NIKKOR Z 600MM F/6.3 VR S
This lens packs powerful telephoto reach and mighty performance into an unfeasibly lightweight package
1 The inclusion of a Phase Fresnel element enables a relatively compact and manageable design.
2 With a relatively lightweight build, the lens has been engineered to make handheld telephoto shooting a breeze.
3 Handling exotica includes one customisable L-fn (Lens-function) button at the rear and four towards the front.
www.nikon.co.uk £4,999/$4,797
The Nikkor Z 600mm f/6.3 VR S follows in the footsteps of a couple of impressive Nikon super-telephoto lenses. It has the same kind of design as the Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S, based on the use of a Phase Fresnel element in the optical path, which is used in lighthouse beams and theatrical stage lights to enable a smaller, more lightweight design. The Z 600mm is smaller and lighter than the Z 800mm, weighing 1.47g, compared with 2.38g. It has a regular 95mm filter attachment thread at the front, whereas the Z 800mm takes 46mm drop-in filters at the rear.
A more recent comparable lens is the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3
VR, which has the advantage of zoom versatility, although it’s not a top-flight S-line lens and is heavier than the Z 600mm, at 2.14g. Cost-wise, the Z 600mm is over £1,000 / $1,000 cheaper than the Z 800mm, but is three times the price of the Z 180600mm zoom.
Key features
The 600mm focal length of this lens makes it ideal for action, sports and wildlife photography, when you need distance between where you’re standing and the subject you’re shooting. In these scenarios, it’s generally a better fit than the Z 800mm prime, whereas the latter is better for small subjects, such as bird photography. Another upside of the super-telephoto focal length is that you can compress the effect of perspective, giving a different look to landscape images.
The inclusion of a Phase Fresnel element enables a comparatively downsized design. For a 600mm prime, the dimensions of 106.5 x
278mm and front-mounted 95mm filter attachment thread make the lens manageable. That’s even more true of the overall weight, which shrinks from 1,470g to just 1,390g if you remove the tripod mount. By way of comparison, the lens is barely any heavier than the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S trinity zoom.
Other optical highlights include two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and an SR (Short-wavelength Refractive) element, to enhance clarity and colour accuracy while minimising chromatic aberrations. Nano Crystal Coat is applied to guard against ghosting and flare, while a fluorine coating on the front element helps to repel moisture and greasy finger marks, as well as making the element easier to clean.
Engineered to make handheld super-telephoto shooting a breeze thanks to its relatively lightweight build, the lens features optical Vibration Reduction, rated at 5.5 stops. This is further enhanced to six stops when on recent Nikon bodies that support Synchro VR, including the Z 8, Z 9 and Z f. Autofocus is based on a linear stepping motor system, which is designed to be suitably fast for tracking fast-moving subjects in sports and wildlife photography, as well as being virtually silent in operation.
If you want to super-size your telephoto reach, the lens is compatible with Nikon’s 1.4x and 2.0x Z-system teleconverters, albeit with the usual 1-stop or 2-stop reduction in aperture, respectively. Naturally, using the lens on a DX-format Z camera gives you a 1.5x ‘effective’ boost in focal length to 900mm, with no aperture reduction.
Build and handling
Build quality is everything you’d expect from Nikon’s top-flight S-line lenses. It feels solid, features a comprehensive set of weather seals, and, for added security, there’s also a Kensington lock slot. The lightweight build makes for easy handling, but
also, thanks to the Phase Fresnel element, the centre of gravity is near the rear of the lens, so it feels natural in handheld shooting. Rubber grip rings help ensure a secure and comfortable hold when shooting handheld.
Further handling exotica includes one customisable L-fn (Lens-function) button at the rear, and a rank of four customisable L-fn buttons towards the front. These are useful for the likes of AF-On, AF-Lock and AE-Lock, set up via the host camera’s Custom Settings menu. The same goes for the primary and secondary control rings, which can be useful for stepless aperture control when shooting video. A Memory Set button is also here, as well as an autofocus range limiter to lock out the short end of the range.
Performance
Although the f/6.3 aperture rating isn’t particularly fast, the long focal length of the lens enables a tight depth of field when shooting at this aperture. Defocused areas in images look smooth, with pleasing bokeh. For outright sharpness, the lens performs excellently across the entire image frame, even when shooting wide-open. That’s important, as you’ll often want to shoot at the widest aperture to maintain fast shutter speeds for freezing movement without the need to bump up your camera’s ISO setting, which can degrade image quality.
Coupled with advanced tracking options in recent Nikon Z cameras, particularly for people, animals and vehicles, the lens’s autofocus system proved super-quick at acquiring subjects during our testing, and agile for tracking them through quick and erratic movements. Overall, every aspect of image quality and all-round performance is top-drawer.