Introduction

Could the Nikon Z 24–200mm f/4–6.3 be the only lens you really need? After reviewing the Nikon Z 24–70mm f/4 S and the Nikon Z 24–120mm f/4 S, several readers asked if I could also take a look at this superzoom.

I said that if there was enough interest—and if I could get my hands on a copy—I’d do it. The interest was clearly there, and thanks to my friends at Kamerastore I managed to get a loaner. A deal is a deal. So let’s see how it performs—and whether it can match the other two standard zooms.

I tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with a Nikon Zf)
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

Big thanks to Kamerastore—a reliable source of used cameras and lenses—for loaning me this lens for two months so I could really put it through its paces.

Handling and Build Quality

The 24–70/4 S and 24–120/4 S are very similar in build, handling, and optical properties, so I’ll refer to them collectively as the S lenses throughout this review.

This is an autofocus lens without an aperture ring, but with a very large zoom ring and a very narrow manual focus ring, which is in fact the usual programmable control ring, with manual focus as its default function. You can turn this ring at any time for instant manual focus override. The lens extends substantially as you zoom in, as shown in the images below.

The lens has a fluorine-coated front element for repelling dust and water, and also ARNEO Coat is adopted in this lens for the first time in a non-S-Line lens. The lens is environmentally sealed to keep dust and moisture out, especially around all moving parts of the lens barrel:

The lens has a built-in Vibration Reduction (VR) function that, according to Nikon, provides stabilization equivalent to a 5-stop faster shutter speed when VR is set to “NORMAL” and the zoom is at its maximum telephoto position. This means fewer stops at its shorter focal lengths, down to three stops at 24mm. There is no VR on/off switch on the lens, nor an AF on/off switch. The only switch is for locking the zoom ring, but it only engages at 24mm, where the lens is at its most compact, and is not particularly useful.

Autofocus is fast and accurate, at least as fast as the S lenses in good light. However, due to the smaller maximum aperture, it switches to Nikon’s slower low-light AF earlier than the S lenses, and in dim lighting it can sometimes refuse to autofocus.

The maximum aperture of the lens at different focal lenghts are:

Compared to the 24-70/4 and 24-120/4, it is a bit larger and heavier than 24-70/4 S, but it is a tiny bit smaller and lighter than 24-120/4 S.

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!

To keep things brief, I will just explain the general observation.

Sharpness in the center is excellent at all focal lengths; it is best at about 35mm and weakest at 200mm. In general, it is very strong between 35mm and 70mm. At 24mm and 105mm it is slightly softer but still strong; at 135mm and 200mm it is more than good enough, though not as strong as at shorter focal lengths. The sharpest aperture is f/6.3, while the best across-the-frame sharpness is reached at f/8. At f/16 you start noticing softness due to diffraction, which becomes more noticeable at f/22 and smaller.

Compared to the S lenses, at 24mm they are marginally sharper at f/4 in the center and a bit sharper in the corners. At f/5.6 the gap narrows, and from f/8 it is hard to see any difference.

At 50mm the trend is similar: the S lenses are a little sharper up to f/5.6, but from f/8 they look the same. At 105mm the 24–120/4 S is sharper overall. At 200mm, however, the 24–200mm wins by a knockout.

In practice, it will be difficult to notice any shortcomings in sharpness at any focal length with the 24–200mm. Only when viewing 100% crops side-by-side—like here—do the small differences become visible.

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).

Excellent sharpness at all measured points up to 70mm except f/4 at 24mm, very good at 100-120mm, and good at 200mm.

Ignoring the corners in this test, this lens performs roughly on par with the S lenses at equivalent focal lengths, except at 24mm @f/4, and 120mm where the 24-120 is slightly sharper, though the S lenses benefit from a wider maximum aperture, allowing for stronger background blur.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Excellent sharpness at all focal lengths up to 120mm. At 200mm we can see the image softens at its maximum aperture, becomes good at f/8, and very good at f/11.

Lens Distortion

The in-camera “Auto distortion control” in Nikon cameras is locked and always applied for a number of Z lenses with significant native distortion, including this one. The camera corrects the distortion automatically and embeds the correction in the RAW metadata, so the distortion is normally invisible in both JPEG and RAW images.

All three lenses perform equally well in this regard, provided the in-camera correction is ON.

Vignetting

Vignetting is obvious only at 24 mm at f/4 and f/5.6. Even at smaller apertures it can still be visible in homogeneous scenes such as snow-covered landscapes or evenly lit monochrome scenes. From 70mm onward, vignetting is no longer an issue.

Here, the other two zoom lenses performed better, especially at 24mm.

Chromatic  Aberrations

Longitudinal chromatic aberration is best controlled between 70mm and 120mm, where none is visible. At 200mm a small amount of LoCA appears, but it is negligible. The weakest control occurs at 24mm. The effect is still relatively small, but it can show up in normal shooting situations, and it does not disappear when the lens is stopped down.

Lateral chromatic aberration is somewhat worse. The best control is again at 70mm, although even there a small amount of LaCA is visible. Performance then declines in the following order: 70mm, 120mm, 200mm, and finally 24mm, where the aberration becomes quite pronounced. At 24mm the LaCA is the strongest I have seen among Nikon Z lenses so far.

In comparison, the S lenses show much better control of chromatic aberration across the zoom range, especially the 24–70/4 S, which has some of the best chromatic aberration control among Z lenses.

Flare Resistance

Assessing flare resistance is a complex process. You can make any lens look bad if you try long enough; often, flare can change dramatically by shifting the position or angle of the lens just slightly. This lens is no exception, and its nature as a zoom only adds to the challenge. Furthermore, the high element count and numerous glass-to-air surfaces don’t help matters.

That is why Nikon made an exception by treating this lens with its premium ARNEO coating—typically reserved for S-series glass. While this helps, and flare resistance remains acceptable in normal shooting conditions, its performance falls short of the 24-70mm f/4 S and 24-120mm f/4 S, leaving something to be desired.

Coma

Checking coma on a lens with a maximum aperture of f/4 is somewhat irrelevant, but for comparison: wide open at f/4 there is a small amount of visible coma in a 1:1 crop. It improves significantly by f/6 and is almost gone at f/6.3. Compared to the other zoom lenses, it is similar to the 24–120/4 but not as good as the 24–70/4.

Sunstars

This 24–200mm can produce sunstars, but they are not equally well defined at all focal lengths. They become better defined toward the telephoto end. Its behavior in this regard is also somewhat unusual. Normally, sunstars appear at smaller apertures and become more defined as you stop down, with the most distinct shapes at the smallest apertures. With this lens, however, sunstars start appearing around f/8 and become well defined by about f/11 or f/16, depending on focal length. At smaller apertures they start to lose definition again.

In this category the 24–120/4 S delivered the best result, while the 24–70/4 S produced the least well-defined stars.

Focus Breathing

The Nikon Z 24–200mm shows a small amount of focus breathing. It’s not very pronounced, but it is there. Both the 24–70/4 S and the 24–120/4 S perform better in this regard, showing almost no focus breathing. If you are not planning to use this lens much for video, it is unlikely to be an issue.

Bokeh

While a 24mm f/4 or an 85mm f/6.3 might not have the specs typically associated with ‘buttery’ bokeh, you can still achieve background blur across the entire zoom range. At wider focal lengths, you’ll need to get physically close to your subject; however, as you zoom in, the lens compression of the telephoto end helps create a pleasing blur even from a distance.

Short Distance

Mid-Distance

Long Distance

Bokeh is subjective, and its beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. To me, while there’s nothing wrong with the rendering of this lens, the softness is fairly average. You can certainly get a pleasing blur at longer focal lengths and close subject distances, but in most other scenarios, the bokeh is just ‘okay’.

Conclusion

While not a Nikon S lens, it has almost all the good traits of the S lenses. This 24–200mm has all of Nikon’s top coatings, plus two ED glass elements, two aspherical elements, and one additional aspherical/ED element. It also has weather sealing and a metal lens mount. This is one of Nikon’s most versatile lenses, and Nikon clearly makes good use of the flexibility of the Z mount.

It is an excellent lens, and instead of going into all its individual features, I can say that it is better than the Nikon F-mount 24–120mm f/4 lens, which I owned and which was my favorite zoom lens before switching to mirrorless.

We had two questions in the introduction. The first was whether this lens could be the only do-it-all lens you travel with. If you ask me, the answer is yes—absolutely, even for landscape photography. I normally use f/8–f/11 there, and at those apertures it’s effectively on par with the S lenses in practice, except when the sun is included in the frame.

The second question was whether it is as good as the S-series standard zoom lenses, the 24–70/4 S and the 24–120/4 S. The answer is no; it still does not match the optical quality of the S lenses. The S lenses also maintain a constant f/4 maximum aperture, which is helpful in darker situations. However, this is also an unreasonable and somewhat unfair comparison, as this is a superzoom sold at a lower price.

On the other hand, this lens beats the S lenses in versatility by extending the focal range to 200mm and by including VR, which is very helpful, especially at longer focal lengths. While it does not quite match the optical quality of the S lenses, it performs very well on its own and delivers more than enough sharpness. It is also more budget-friendly.

If I want to rank the different lenses based on their optical quality, it will be like this:

I hope this review of the Nikon Z 24–200mm f/4–6.3 VR has been helpful in making your decision! If you’re planning to purchase this lens, you can support us by buying it through one of the affiliate links below.

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Alternatives

There are no direct alternatives available for the same focal length range, but I mention the ones that are closest

Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
I have done a comparison of this lens with the reviewed lens in almost every section in this review, so no further info is necessary.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $997 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: Kamerastore, ebay.com from $820  (Affiliate links)

Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR
This is the only other superzoom that goes from wide to telephoto. Its obvious advantage is the extended reach up to 400mm, but it only starts at 28mm on the wide end. It also drops to f/8 from 200mm onward. Optically, the reviewed lens still has a slight edge over this 28–400mm.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $1147 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: Kamerastore, ebay.com from $855  (Affiliate links)

Nikon AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
This is an F mount lens from Nikon’s DSLR era, you need an FTZ adapter to use it on Z cameras. The reviewed lens is clearly better than this lens.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $1040 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: Kamerastore, ebay.com from $380  (Affiliate links)

If I would Rank the lenses mentioned in this articla based on their optical quality, it would be like this:

1.  Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S | Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S
2. Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR
3. Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR
4. Nikon AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

Note that we are splitting hairs here; none of these lenses are bad, there are good ones and better ones.

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?
• REVIEW/COMPARISON: Nikon Z 24-120mm F/4 S – How It Compares to Z 24-70/4 S
• Review: Nikon Z Nikkor 24-70mm f/4 S
• REVIEW: Nikon Z Nikkor 14-30mm F/4 S

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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 50 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.

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