Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S

£529/$597 There’s nothing second-best about this lens

When it comes to standard primes, f/1.8 lenses are often viewed as poor relations to f/1.4 options. This Z-mount 50mm f/1.8 lens bucks the trend, with a more sophisticated optical path than Nikon’s Dslr-based lenses on test. There are 12 elements, including two aspherical elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and Nano Crystal Coat. As usual with Nikon’s S-line lenses, build quality is good and includes weather-seals.

The stepping motor-based AF system is near silent, yet fast for stills, while enabling smooth AF transitions when shooting movies. Other bonuses for movie capture are that focus breathing is almost non-existent, and you can assign the control ring to stepless aperture control.

Performance

Levels of sharpness are in a different league to the Nikon F-mount lenses on test, from the centre of the frame to the extreme edges and corners. It’s the kind of step up that we’ve come to expect from Z-mount lenses, along with negligible colour fringing and virtually zero distortion.

N-photo verdict

Unless you have deep pockets, this is the obvious own-brand choice for FX format Z-mount bodies.

Sharpness

Outstanding levels of sharpness across the whole image frame, even when shooting wide-open.

Fringing

The amount of colour fringing is negligible, even at the corners of shots, throughout the aperture range.

Distortion

With a virtually perfect lab score for distortion, this 50mm lens is essentially a zero-distortion optic.