Greetings photography Pals and today I'm Taking a closer look at another of Nikon's super telephoto lenses the Z 180 To 600 mm f5.6 to 6.3 VR which is only For their mirrorless zad Mount cameras Fullframe or apsc telephoto zoom lenses With very long ranges such as this have Really become quite popular these days And for good reason they give you a Fantastic reach but allow you to zoom Out to for your subject before zooming Back in to get your picture really Useful for wildlife Photography they Tend to have quite decent image quality Too and they're not too big and heavy at ,700 or £1,800 here in UK this nickon Offering is more expensive than the Older tamon and sigma lenses that really Started this trend and a cheaper Competitor to it is the new tamon 150 to 500 mm lens that's recently arrived on Nion zad Mound however the nion lens Obviously offers a bit more range I'd Like to thank nion UK for learning me a Copy of this lens for a couple of weeks For testing along with a Z8 camera but As usual this is a totally independent Review here is the lens itself a quite Beautiful design it's pretty long and Thin and at nearly 2 kg it's a little Heavy actually but still handh holdable It's made of strong quality plastic it's Well wether seal And it zooms internally which is always
A lovely touch Nikon's teller converters Can be used with this lens potentially Extending its reach to 1200 mm here are Some basic controls on the back a switch For auto or manual focus and a focus Limiter switch also I really like the Lens's metallic tripod mount it's firm And secure while also being easy to Loosen and adjust or even completely Remove in front of that comes a smooth Turning cut customizable control ring Which is set to control focus by default And as a focus ring it's very precise And responsive some good news about this Lens is that whether you're zoomed in or Zoomed out it displays almost no Focus Breathing nice as you'd expect the Lens's autofocus motor is quick silent And quite accurate in use particularly With the zed8 camera I was testing at The same time and it had absolutely no Trouble tracking basically any subject At all now matter what I was shooting Something else I should mention is that The lens is image stabilized and even at 600 mm that stabilization is Spectacularly good holding your image Wonderfully steady very very useful Anyway in front of that Focus ring comes The lens's large rubberized Zoom ring Which turns very smoothly without any Stickiness to it in front of that come Four customizable L function buttons the Front of the lens is rubberized for
Extra protection against knocks and Bumps the lens also has a 95 mm front Filter thread it also comes with a Fairly deep plastic hood that locks Securely in place overall this is Exactly the kind of build quality you Would expect from a decent necon T photo Offering in this price range it feels Lovely to use and its excellent Autofocus and image stabilization make It very stable to use Also okay let's take a look at image Quality as I me mentioned I'll be Testing this lens on a Nikon Z8 camera With its fullframe 45 map sensor in Camera Corrections are turned on at 180 Mm and f5.6 contrast is excellent and The image is bitingly sharp in the Middle Corner image quality is virtually As good so a nice start the lens Tays to Sharp down to f11 but from F16 we are Definitely seeing softness emerging due To defraction Let's zoom into 400 a mm Now where the maximum aperture has Darkened to F6 resolution is great in The middle of the image but not quite as Razor sharp as at 180 mm the image Corners look about the same excellent But not perfect stop down to f8 and There's just a tiny Improvement in Sharpness and contrast across the whole Image frame but again that's as sharp as The lens gets finally let's Zoom all the Way into 600 mm at the new maximum
Aperture of f6.3 both sharpness and Contrast in the middle of the image are Just good the image Corners are just a Touch softer but still good enough stop Down to f8 and the corner see just a Touch more resolution but the middle of The image is still about the same Stopping down to f11 or darker doesn't Improve anything overall the lens is at Its sharpest at wider angles while it's Always decently sharp you slowly lose Resolution as you zoom in the result at 600 mm is fine but I was certainly Hoping for a bit more fine detail there Okay let's turn off in camera Corrections and take a look at Distortion and vignetting at 180 mm we See only a touch of pincushion Distortion and vignetting is very low Too with the corners getting even Brighter if you stop down to f8 zoom in To 600 mm and you'll notice that the Light pin cushion Distortion remains Across the whole Zoom range again even At f6.3 vignetting is very low on this Lens let's see about close-up image Quality now for the best magnification Zoom into 600 mm where the minimum Focus Distance is about 2 and 1/2 M at f6.3 Close-up image quality is just good Although we are seeing a little color Fringing stopped down to f8 and that Color fringing at least is reduced let's See how the lens works against Bright
Lights again no problems here whether You're zoomed in or out we you see no Real flaring and only a small loss in General contrast finally let's have a Look at the quality of this lens's bcka I'm not seeing any issues here at all Either in deeply out of focus areas or Transitional zones the bker always looks Lovely and smooth to Me overall I had Mixed feelings about the Zed 180 to 600 I absolutely loved its handling and Build quality and it always produces Good images with high contrast and the Possibility to use telecon converters With it is pretty interesting too its Only weakness is that I wish it was Sharper when zoomed in it's good but if You're shooting at 45 megapixels it Won't blow you away at 600 mm by any Means and at 1,700 the lens is not fantastic value For money there are similar options Around especially if you own a nickon f To Z mount adapter which could offer you Nearly the same quality for a lot less Money none of that is to say I didn't Enjoy testing the lens though there's Nothing wrong with it it's still a nice Optic that certainly makes long Telephoto work quite easy I can still Recommend it although if you want to Stick with a nickon lens a sharper Option for you might be their excellent 400 MM F
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