NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.4 lens review

This page contains reviews of NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.4 lens review.

Lens Summary

Price	A reasonable price for a genuine Nikon 35mm f/1.4 lens
Size	Small for a 35mm F1.4 lens
Weight	Lightweight for a 50mm f/1.4 lens
Ease of use	No A/M switch
AF performance	Not ultra-high speed, accuracy decreases when used in peripheral areas
Resolution performance	If you use a narrow aperture for a long-distance shot, the result will be good.
Bokeh	When shooting at medium to long distances, the aperture is wide open, so the roughness is noticeable.
chromatic aberration	slightly noticeable
distortion	Correction Required
coma aberration	slightly noticeable
Vignetting	It is very noticeable, so it is necessary to correct it.
flare resistance	No problem
Overall evaluation	Small and lightweight, but with a strong character, the F1.4 lens

Evaluation：

This lens has a lot of residual aberration and has a strong tendency to show its characteristics when the aperture is wide open. This lens is not compatible with people who want to use ‘F1.4’ as a high-speed lens, and care is needed for coma aberration, vignetting, and resolution performance. In particular, the AF accuracy is not good because the corners and edges are soft. F1.4 is a bonus, and it seems better to use it around F2 as the axis. On the other hand, it is small and lightweight, easy to handle, and a valuable 35mm F1.4 that can be used regularly.

Foreword

A single-focus lens for the Nikon Z mount released in July 2024. It is the last unannounced lens in the NIKKOR Z lens roadmap, the ‘35mm S-Line’, but it is actually a low-priced, unmarked 35mm lens, and it is also the first NIKKOR Z lens with a large F1.4 aperture. This is a lens that has surprised Z-mount users around the world. It is currently unknown whether or not Nikon will be releasing a series of non-S-Line F1.4 lenses, but the large aperture, moderate size and price of this lens make it highly appealing.

The lens size is almost the same as the S-Line lens ‘NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.8 S’, which has a small aperture. The price is also similar, so if you are looking for the best optical performance at maximum aperture, go for the F1.8 S, but if you are not concerned about the sharpness of the open aperture and are more interested in the bokeh, go for the F1.4. Looking at the MTF, both the centre and the periphery are inferior to the F1.8 S. However, the MTF does not show you how the image will actually look, such as the bokeh quality. I will check this in future reviews.

specifications

lens mount	Z mount
Supported sensor size	Full frame
focal length	35mm
Lens construction	11 lenses in 9 groups
Aperture	F1.4-F16
Aperture blades	9 (circular aperture)
Minimum focusing distance	0.27m
Maximum magnification	0.18倍
Filter diameter	62mm
image stabilisation	-
Teleconversion lens	-
Coating	Super-Ingrated Coating
Size	Approx. 74.5mm x 86.5mm
Weight	Approx..415g
weather sealing	Support
AF	Stepping motor
Aperture ring	-
Other controls	Control Ring
Accessories	Lens cap 62mm LC-62B Back cover LF-N1 Lens hood HB-115

NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.4 lens Review

Appearance and operability

Boxes and accessories

The box has a design based on black and yellow, which is typical of NIKKOR Z. There has been no change since the launch of the Z system in 2018. The box is a little larger than usual for a compact 35mm single-focus lens. It is about the same size as the 35mm F1.8 S-Line.

In addition to the lens itself, a lens hood, a regular knob-type cap, and a manual and warranty card are included.

Appearance

The exterior has a lot of plastic parts, and only the focus ring has a rubber cover. The surface has a slightly rough coating with a subdued sheen. It has a solid feel when you touch it, and it's not cheap-looking, but it doesn't have the luxurious feel of the S-Line.

The only controls are the focus ring and control ring. There is no L-Fn button or AF/MF switch. It has a simple design, but it even has a control ring, which the 35mm F1.8 S-Line does not. The exterior is almost entirely printed, with no processing. Only the ‘NIKKOR’ logo has been processed. It was made in China.

Hands-on

As other companies are focusing too much on 35mm F1.4 lenses, this lens is surprisingly compact and lightweight for a lens of the same class. It is almost the same size and weight as the 35mm F1.8 S and 50mm F1.8 S. Although it is not a compact or lightweight lens in absolute terms, it is nice to be able to handle a 35mm F1.4 lens of this size.

Front and back

The front of the lens is compatible with screw-in filters with a diameter of 62mm. This is a relatively rare filter diameter for full-size lenses, so it is a bit of a problem that it is difficult to share filters with other lenses as they are. The front of the lens is compatible with fluorine coatings, so there is no need to excessively attach a protective filter. However, it is better to use it if you want to adjust the light rays and light volume with C-PL or ND filters.

The rear element of the lens is a large rear element that seems to be a large-diameter Z mount. The lens mount is made of metal and is fixed in place with four screws.

Focus ring

Equipped with a wide focus ring made of rubber. The moderate torque and smoothness are almost the same as the S-Line. The response is good, and it is easy to focus on even the smallest details with smooth operation. The focus ring has a non-linear response, and movement is restricted according to the rotation speed. The stroke over the entire focus range is about 90 degrees when rotated quickly, and about 180 degrees when rotated slowly. Both have a moderate stroke, making fine adjustment easy.

Control Ring

プラスチック製のコントロールリングを搭載。フォーカスリングと比べて抵抗が強く、回転時に少しざらつく感触があります。従来通りクリックはありません。誤操作を防ぐには適切。コントロールリングの機能はカメラ側でカスタマイズ可能。

switch

There is no switch on this lens. You will need to change the focus mode on the camera side.

Example of use

Fits on the Z 8. It is almost the same as the 50mm F1.8 S and 35mm F1.8. You can take photos with one hand without losing balance. It can also be used with relatively small mirrorless cameras such as the Z 7, and it does not look out of place when attached to an APS-C camera.

AF・MF

Focus Speed

The focus is driven by two stepping motor units, each driving a focus lens (multi-focus). Lenses of this type tend to have fast AF speeds, but this lens does not seem particularly fast. Although it has a sufficient focus speed that does not cause stress, it may be insufficient when chasing a quick subject at close range.

Breathing

Focus breathing refers to the change in the angle of view depending on the focus position.If the change in angle of view is significant, the field of view will expand or contract during focusing, potentially causing distractions and affecting autofocus stability. Ideally, it is better to have no focusing breathing. In order to check the effects of breathing, we took the following photos with the lens stopped down to the minimum aperture, at the minimum shooting distance and at infinity.

The angle of view is a little narrow at close range, and a little wider at long range. It's not extremely noticeable, so I think many people will find it within acceptable limits. For reference, I've posted a video.

AF accuracy

When used in combination with the Z 8, the centre of the image is of good accuracy and there are no problems with reproducibility. However, the periphery and corners of this lens are slightly soft around the open aperture, and in some situations the aberration is noticeable. The contrast is also low, and in some situations the focus peak may be missed. If you are expecting a high-precision AF, we recommend using it with the centre of the image at about 50% of the image height as a guide. Alternatively, if you stop down to F2~F2.8, you can use AF while suppressing aberration.

MF

As mentioned above, it has an easy-to-use focus ring, making it easy to make fine adjustments to the focus using MF.

Resolution Chart

Test conditions

Camera body:Z 8
Interchangeable lens:NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.4
Pearl Optical Industry Co.
‘[HR23348] ISO12233-compliant 8K resolution test chart (for still cameras)’
Olympus HYRes 3.1 analysis software
The lighting environment is constant indoors.
Tripod, self-timer 10 seconds, electronic shutter
RAW output
ISO 100
RAW development in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC
・Sharpness: Off
・Noise reduction: Off
・Chromatic aberration correction: Off
Focus on each point to be analysed and take a picture
(image plane curvature is difficult to measure at close range, so check at infinity)
Note that this is a test at close range (infinity may be even better).
If you adjust the sharpness when developing JPEG or RAW images, the values may improve. Please note that the values given here are the ‘minimum values’.

Test results

This time, we were only able to measure the centre of the image. The periphery and corners were excluded because the image was unstable at short distances and there were many false positives in the measurement software even when the aperture was narrowed. The results at long distances were better than expected, but the periphery of the image seems to deteriorate significantly at short distances. There was no dramatic improvement even when the aperture was narrowed, so it may be that the camera has a large amount of astigmatism. For reference, the results of measuring the camera's JPEG output are as follows.

The surrounding areas are processed to make them measurable. However, it seems that there is a limit to the improvement effect of image processing, perhaps because the original image is soft. Even if you narrow it down, you cannot expect dramatic improvement. In addition, even in JPEG, the corner aperture is slightly soft and cannot be analysed. Even if you narrow it down, there is a large difference in image quality between the centre and the corners.

Centre of frame

Speaking only of the centre, good results can be obtained from the maximum aperture. Although there is some deterioration at F1.4, excellent performance is demonstrated when the aperture is stopped down to F2. Even at close range, spherical aberration appears to be well controlled.

Middle of frame

The depiction is soft, in contrast to the centre. In particular, the aperture is wide open, and even when it is narrowed down to F4, the details are a little distorted. After F4, there is no significant improvement even when the aperture is narrowed down, and the results are not good.

Four corners of frame

The image is softer than the surrounding area, but if you narrow the aperture down to F4, you can get a result similar to the surrounding area.

Sample

Comparison with other lenses

A list of products that can be compared at 35mm (for reference only, as the test equipment may differ).
If you want stable 35mm performance, a zoom lens is better. The more expensive and larger Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM produces very good results even at close range. The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN, which is in the same price range, is also reasonably good, but unfortunately it is not compatible with the Z mount.

far-field resolution

Test environment

Date of shooting: 19 July 2024, cloudy, light breeze
Camera: Nikon Z 8
Tripod: Leofoto LS-365
Head: SUNWAYFOTO GH-PRO II
Exposure: ISO 100, Aperture Priority AE
RAW: Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

Test results

Although there is a decrease in contrast due to longitudinal chromatic aberration and coma aberration, the resolution performance is good from F1.4. The results are sharp from the centre to the edges. The corners are soft due to the influence of coma aberration, etc., but if you stop down to F4~F5.6, the results will be surprisingly good. If you don't need the image quality in the corners, you can get very good results in most cases by stopping down to F2. If you stop down to F2.8, it is possible to almost completely suppress the influence of longitudinal chromatic aberration.

Centre of frame

It is very good from wide open, but there is a colour shift in the highlights, probably due to the effect of longitudinal chromatic aberration. Even when stopped down to F2, there is some colouring at extreme contrast, which is almost eliminated at F2.8. If you want to get the best results, it is best to stop down to F4.

Middle of frame

The results are almost the same as the centre. There is no effect from the curvature of the image surface, and the image quality visibly improves when the aperture is narrowed. It is good enough at F2.8, but if you want to get the best results, the peak is around F4.

Four corners of frame

Vignetting is strong, so correction is essential. Even with correction, the corners are considerably softer than the centre and edges due to factors such as coma aberration. Closing down the aperture gradually improves the result, but to get a good result right to the edge of the corners, you'll want to close down to F4. Closing down to F5.6 improves the result a little, but there is no significant change after that. The effect of lateral chromatic aberration remains a little.

curvature of a surface

What is surface curvature?

This refers to the fact that the shooting distance at which the image is in focus differs from the centre to the four corners. For example, even if the image is in focus at a shooting distance of 1m, if the subject is moving back and forth around 1m at the edge of the frame, there is a possibility of field curvature.

Although there are few lenses that have noticeable field curvature, in recent lenses, aberration may increase and become noticeable at close distances. However, there are few opportunities to take photos of flat subjects at close range, so even if there is some image curvature, there is no need to worry.

However, if there is an effect even at infinity, you should be careful. If you are trying to achieve a pan-focus effect, for example in a landscape, there is a possibility that you will end up with an unintentional out-of-focus image. As there is no way to correct this aberration, the only way to avoid the problem is to increase the F-number to widen the depth of field.

Test results

The curvature of the image plane is very slight, so it is unlikely to cause any major problems in actual photography. Also, because the image quality at F1.4 is not very uniform, it is better to stop down to around F4 if you want to focus on the entire frame.

Lateral chromatic aberration

What is lateral chromatic aberration?

A colour shift that appears mainly around the edges and corners of the frame. Unlike longitudinal chromatic aberration, the effect of correcting this aberration using the aperture is small, so it is necessary to correct it at the stage of optical design. However, it is possible to digitally correct chromatic aberration using the image processing engine built into the camera body. This makes it possible to correct chromatic aberration, which is difficult to correct optically alone, and recently, there have been lenses that prioritise the correction of other aberrations over chromatic aberration correction. In particular, mirrorless systems tend to rely on post-processing.

Test results

As you can see, there is still some slight chromatic aberration compared to Adobe's development. Although it is not enough to have a significant impact on image quality, it may be a factor in the reduction of contrast in the details in the corners of the frame.

Longitudinal Chromatic Aberration

What is longitudinal chromatic aberration?

Longitudinal chromatic aberration is a colour shift that occurs in front of and behind the plane of focus. If the area in front of the plane of focus is mainly purple fringing, and the area behind the plane of focus has unnatural green colouring in the out-of-focus area, then the main cause is likely to be longitudinal chromatic aberration. This is more likely to occur with large-aperture lenses such as F1.4 and F1.8, and in such cases it is necessary to close down the aperture to improve the situation. It is possible to correct this using development software, but it is more difficult to process than lateral chromatic aberration, so it is best to suppress the aberration optically if possible. However, when suppressing longitudinal chromatic aberration with a large-aperture lens, the product price tends to be higher. Lenses that perfectly correct for longitudinal chromatic aberration have high contrast on the focal plane from wide open aperture, so you can expect a punchy resolution.

Test results

Although it is not a large amount of aberration, there is some chromatic aberration at around the maximum aperture in high-contrast situations. Closing the aperture to F2.8-4 improves this, but it may be noticeable at F1.4 and F2.0. Although it is not related to chromatic aberration, closing the aperture with the focus fixed causes a slight amount of focus shift (when shooting at close range).

Distortion

What is Image Distortion?

Distortion is the phenomenon where a straight line does not appear straight on a flat surface. It is particularly noticeable in cases where there are many straight lines, such as in man-made objects or when the horizon is visible, and it is divided into two types: barrel distortion, which is similar to the fisheye effect, and pincushion distortion, which causes the centre of the image to appear squeezed.

This is a relatively easy aberration to correct, but it is difficult to manually correct for distortions that have a special shape, such as ‘bamboo hat-shaped’ distortion. In this case, a correction profile that matches the lens is required.

Test results

It is not possible to turn off the correction of distortion on the camera side, and even with Adobe products, distortion is forcibly corrected. If you check this using RAW Therapee development, you will see that the barrel distortion is quite noticeable. It appears that the corners are slightly stretched as the frame periphery is cropped when correcting for distortion.

It is a shocking distortion, but it is a common design for wide-angle lenses for mirrorless cameras. This is not limited to this lens.

Coma aberration

What are coma and astigmatism?

Coma and astigmatism are mainly the failure of a point of light to appear as a point of light in the four corners of the frame. For example, this can be seen in artificial lights, stars and illuminations in night scenes. Even during the day, bright point light sources such as sunlight filtering through trees can also have an effect. As this problem cannot be corrected in post-processing, it is necessary to correct it optically.

Although it can be improved by narrowing the aperture, in situations where shutter speed is important, such as night scenes and astrophotography, it is not possible to narrow the aperture, and optical correction may be necessary.

Test results

Although the deformation of point light sources due to aberration is noticeable when the aperture is wide open, it improves almost completely when the aperture is stopped down to f/2. If you are concerned about image quality in the corners, it seems better to use it as an F2 lens rather than an F1.4 lens. Although I have not used the ‘NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.8 S’, reviews from overseas say that the vignetting is noticeable at F1.8. Considering that the 35mm F1.4 improves by stopping down to F2, it may be a better choice for nightscapes.

Spherical aberration

There is not much difference in the quality of the bokeh in front and behind, but the bokeh in front has a stronger edge at close range. However, this may change depending on the distance from the point light source and the size of the bokeh. (This is introduced in the bokehball review section.)

Foreground and background blur

What is a beautiful blur and a noisy blur?

The evaluation of bokeh tends to be subjective, but I personally think that ‘soft, diffused bokeh’ is beautiful, while ‘sudden bokeh or hard-edged bokeh’ is not so good (or is a unique depiction). However, everyone has their own preferences, so there may be people who prefer the opposite. For reference, here are some examples of ‘blurred bokeh’ and ‘hard-edged bokeh’. The difference in the tendency of the depiction is mainly due to the state of correction of spherical aberration, and when the bokeh on either side is soft, there is a tendency for the bokeh on the other side to become hard.

Back Blur

A smooth rendering with a slight tendency towards neutrality. The rendering is soft with a slight amount of blurring, but the residual longitudinal chromatic aberration gives it a slightly noisy impression. Compared to the Z 40mm F2, which has stronger spherical aberration at close range, this lens is less quirky.

Front Blur

A slightly hard rendering that leans towards neutrality. It's not a harsh double-line bokeh, but the edges of the bokeh tend to remain compared to background bokeh. It is still affected by longitudinal chromatic aberration.

Bokehball

Effects of Vignetting and Spherical Aberration

If vignetting is strong, the bokeh at the four corners of the frame will be elliptically deformed or partially missing. The only way to solve this problem is to close down the aperture. However, closing down the aperture will make the bokeh smaller and in some cases the shape of the aperture blades may become visible, so it is necessary to compromise on the amount of vignetting depending on the situation.

If the amount of vignetting is small, it is possible to get a circular bokeh from wide open to the four corners. Ideally, a lens with little vignetting is preferable, but to eliminate it, it is necessary to fundamentally increase the size of the lens. There is a need to strike a balance between portability and cost, so some kind of compromise is necessary.

If the correction of spherical aberration is not perfect, there will be a difference in the depiction of the bokeh in front and behind (as shown in the review of bokeh in front and behind). In this case, one side will have a smooth depiction with blurring, while the other side will have a hard depiction like double-line bokeh.

Test results

A beautiful depiction with no signs of onion-bokeh. The outline is weak and there are few elements that stand out badly. If you narrow it down to F2, it becomes a little more angular, but there are no particular problems.

The corners are a noisy depiction with a noticeable border, in contrast to the centre. The vignetting is moderate, but there is a lot of blurring with a noticeable border towards the corners of the frame. It improves significantly when you stop down to f/2.

Sample of a boke

Close range

The bokeh is very large, and the flaws in the four corners are not noticeable. The background bokeh is a soft depiction with a slight blur, and the balance with the in-focus plane is good. It can be used comfortably from F1.4. There is no problem even if you stop down by 1-2 stops by adjusting the depth of field.

Short range

If the shooting distance is a little further away, the bokeh will become smaller and the flaws in the four corners will start to stand out. Although it is within the acceptable range, if there are a lot of highlights, it may give a noisy impression. If you are a little concerned, you can improve the situation by narrowing the aperture to F2.

Medium range

As the shooting distance increases, the area that feels noisy also increases. The edges of the blur tend to be coordinated over a wide area, excluding the centre. This is particularly noticeable outside the 70% height of the image.

If you narrow the aperture down to F2, the picture will improve significantly. It's not perfect, but narrowing the aperture down to F2 may be a solution depending on the situation.

Portrait

The following are the results of taking pictures of a tripod that is 170cm tall while changing the distance and aperture.

As mentioned above, when the shooting distance is long, the background blur is generally a noisy depiction. However, if you move back far enough to include the whole body in the frame, the blur will become smaller, so the noisy depiction will be less noticeable. Although there is a possibility that the blur will be noisy at shooting distances such as above the knees or the upper body, there will be almost no problem if you move in close for a close-up of the face.

Vignetting

What is vignetting?

Unnatural drop in light intensity around the frame.
The light intensity is lower than in the central area, and there is insufficient exposure in the four corners of the frame. This mainly occurs with large-aperture lenses and wide-angle lenses.

Although this is a phenomenon that can be easily corrected using software, it is necessary to be careful about the fact that it can cause noise, as the insufficient exposure is covered by post-processing correction (sensitization). In particular, when using high sensitivity for nightscape or starry sky photography, there is a possibility that noise will appear strongly.

Minimum focusing distance

Even at the minimum shooting distance, the F1.4 setting causes noticeable vignetting. If you stop down to F2, the vignetting will be greatly reduced, but if you prefer a flat exposure at F1.4, vignetting correction is essential.

Infinity

A much more noticeable vignetting effect occurs than the minimum shooting distance. It is not wrong to say that vignetting correction is essential, and even when using ‘strong’ correction, the vignetting is noticeable at F1.4. Optically, it is also quite noticeable even when the aperture is stopped down to F2, and even at F4, the corners are still affected. To completely suppress it, it is necessary to stop down to F5.6.

Backlight resistance, sunstar

centre

Even when the camera is directly exposed to a strong light source, flare is well suppressed. Ghosting is slight at maximum aperture, but becomes more noticeable as you stop down.

corner

There are almost no problems across the entire aperture range.

sunstar

The sunstars begin to become clear around F8, and the results are sharp at F11-F16.

Summary

Good points

Compact and lightweight
Reasonable price for a genuine F1.4 lens
Dust- and splash-proof
Control ring
Focus breathing is relatively good
Good resolution performance when shooting distant scenery with the aperture closed
No image field curvature issues
Smooth background blur when shooting close-ups
No major problems with backlighting resistance
Beautiful sunstar

This is the lightest and smallest 35mm F1.4 AF lens available these days. What's more, it is an affordable F1.4 lens that is a genuine product of the camera manufacturer. If you want to use a large-aperture lens with a semi-wide angle without worrying about the finer points, this could be an interesting option.

Although the resolution performance is uneven and the bokeh may seem a little rough in some cases, there are many scenes where this can be dealt with by adjusting the aperture. Many of the optical flaws can also be corrected on the camera side. Recommended for those who want more character in their images than the easy-to-use S-Line lenses.

Bad points

No A/M switch
Image quality deteriorates in the short distance surroundings and corners
Longitudinal chromatic aberration is noticeable
Barrel distortion is noticeable (corrected)
Coma aberration is noticeable
After medium distance, the background blur is noisy
Vignetting on the infinite side is very noticeable (cannot be corrected)

Compared to S-Line lenses, the optical performance is lower, and the lens has a distinctive character to its rendering. Some people may find this a strength, but others may find the assertive rendering of the lens to be a drawback. At the very least, this lens is unsuitable for those who want high optical performance at F1.4. If you are looking for a lens with a stable rendering, we recommend thinking of it as a lens like the ‘35mm F2/F2.8’.

Conclusion

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