In The Field: Retro vs. Modern Nikon Z7 Primes

The freedom to use lenses dating back decades, it’s one of the best things about shooting with Nikon. Even their most recent mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z7, has this ability. Photographers love golden oldies for their filmic look and charm and unique renderings. With less features and often a cheaper price tag, is vintage class a viable option on modern cameras?

We asked our resident photographer Ian Howorth to put three generations of Nikon lenses to the test. He went to Dungeness, the site of a nuclear power station on the UK’s south coast, known locally as a fantastic shooting location. The perfect place to test the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 S, Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2 and Nikon AF-S 28mm f/1.4D against each other on the gorgeous Nikon Z7.

Now, over to Ian.

Background

I remember being incredibly excited to use a Nikon D850 for the first time. As I owned a Nikon D810, I knew what to expect. A lovely soft falloff from highlight to shadow, a familiar-yet-not-totally-intuitive menu system, and the most comprehensive selection of lenses, old and new. Aside from Leica's M series, of course.

I generally don't need fast autofocus for my work, as I tend to have ample time to compose and shoot my images. This means I can benefit from manual lenses—like Zeiss or vintage primes mounted onto a mirrorless body—and take advantage of focus peaking. I'm not averse to using autofocus. But, if I know I’ll be walking a lot, and I'll have time to compose, it’s worthwhile trying to lighten my setup as much as I can. Enter the Nikon Z7.

The body

With the same sensor as the Nikon D850, there’s nothing lost in terms of performance with the Nikon Z7. The additions are perfectly suited to photographers who like to shoot with plenty of time. I often talk about the merits of focus peaking, with good reason. If you have the right adapter, it opens up possibilities for pretty much any lens you can mount to the camera. It might not be the perfect tool for the job every time, but it’s great if you want to travel as light as you can.

Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2

The Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2. A classic lens in the Nikon lineup, famed for dreamy renditions when shooting fully open. I was excited to test it on such a high-resolution sensor, and keen to see how easily I could nail focus at f/1.2 using the peaking function. This test is about the quality of the images, as well as the practicality of the lenses.

We kicked things off with the Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2, mounted using the Nikon F–Z adapter. As it was more fun—for you and me—to swap between lenses throughout the day, we didn’t shoot everything three times for comparison.

This was shot at f/5.6 or so, trying to keep the image out of the sensor as clean as possible at 64 ISO.

This one, however, was shot at f/1.2. It was the first test of the day to see how easy it would be nail focus fully open. Difficult was the answer. I tried this shot three times, and while the image as a whole is within acceptable focus, Peter's eyes are not. But, this was the challenge. As a candid portrait rather than a photoshoot, there was a bit less time to get things right and tweak the peaking settings to get as much help as possible.

I found the renderings to be quite organic, fully open. It wasn’t perfect, but perfection wasn’t what I was looking for. Instead, I was seeking precisely what this lens was giving me.

A 100% crop to show that even fully open, the Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2 is still capable of producing astonishing detail.

Nikon AF-S 28mm f/1.4D

Heading towards the beach, it's time for the Nikon AF-S 28mm f/1.4D. A legend. Hugely expensive in the 80s, and even more so now. This is an autofocus lens that will autofocus perfectly on F-mount DSLR cameras, but sadly it’s manual only on the Z even with the FTZ adapter.

Even though the corners are a little defocused, they don't have the haziness in the defocused areas usually associated with soft and poorly rendered corners. Also, who doesn't love a bit of bokeh with wide primes? It's a unique look, and very much the reserve of lenses with an aperture above f/2.

The sharpness of this lens fully open was astonishing. While it still exhibited some vignetting, in terms of sharpness and rendering I couldn't believe this was a fast wide lens shot at f/1.4.

Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8S

After all the excitement of shooting with the vintage lenses, it was time to exercise the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8S. As the newest lens of the bunch, it was the one I expected would outperform the other two. But, as 'outperform' is subjective, optical sharpness is not necessarily what I was looking for here. I wanted an organic look to suit the surroundings.

Saying that though, sharpness in a lens is always something we can tone down a little in post. However, this first shot on the 35mm was fully open at f/1.8, giving the weird bag—left on the sand at low tide—a bit more separation from the background.

...and an obligatory crop at 100%.

At f/4, the 35mm Z comes into its own in terms of sharpness even down to the corners. For me personally, I prefer the look at f/1.8 when things are a little softer. Thankfully, without the usual aberrations and fringing that go with it. This lens is a phenomenal performer at all apertures.

At f/1.4 this time, the Nikon AiS 50mm f/1.2 showed the classic softness this lens is renowned for.

Not forgetting however that by f/4, the center of the lens is already sharpening up to very respectable levels. Not bad for a 35-year-old design.

Low light brings out the performance of a camera as well as the lens. The Nikon Z7 really flexes here, showing the incredible amount of detail it retains in the shadows. It only needs the most gentle of lifts. It’s the 28mm that renders this scene so beautifully, giving the caravan a tonality reminiscent of medium format.

Ian’s verdict on Nikon’s vintage lenses

I'm not going to bore you here—at f/8, this 28mm is perfect. While I'm sure that someone could find some flaws within the image, there are no issues that scream at me. Optical perfection? No. But, if this was the only 28mm lens I could ever use, I'd die a happy man.

The 50mm f/1.2 is a little richer, creating a very soft and dreamy look from fully open all the way to f/1.8. But don't let 'soft' fool you—it isn't a negative. It might not be the look you want, however, with more modern lenses being sharper at smaller apertures. Saying that though, with a 50mm f/1.8G being so cheap and weighing less than a gnat's whisker, there isn't a reason you couldn't have both in your kit bag.

To say that I was happy with the performance of these lenses would be an understatement. Shooting with vintage primes isn’t anything new for me, having become accustomed to them with my film camera. But, using them on a modern high-resolution sensor was a revelation.

With the resurgence of film and editing techniques getting away from a clinical look, it can be refreshing to go for something a little less perfect.

The 35mm Z f/1.8 S surprised me for the opposite reasons to the other two lenses. The autofocus was quick, with it rarely searching apart from when shooting against a bright sky. Renditions past f/2.8 were eye-popping sharp and colours were rendered neutrally, giving me bags of options in post. But, that’s the thing - there was no character to speak of. While there was nothing wrong with the Z lens, and I can't say a bad thing about it, it just didn’t excite me. It simply did the job and did it well.

Not every shooting experience will have my requirements. Even for me, it’s likely there’d be times when I’d opt for the 35mm Z f/1.8 S over the other two lenses—not just because of its look but its convenience and useability. The one thing I can say for certain is that I might not know what lenses are the right ones for every job, but it's wonderful to have as many options as we do now.