LensTip.com

Lens review

Nikon Nikkor Z 14-30 mm f/4 S

1 February 2021
Maciej Latałło

11. Summary



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Pros:

  • shapely and handy casing for offered parameters,
  • good image quality in the frame centre,
  • sensible image quality on the edge of the APS-C/DX sensor,
  • moderate longitudinal chromatic aberration,
  • slight vignetting on the APS-C/DX sensor,
  • lack of any serious coma problems,
  • good performance against bright light,
  • silent, quick, and accurate autofocus,
  • possibility of using classic filters.

Cons:

  • a lot of problems with distortion on RAW files,
  • huge vignetting on full frame,
  • weaker image quality on the edge of the frame at the 30 mm focal length,
  • too hight astigmatism,
  • a bit too high lateral chromatic aberration at the 14 mm focal length.
The assessment of the tested lens depends a bit on our expectations. It's true you won't find here any outstanding results but no sensible photographer would demand such a thing. For a lens with such physical dimensions, aperture fastness, and wide angle of view a record-breaking performance is simply impossible.

Our overall assessment is positive because the Nikkor Z 14–30 mm f/4 S performs exactly as it should – in the 14-22 mm focal lenghts range you are able to take photographs which are sharp across the frame. Taking into account the fact that optics specialists gave up on distortion correction completely and didn't mind high levels of vignetting as well, I admit I expected a better performance on the edge of the frame at the maximum focal length and less problems with astigmatism and lateral chromatic aberration.

Still it doesn't change the fact that the Nikkor 14-30 mm is a joy to use, a very pleasant companion during trips, journeys, and photographic expeditions. I had an opportunity to test it in practice during my trip to Iceland in 2019 and I have to say the lens fared exceedingly well. Below I show some of photographs I managed to take with it.