Introduction

The Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S was the first zoom lens designed for the Nikon Z system. Zoom lenses are known for their convenience and versatility, and this one is often bundled as a kit lens with various Z-series cameras. But does it fit the mold of a typical kit lens? Or does the ‘S’ designation—reserved for Nikon’s high-end lenses—along with its $1,000 price tag, put it in a different league? Let’s find out!

I tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with a Nikon Z6)
You can see this review as a YouTube video here!
Sample images in high resolution here.

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

Specifications

Disclosure

I purchased this lens with my own money—no sponsorship. These are, as always, my honest, unbiased thoughts.

Handling and Build Quality

The Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S is a relatively slim, minimalist lens made mostly of durable hard plastic, the mount plate is of metal though. This keeps the weight down to just 500g, making it easy to carry. Despite the lightweight design, the build feels solid and tight, with no noticeable play or wobble.

For travel, the lens features a retractable locking mechanism, which requires rotating the zoom ring past 24mm to lock. This helps reduce its size, making it easier to fit in a bag. However, the lens cannot be used for shooting while locked. Here is a size comparison with thwo prime lenses Z 35/1.8 S and Z 50/1.8 S.

The telescopic zoom mechanism extends as you zoom in to 70mm, but the front element does not rotate, not even when focusing, thanks to its internal focusing system—a useful feature when using filters .

There’s just one button on the lens, which controls autofocus—turning it on or off. The zoom ring is fairly large, while the focus ring is very thin. The focus ring can be customised to control manual focus, aperture, exposure compensation, or ISO sensitivity, or it can be disabled altogether. When set to aperture control, it operates clicklessly, allowing for smooth adjustments.

Autofocus is driven by a stepping motor, making it relatively silent, very quick, and accurate. The lens uses focus-by-wire, meaning the focus throw depends on how fast you turn the focus ring when focusing manually and the camera forgets the last focus distance when turned off and back on. Unlike most other Nikon S-Line lenses, this one does not support the option of linear focus ring rotation during manual focusing and does not retain the last focus position after powering the camera back on.

The lens can focus as close as 0.3m (11.8 inches), achieving a 1:3.33 magnification when zoomed to 70mm. You can get even closer by manually focusing. That’s pretty impressive for a non-macro lens.

There is no built-in vibration reduction (image stabilization) in this lens. The Nikkor 24-770/4 S is thoroughly weather-sealed with six rubber gaskets, protecting the front element, rear mount, telescopic barrel, zoom ring, focus ring, and mount plate. There’s also an additional seal under the A/M switch, ensuring that all moving parts are well-protected. Besides the front and rear locks a sturdy petal shaped lens hood is included in the box.

Optical Features

Sharpness (Infinity)

For the infinity sharpness test, we look at three areas of the image, centre, mid-frame, and corner, see highlighted areas in the image below!

At 24mm, sharpness in the center is phenomenal from f4 to f5.6, excellent at f8, and very good at f11 and f16. Midframe sharpness is very good at f4, becomes excellent from f5.6 to f8, returns to very good at f11, and is good at f16. Corner sharpness is very good from f4 to f11 and good at f16.

Peak performance is at f5.6. Overall, a very strong performance at 24mm, and the lens can easily be used up to f16 for landscapes.

The pattern remains largely the same at other focal lengths, except that at 50–70mm, corner sharpness is only good at f4. Midframe sharpness is generally a bit better at 70mm than at other focal lengths, while center sharpness improves as you go wider. At all focal lengths, center and midframe sharpness peak at f5.6. Corner sharpness ranges from good to very good and doesn’t improve much when stopping down.

Sharpness (Portrait)

Let’s look at the points of interest for portraits at the portrait distance: the very centre, the centre’s inner periphery  (1/3 rule intersection), and the centre’s outer periphery (1/4th intersection).

The centre sharpness is phenomenal at 24mm and excellent otherwise. Inner and outer circle sharpness is excellent at all focal lengths.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Excellent close-up sharpness at all focal lengths and nearly all apertures. As with infinity sharpness, 24mm and 40mm are slightly sharper than the 70mm. Diffraction starts to appear at f11 and becomes more noticeable at f16, but it does not significantly impact sharpness.

Lens Distortion

Since Nikon Z cameras don’t allow you to disable distortion correction, distortion is automatically fixed in-camera for JPG images, meaning you’ll see almost no distortion. Even when shooting RAW, the camera embeds correction data into the file, which Nikon’s RAW converters, Lightroom, and Photoshop apply automatically—without giving you the option to disable it. So, distortion won’t be an issue. Here I used Lightroom to convert the RAW files.

However, if you use a third-party RAW converter and choose not to apply any lens profiles, distortion will become visible. Here, I used RawTherapee to process the RAW files while deliberately disabling lens profile corrections.

Worth mentioning – even when using a third-party RAW converter, you won’t see any distortion unless you deliberately disable lens profile corrections. By default, even RawTherapee applies the profile and corrects distortion automatically.

Vignetting

At 24mm and f/4, you’ll notice some vignetting. Stopping down to f/5.6 improves it, but it’s still visible. By f/8, it can still be noticeable in snowy landscapes or scenes with even lighting.

At 40mm, the situation is much better. You might see some light falloff at f/4 in scenes with uniform lighting, but at f/5.6 and smaller apertures, it’s negligible.

At 70mm, vignetting is stronger than at f/4 but not as pronounced as at 24mm. From f/5.6 onward, it becomes negligible.

Focus Shift & Aberrations

Longitudinal chromatic aberration is well controlled, as not much of it is visible.

Flare Resistance

The Nikon Arneo coating, along with the standard Integrated coating on this lens’s optical elements, does a decent job minimizing flare. Flare is difficult to capture in normal shooting but not impossible if you try. In extreme stress tests, I can force some artifacts to appear, but overall, this lens performs well in this category.

In addition to the super-integrated coating that all the Nikon Lenses have this lens also boasts elements with Nano Crystal Coat, and fluorine-coated front lens element

Coma

Coma is not an issue with this lens as it is quite well controlled and at a negligible level at all focal lengths.

Sunstars

Although this lens can produce sunstars, they are not among the best we have seen. However, around f/14–f/16, while the sunstars lack sharp definition, they are not overly distracting either. In fact, they resemble the starburst rays found in Pop Art or the way religious illumination is depicted in paintings, which can be used creatively.

Focus Breathing

Excellent performance here as the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S shows near zero focus breathing, something that makes video makers happy.

Bokeh

A 24-70mm f/4 is not a lens you choose if your priority is nice and buttery bokeh and we should not put a lot of weight on this characteristic. Nevertheless, we look at it. First bokeh balls.

The light transitions are not the smoothest I’ve seen, but there are no obvious onion rings in the specular highlights. While the bokeh balls don’t take on the typical cat’s-eye shape toward the edges or corners of the frame, they aren’t perfectly round either. Additionally, the lens iris doesn’t fully open at f/4, which means the bokeh balls in the center of the frame aren’t perfectly round either. Let’s take a look at some sample photos with the subject at different distances

Short Distance

Medium Distance

Long Distance

Conclusion

The Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S is a lens with many great features, as shown in the table above, and very little to dislike. The only issue I found was distortion, but it’s hardly noticeable in normal use. Had I not tested it by converting the raw files in third-party software and deliberately disabled the profile correction, even the distortion would have ended up in the first column. That said, the aggressive distortion correction does have a small negative impact on corner sharpness. I’ve had this lens for several years, and I love it for its size, weight, and overall performance. It’s the perfect companion for any landscape photographer, or anyone who wants a compact, lightweight lens with solid optical performance that covers several focal lengths for both landscape and travel photography.

So, to answer the question posed in the introduction—’Does it fit the mold of a typical kit lens? Or does the ‘S’ designation, reserved for Nikon’s high-end lenses, along with its $1,000 price tag, put it in a different league?’—I’d say both. It has many of the characteristics of a high-end S lens, minus the one-stop-faster f/2.8 aperture and the creamy, soft bokeh, neither of which is a major concern for landscape photography. At the same time, it retains the size, weight, and minimalist design typical of a kit lens. As for the price: While the $1,000 price tag might seem a bit high for a kit lens, it’s worth noting that this lens was bundled with nearly all Z6 and Z7 cameras, as well as many other Z models. In a kit with a camera you only pay around $600 for it though, and you can easily find used versions in excellent condition for around $500-$600.

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Alternatives

Nikon Z 28-75mm f/2.8
Buy new: amazon (anywhere) for $896 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk,  from $570  (Affiliate links)

Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
Buy new: amazon (anywhere) for $1097 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, from $775  (Affiliate links)

Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S
SBuy new: amazon (anywhere) for $1597 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, from $1370  (Affiliate links)

More Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

Further Reading

What camera gear and accessories do I use most frequently?

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Martin

Martin M.H. lives outside Stockholm, Sweden. He is a M.Sc. in Computer Technology but he has been a passionate photographer for over 45 years. He started his photographic adventures when he was thirteen with an Agfamatic pocket camera, which he soon replaced with a Canon rangefinder camera that his mom gave him in his teenages. After that he has been using Canon SLR, Nikon SLR manual focus and Autofocus, Sony mirrorless crop sensor, Nikon DSLR and Nikon Mirrorless. He has photographed any genre he could throughout the years and you can see all kind of images in his portfolio. During the later years though it has been mostly landscape, nature, travel and some street/documentary photography.

Latest posts by Martin (see all)

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