Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR Evaluation

Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at simply 405g / 14.3oz, the plastic bodied Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR could be very gentle for a super-telephoto zoom lens.

Its total dimension and weight could be very well-suited to a digicam just like the Nikon Z50 that we examined it with, as proven within the product photographs.

It measures 74 x 110mm / 3x 4″ when set to the 50mm focal size, making it one of many smallest ultra-zoom lenses at the moment accessible for Nikon’s Z-series mirrorless cameras.

This lens has a button-free retractable design – all you must do is rotate the zoom ring to increase the lens earlier than you possibly can press the shutter button to take an image.

When the lens is retracted, it is locked into place so it received’t lengthen unexpectedly.

The lens is longest when prolonged to the 250mm focal size, the place it provides one other 8cm to the general size.

Construct high quality is ok, exceeding what you would possibly anticipate from such an inexpensive zoom lens, though the all-plastic development might show much less sturdy within the long-term.

It incorporates a plastic mount, moderately than steel, and a plastic lens barrel with simply two controls, the generously sized focusing ring and the programmable management ring.

You need to use the management ring to manually focus by default, however you possibly can customise it to entry numerous digicam features, corresponding to aperture, ISO pace or publicity compensation. That is one thing you possibly can set through the digicam’s primary menu and might be fairly helpful in sure circumstances.

Maybe understandably given the modest asking value, this lens doesn’t have a dust- and moisture-sealed design to help capturing in additional inclement circumstances.

The Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens accepts 62mm filters through plastic threads on the entrance of the lens.

The lens options built-in optical picture stabilisation which presents 5 stops of compensation, moderately than relying as a substitute on the digicam physique’s stabilisation system.

The Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens has a ridged motor-assisted focus ring that’s fairly properly damped. Guide focusing is feasible by choosing it on the digicam physique or full-time handbook focus override can be potential when in AF mode.

Because the the main target ring shouldn’t be mechanically coupled, there aren’t any onerous stops at both finish of the vary, making it slightly harder to set focus at infinity. Polariser customers ought to be happy that the 62mm filter thread would not rotate on focus.

The Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens utilises a stepping AF motor that produces virtually silent, clean and fairly snappy auto-focusing, making it well-suited to capturing each stills and video, with the general lens size remaining fixed throughout focusing.

With regards to auto-focusing, it proved to be a reasonably fast performer on the Nikon Z50 digicam that we examined it with.

We did not expertise very a lot “searching”, both in good or unhealthy gentle, with the lens precisely focusing more often than not.

This lens solely ships with entrance and rear lens caps – there isn’t a lens hood or any sort of case included within the field.

Focal Vary

The 50-250mm focal size vary gives an angle of view of 31° 30′ to six° 30′ on a DX-format APS-C digicam, which is equal to a 75-375mm focal size in 35mm full-frame phrases.

50mm

250mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, sometimes seen as blue or purple fringes alongside contrasty edges, had been not likely obvious in our take a look at photographs, solely showing in very excessive distinction areas.

Vignetting

With the Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens set to its most aperture, there may be apparent gentle fall-off within the corners, requiring you to cease down by a minimum of 3 f-stops to fully stop it.

50mm

250mm

Distortion

Commendably there’s not an excessive amount of pin-cushion distortion evident, in both the JPEG or RAW recordsdata.

50mm

250mm

Sunstars and Flare

The Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR produces fairly good sunstars when set to 50mm and stopped-down to f/22 or better, as proven under. Flare is properly managed even when capturing straight into the solar with out a lens hood fitted.

Macro

The Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR is kind of a great macro lens, providing a detailed minimal focusing distance of 0.5m / 1.64ft on the 50mm focal size and 1.0m / 3.29ft on the 250mm focal size, with a most magnification of 0.23x. The next examples exhibit how shut you may get to your topic.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a phrase used for the out-of-focus areas of {a photograph}, and is often described in qualitative phrases, corresponding to clean / creamy / harsh and so on.

Within the Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens, Nikon have employed an iris diaphragm with 7 rounded blades, which has resulted in fairly interesting bokeh, particularly on the longer telephoto focal lengths.

We do realise, nevertheless, that bokeh analysis is subjective, so we have included a number of examples under on your perusal, all shot wide-open.

Sharpness

So as to present you ways sharp the Nikon Z DX 50-250mm F4.5-6.3 VR lens is, we’re offering 100% crops on the next pages.