's as good as this. I know people who hated this lens is looking forward to the new 35 1.2 S that is on the road map but it's going to be one expensive piece of glass!
My problem with this lens isn't really the lens itself, it's the focal length. I've always struggled with 35mm but I loved 35mm when I had the Fujifilm X100V. So maybe it's not the focus length perse but the fact that I see the 35mm focal length as kind of everyday-do-it-all kind of lens and I find it just too big me to use it in that manner so it often sits on my desk. I have to force myself to use this lens and when I do I just feel like its too wide or not wide enough most of the time. It's not the say I haven't made images I'm happy with it but I haven't made a lot with it either. According to Lightroom, it's my least used lens!!
I'm not sure what I want to do with this lens moving forward whether or not if I should give it more time or sell it for something else that I might more useful. But that was my review and experience of this lens this far. If you stumble upon this review, I hope it helps in some fashion.
Some photos I've taken with the Z6II and the Z 35mm 1.8 S below.
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