The Nikon Z 14-30 f/4 S Lens
Nikon Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens
The Nikon Z 14-30 f/4 S lens is part of Nikon’s S-Line of lenses meaning it is much more than a standard lens. The lens is perfectly balanced on the Z6 camera offering a small and lightweight setup, ideal for landscape photographers. Nikon’s S-Line lenses offer superior resolution and edge to edge sharpness, nano crystal coatings and other technologies to optimise optical performance for the Z cameras. The 14-30 f/4 S lens was Nikon’s first ultra-wide angle lens for its mirrorless camera systems.
Build and Ergonomics:
The Z 14-30 f/4 S follows Nikon’s new style - a simple black body with white text colour scheme with only the silver Nikkor S label to identify it as a high spec lens. Nikon has lost the gold accents and plethora of switches normally found on its high end F-mount lenses.
As with the Nikkor Z 24-70 f/4 S lens, this lens is a mixture of polycarbonate and metal construction but even though most of the outer surfaces are plastic they do seem to have a high quality feel to them.
The lens has two ribbed rings, one to zoom and the second a control ring. Both turn smoothly with no indication of sticking or binding. The zoom ring is about 4cm wide and covered in rubber whereas the control ring is much narrower and plastic so it is easy to distinguish between the two by touch alone.
Like other Z-mount lenses the control ring function defaults to focus adjustment, but as this is an electronic control-by-wire ring its function can be customised in the camera body (Custom Settings > f.Controls > f2 Custom controls assignment) to offer aperture control, exposure compensation, ISO setting or disabled.
Other than the two barrel rings the only other control is the A / M switch on the side of the barrel to switch between Auto and Manual focus. It should be noted that the lens control ring automatically switches back to focus whenever you switch the A / M switch to manual.
Large zoom ring at top (nearest lens front) and narrower control ring closest to camera (between zoom scale and lens designation). Note the A/M switch on the left side of the lens barrel.
The lens is small and light, weighing approximately 485g, 8.9 cm diameter and only 8.5 cm long when closed. Nikon have used a locking mechanism to retract the lens when not in use to achieve this small size, the same as the almost identical sized Z 24-70 f/4 S lens. The camera will not take photos with the lens locked, presenting a message instructing you to unlock the lens before use. This is the same as on the Z 24-70 f/4 S.
Unlocking is a simple twist of the moon ring (clockwise when looking from the camera side) but this is quite stiff and the first time you use the lens you might think it had jammed! I’m not sure whether its intentional or not, but pulling out on the front section of the lens also unlocks it. This happens on my Z 24-70 f/4 S as well but seems to require a little more force. Either way it doesn’t seem to cause any issues with the lens.
The lens barrel telescopes in and out as the lens is zoomed through its 14 - 30mm range and is longest at its 14mm focal length. The barrel has only one extending section (in addition to the main lens body) unlike the Z 24-70 f/4 S which has two separate barrels. Like the Z 24-70 f/4 S, there is no noticeable wobble between these sections that is often evident on lower quality zooms when the lens is fully extended.
Nikkor Z 14-30 f/4 S lens showing relative length over zoom range
Left - 8.8cm when retracted into locked position, Centre: 10cm at 30mm, Right: 11cm at 14mm
The barrel sections are also fully waterproofed and weather sealed and the front element is also coated with a fluorine coat to repel moisture, grease and dirt, making it easier to keep the lens clean. While I have not used this lens in adverse weather conditions, the specification is the same as for the Z 24-70 f/4 S where it appears to keep then lens extremely clean even in wet, dusty and windy conditions.
The front of the lens is fitted with a 82mm plastic filter thread unlike most other Nikon lenses that take 67mm or 77mm filters. This filter size, although larger than those of most lenses, is an amazing feat as it is the first screw-in filter for any ultra-wide angle lens at 14mm on a full frame camera. The lens is supposed to allow slim fit filters without any vignetting but I haven’t been able to confirm this as I don’t have any filters of this size. Commentary on the internet and YouTube recommends Kase Wolverine Magnetic filters for not vignetting, even with two filters stacked when the lens is at its widest.
Vibration Reduction:
Again, like the 24-70 f/4 S, the lens does not have any in-built vibration reduction, instead relying on the In Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS) of the Z series cameras. The IBIS offers full 5 axis (pitch, roll, yaw, horizontal and vertical) image stabilisation with this lens and is claimed to provide up to 5 stops of correction. Image stabilisation on a wide angle lens is not as essential as on telephotos and the IBIS has been shown to be effective and reliable.
Focus:
The lens autofocuses very quickly and accurately and is almost silent. Previously I have used F-mount lenses and there is a tendency for them to chatter when adjusting focus in AF-C mode. This lens does not have the same issue, ideal for video shooters as the microphone would pick up this noise.
I have not performed extensive testing of the lens but the autofocus performance on a Lens Align test chart shows very accurate and reproducible results. The lens focus was spot on and repeatability was very good.
The lens can be switched into manual focus using the switch on the side of the lens barrel or via the menu system in the camera. Manual focus of the lens uses a configurable “fly-by-wire” control ring that is speed sensitive, so the faster you turn the lens ring the more it moves focus. Once in manual focus mode tis control ring switches to a focus ring no matter what custom setting has been selected in the camera body. There is a little lag between starting to turn the ring and the lens focus responding, almost as if the lens is checking that you didn’t move it by accident before it starts to respond. There are no focus marks on the lens so it is not possible to tell the distance the lens is focussed to, making it difficult to pull focus for video shooting and impossible to set to the hyperlocal distance for example.
The lens also has a manual override for autofocus, so for example, if the control ring is set to its default value of manual focus, you can turn the focus ring while in autofocus mode with the shutter half pressed (or the AF-ON button pressed) to fine tune the focus, including using the rangefinder and focus peaking options in the viewfinder.
Image Quality:
The image quality from this lens is outstanding at all focal lengths. Wide open at f/4 the lens is very sharp across the whole frame, although slightly softer at the corners at 14mm. Zooming to 16mm and above increases the corner sharpness significantly. Stopping down to f/5.6 or f/8 also increases the sharpness across the full image. At f/16 the images start to lose some crispness due to the effects of diffraction. The lens performance is significantly sharper than the F-mount AF-S 14-24 f/2.8G that I use with my D850.
The lens shows no signs of vignetting or distortion due to the built in lens correction profile applied in the camera and carried across into programs such as Adobe Lightroom Classic. If you use other software that doesn’t support these built in profiles then there is significant barrel distortion at the wide end and lesser pin cushion distortion at the higher end of the zoom range. Using the Nikon built in profiles however corrects out all distortion so most photographers will never see the effects.
The lens appears to be well protected against flare when shooting into the sun, with very little to no flare spots noticeable on my images. The corresponding F-mount lenses have extremely bulbous front elements that are very prone to flare, but that is not the case here, even at 14mm.
Garden fence shows good edge to edge sharpness with little visible distortion at the edge of the frame
(see lefthand planks - the others are curved in real life !)
Z 14-30 f/4 S at 14mm on Nikon Z6 at f/4, 1/100th second at ISO 100 unedited exported from Lightroom
Clear blue sky shows minimal vignetting at 14mm even with circular polariser attached - see bottom corners
(unevenness of colour due to use of CPL filter on ultra wide angle lens)
Z 14-30 f/4 S at 14mm with 82mm CPL filter on Nikon Z6 at f/8, 1/1000th second at ISO 100 unedited exported from Lightroom
No evidence of flare shooting with the sun just out of frame at 14mm
Z 14-30 f/4 S at 14mm on Nikon Z6 at f/8, 1/320th second at ISO 100 unedited exported from Lightroom
The Technical Bits:
Mount Type: Nikon Z Mount
Focal Length Range: 14-30mm
Aperture Range: f/4 to f/22
Aperture Blades: 7 (rounded)
Filter Size: 82mm
Lens Elements: 14
Lens Groups: 13
Special Elements: 4 Aspherical, 4 ED glass
Fluorine Coating: Yes
Nano Crystal Coating: Yes
Super Integrated Coating: Yes
Electronic Diaphragm: Yes
Focus Motor: AF-P Stepper Motor (STM)
Internal Focusing: Yes
Internal Zooming: No
Minimum Focus Distance: 28 cm (11 inches)
Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:6.25, or 0.16x Magnification
Weather/Dust Sealing: Yes
Mount Material: Metal
Dimensions (Diameter by Length): 89 x 85 mm (3.5 x 3.35 inches)
Weight: 485 g (17.1 oz)
Angle of View: 114° (at 14mm) to 72° (at 30mm)
Conclusion:
Nikon has created an extremely impressive ultra wide angle zoom lens with the Z 14-30mm f/4 S. Its performance, especially sharpness, is unexpectedly good across most of the frame, with only minor softness at the corners at its widest zoom. Its compact size and low weight perfectly suit the Nikon Z6/7 cameras and makes for a very practical travel setup.
The Z 14-24 f/2.8 S lens is slightly sharper, particularly towards the edges of the frame and corners but this lens is larger and heavier and twice the price of the f/4 version. The other consideration is the filter size, the f/2.8 lens requires 112mm filters along with filter holders which are also expensive. A 112mm circular polarising filter currently costs £549 on Amazon (UK) compared to approximately £90 for the 82mm equivalent.
Astrophotographers, architectural or low light photographers may want the larger aperture lens but for landscape and general photography the lens is generally stopped down and here the smaller f/4 lens is in its element.
