One Lens to Cover Them All: Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR Review

The innovative full-frame zoom Nikkor Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens from Nikon provides 14.2 times zoom in a small, lightweight package. Will it have unacceptably high compromises, or will it be the best all-in-one lens available for Nikon Z photographers?

Nikon has a long history with superzoom lenses. It produced a 28-300mm lens that I thought was both reasonably priced and optically good for its F-mount SLR cameras. In the DSLR era, the market was so saturated that almost everyone owned a quiver of superzooms for every type of lens mount.

More than 200mm mirrorless full-frame superzooms have become uncommon since then. Is there not as much of a demand? Although it is a decent lens, Nikon's 24-200mm f/4-6.3 for Z mount is not very good in terms of reach. Panasonic just introduced a full-frame 28-200mm lens for the L-Mount, which undoubtedly increased the system's capabilities. With its extraordinarily long-reaching 28-400mm f/4-8 superzoom, Nikon has suddenly broken the mold.

Can a lens with such a wide focus range still produce images with a respectable quality? Will superzoom lenses become more popular in the future?

Although the 28-400mm I used for testing was a pre-production sample, I was nevertheless able to learn at least some preliminary information regarding the performance of this lens. I decided that a road trip to the picturesque village of Nanton, Alberta, was in order since a superzoom lens looks like a travel lens. A giant-ranged superzoom lens would have no trouble capturing striking images in Nanton, from a line of grain elevators to a couple of pigeons cuddling up in the distance.

Back on the road

The glass parts of the Nikkor Z 28-400mm are driven by STM motors, and its telephoto end focuses smoothly, though not very quickly. It can take some time to focus from close to far away, but in real-world scenarios when long-distance attention is the primary emphasis, this is not a problem. Additionally, the lens focuses quickly enough when used in its wide to normal range.

Weighing only 26 ounces (725 grams), the Nikkor 28-400mm f/4-8 is impressively lightweight. The lens has good balance, especially on lighter models such as the Z6.

The 28-400mm is lightweight, however it has bigger proportions due to its physical length and 77mm filter thread diameter. Even with a 28mm zoom, this grows to a considerable length of 400mm, taking up some room in the backpack.

Even with the hood inverted, the barrel has enough room for a large zoom ring, making it simple to use. The locking setting prevents the zoom from creeping in while you're moving, which is nice. Curiously, that is about all that is included. There is also a control ring that may be customized. Although the lens has VR, there is no switch to activate it on the lens; instead, focusing controls must be operated from the body.

A Perfect Compromise

Superzoom lenses usually have very complicated optical formulas with many glass elements. I was concerned about shooting the lens toward the sun because all that glass has a tendency to cause internal reflections. I was very surprised to see almost no flare and minimal ghosting. Even stopped down, the amount of ghosting is still well controlled thanks to excellent Nikon coatings. Sunstars aren’t particularly noteworthy, as expected.

Despite having a modest f/8 aperture, the 28-400mm can produce shallow depth of field near the long end of its range. Regrettably, the 28-400mm's bokeh quality is not its strongest suit. Specular highlights show no onion rings, yet an odd double ring surrounds the highlights. Thanks to a nine-bladed aperture, the specular highlights also exhibit a clearly polygonal structure when stopped down. This causes the out-of-focus backgrounds to appear disorganized and prevents them from transitioning out of focus as cleanly as they could. However, these drawbacks are barely evident due to the comparatively sluggish maximum apertures of this lens.

Whether at 28mm or 400mm, the 28-400mm lens produces a life-size reproduction ratio of about 1:3. This makes it ideal for close-up photography. This gives the lens a great deal of versatility and enables compressed close-up shots with lots of working distance or wide-angle macro shots with the background pushed far away.

Conclusion

Nikon has successfully balanced the drawbacks with a striking lens lineup. Whether or if the slower aperture range is acceptable will be the primary decision factor. Even while the f/4 largest aperture is good at 28mm, when you zoom out, the aperture rapidly decreases and is already at f/8 by 200mm. While this would work fine for casual sunny-day photography or as a vacation lens in mild weather, wildlife photographers who are serious about their craft might want to look for something brighter. The primary trade-off for having such a wide zoom range is that the ISO will have to be increased sooner than may be desired as the light levels decline.

For such a broad zoom range, the bigger size and darker apertures are still reasonable compromises. There's no doubting that 400mm can make a significant impact in the field, but some users may be content with the typical 200mm max range available on the market.

These kind of lenses should not be purchased by anyone who thinks they can have their cake and eat it too. However, Nikon has done a great job if you're looking for a single lens that can perform nearly everything and still produce beautiful images.