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Nikon this morning launched its Z 800mm f/6.3 PF VR S, an enormous milestone for the Z mount, which till some weeks in the past lacked most severe supertelephoto glass. Rumored solely lately to be launching, the lens seems to be mild (5.25 kilos) and low-cost ($6,500). It employs Nikon’s PF fresnel know-how to considerably shorten the lens.
Whereas overview copies seeded across the YouTuber group have been tethered to agreements stopping individuals from commenting on picture high quality with the pre-production fashions, the MTF chart discovered on Nikon’s website is fairly breathtaking, as seen at left.
As a result of the Nikon lens is a PF fresnel design, the MTF chart might replicate theoretical manufacturing perfection that isn’t fairly reached in precise manufacturing. It will likely be a while earlier than samples within the wild verify what the graph suggests.
This contrasts with the MTF chart Canon launched of its upcoming RF 800mm f/5.6, which makes use of the RF 400mm f/2.8 design as a base and a few inside parts to extend magnification. Whereas this produces a greater minimal focusing distance, the picture high quality – whereas nonetheless showing glorious – is one or two generations behind.
It needs to be famous that the Canon MTF chart proven above is corrected for diffraction results, the place the Nikon MTF charts usually are not. If the diffraction results on the MTF chart are just like these seen with earlier Canon lenses, this might clarify about half of the distinction in obvious MTF efficiency.
There seems to be simply three downsides to the Nikon lens:
- The aperture is 1/third cease smaller than most 800mm supertelephotos.
- Whereas higher than most earlier 800mm choices, its minimal focus distance remains to be fairly far out, at greater than 5 yards, giving the lens a 0.16x magnification ratio. Because of this shooters need to again away from shut topics to get them in focus.
- You need to affix it to a Nikon physique.
The excellent news concerning the new Nikon launch is that the worth distinction between it and the brand new Canon equal is so vast, that you would purchase two flagship Nikon Z9 cameras with the distinction. The brand new Canon is 32 p.c heavier; about two inches longer; and the picture high quality seems to be considerably impaired relative to the brand new Nikon.
Nikon additionally managed to make the lens picture stabilization speak to the Z9’s in-body picture stabilization to supply a mixed 5.5 stops of stabilization, versus the brand new Canon’s 4.5 stops. Canon, having based mostly their new lens on the EF mount 400mm Mark III design, was unable to equally combine the IS programs.
As neither lens has but shipped, the specs might look extra favorable to 1 facet on paper but end up to indicate much less in precise discipline use. We’ve seen under-specced Canon merchandise outperform the competitors within the discipline earlier than, however one spec that’s unlikely to show unexpectedly higher within the discipline would be the $6,500 worth of the Nikon versus the $17,000 worth of the Canon.
Pre-orders are being accepted already, and transport is predicted to occur, nicely, someday not quickly.
