micro-nikkor Z

[Fons Baerken]

I like the blue trimming on the lens

[Michael Erlewine]

I am hopeful this will be a replacement for the current 105mm VR which I seldom use for a variety of reasons, mostly that it is not well-enough corrected. This new one I plan to use outside for fast moving insects and flower/insect shots. I have no expectations that it will replace the CV-125, but if it comes close, that would help. It being a native Z lens will be a big help. And, if it is good enough, I could use it for a lot of walk-around and family shots. I guess I am just happy to have a native Z macro lenses. As for the 50mm macro, if it is good enough I would use it a lot because I like context in my close-ups. I should find out Wednesday when my lenses arrive.

[Jack Dahlgren]

This is unpleasant at the least. Are people voicing their displeasure? I hope makers who force corrections to cover for lens flaws get slammed for this practice.

Dave

How is a lens correction any different than a software correction? Digital camera systems optimize the resulting image through whatever technologies they can - in body image stabilization, color correction, diffraction control, dewarping, color aberration correction, anti-vignette, dynamic range control, sensor super sampling. Each element of the system plays a part, and as an integrated system different parts can be designed to make up for shortcomings in other parts. As long as the image I get off the card is what I want why would I slam a manufacturer for doing everything possible to make it the best?

[Birna Rørslett]

The "virtual unboxing" ... hand-held, every option set to OFF in Photo Ninja.

I took these at 1/20 sec,  f/4.5, ISO 400 on my Z6. Entire frame and 100% crop shown.

I did a few NEFs in PN first, then tried NX Studio. That darned latter software silently deleted all my NEFs in the actual folder --- not a nice behaviour !!! Thus I have to try a data recovery on the XQD card if more samples are to be shown. (deleted North Norwegian expletive here)
 

[Birna Rørslett]

I managed to restore the deleted files from the XQD card. No more NX Studio for me, thank you

It's too late for any additional processing now, so I'll present some results on the morrow. Suffice it to say the lens is really sharp and above all, has a nice bokeh. While it is not an APO lens by design, the CA issues are apparently brought under strict control. I switched all CA reduction off in Photo Ninja but it seems there is next to nothing to remove any way.

[Jack Dahlgren]

I managed to restore the deleted files from the XQD card. No more NX Studio for me, thank you

It's too late for any additional processing now, so I'll present some results on the morrow. Suffice it to say the lens is really sharp and above all, has a nice bokeh. While it is not an APO lens by design, the CA issues are apparently brought under strict control. I switched all CA reduction off in Photo Ninja but it seems there is next to nothing to remove any way.

That is a distinct lack of CA. Very promising.

[Birna Rørslett]

A few quick'n'dirty examples. As is well known, I'm partial to red cars. Even a VW can make do in a pinch!

The image shows the very gradual and smooth transition foreground-background. f/4.5 with ISO 400. Straight through Photo Ninja, no CA removal activated. The 100% crop shows crisp details.

[Birna Rørslett]

My local coffee shop is run by Moroccan immigrants. Very friendly and nice people and the coffe is superb. Here I caught the nephew of the proprietor with the 105 MC set to f/2.8. Again, straight through Photo Ninja, no CA etc. removal/adjustments applied.

[Erik Lund]

Congratulations on the new lens! Looks like a really nice rendering!

[Birna Rørslett]

Like nearly all native Z Nikkors, the 105mm f/2.8 MC struggles in IR. One can close aperture down to f/5.6, perhaps f/8 in a pinch, but any stopping further down leads to a strong IR hot-spot.

First f/4, next f/32. Hand-held so pay no attention to detail sharpness. No special IR-dedicated post processing, just cast into b/w in Photo Ninja, hence the "soggy" overall look.

[Birna Rørslett]

Any Micro-Nikkor worth its pedigree should be able to deliver good close-up photos. Normally I would work from a tripod, but as the 105MC touts an efficient VR feature, I for now am making snapshots with the hand-held camera.

This is a section of my studio with the centre-piece being the venerable Nikon SMZ stereo microscope used by me for 50 years++. It still works, perhaps less smoothly than in its youth, but similar can be said of yours truly, thus we are peers in this regard

The lens was set wide-open f/2.8, but effective aperture dropped to f/3 as I focused closer. All as it should be. One might just barely discern the Manfrotto stands for my studio strobes in the background. The overall rendering is silky smooth and effortless.

Again, entire frame and 100% crop.

[Eddie Draaisma]

Assuming manual focussing is through wire, how good does it work? Is it still non-linear like the other Z lenses, and has it a smooth, well damped focus ring? In other words, is manual focus on this lens up to the Sony GM lenses (which are very good in this respect)?

[Birna Rørslett]

Manual focusing is easy but overall focus travel is quite short, likely less than 180 degrees (a bit difficult to ascertain as there are no fixed end stops to the travel).

Pin-point focus accuracy can be achieved, yet with a hand-held camera using the focus magnifier when VR is active is not without problems. I tend to get a little nauseated with magnifier set to 200% as the details "swim around" a lot in the finder. Probably much easier if the lens/camera is on a tripod.

[Birna Rørslett]

OK, so making a snapshot at 1:1 life-size with a hand-held camera at 1/25 sec is generally asking for trouble -- I know. However, as this example shows, the 105MC will deliver useable if not perfectly sharp images even under such circumstances.

The NEF is straight through Photo Ninja, no CA removal performed. One can appreciate how little there is of this present. True, some vestiges linger and are detectable with a nit-picking eye. However, even the legendary APO-Lanthar 125/2.5 will hardly do better at this magnification. The background fabric is mottled in colours, but that is hardly the fault of the lens, just the print itself  The perfect lack of field curvature is also apparent (and my "built-in" -1.5 degree tilt).

At 1X, the lens at a nominal f/2.8 setting will display an effective aperture of f/4.5, which indicates there has been a significant shortening of actual focal length. A traditional unit-focusing design would be around f/5.6 by the way. Again, no surprise as this behaviour was expected. One should remove the lens hood for these close-ups as it might interfere with the subject since working distance gets short.

[PeterN]

It surely looks like a lens that may replace my Zeiss 135mm Milvus lens. I like the rendering and lack of CA. Thanks for sharing the examples.