Our Recommendation
For reasons that this review hopefully makes clear, the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens is one of the more controversial Z lenses to date. At its best, it’s excellent – somehow cramming a filter thread, a class-leading zoom range, and impressive sharpness into a seriously portable package. It lives up to the promise of what a mirrorless lens can be.
At its worst, you’ll see insane nearly fisheye-level distortion plus heavy vignetting. I would describe it as a very “digital” lens. A genuine part of Nikon’s lens design with the Z 14-30mm f/4 S is that you have to correct the distortion when you use this lens.
So, which of those two takeaways is more representative of the lens as a whole? It’s a dilemma – and one that is not unique to the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S. You can’t throw a stone very far in the mirrorless world without hitting a lens that makes similar tradeoffs.
Personally, I can’t say that I hate this approach. While it would be nice to have a distortion-free lens, I’m happier with a light, sharp lens and don’t mind stretching the corners a bit in post-processing to make them look good. As for the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S specifically, I bought a copy for my own landscape photography years ago, and it’s been my primary ultra-wide lens ever since.
Pros
- Small and lightweight design with great portability
- Very good weather sealing and build quality
- Takes slim 82mm filters without a significant vignetting penalty
- Fast, quiet, accurate autofocus
- Very sharp, especially for an ultra-wide zoom
- Well-controlled flare and ghosting
- Good value when on sale for $1150
Cons
- Extreme distortion and strong vignetting in uncorrected images
- 14mm corner sharpness is good, but not great
- One of the four copies I tested had major decentering, but was likely just bad luck
- Fairly expensive at the non-sale price of $1350
Conclusion
This isn’t a lens that I can give a perfect score in our star ratings (shown at the bottom of this page) – because a big part of scoring lenses is how they handle things like distortion and vignetting. Even so, the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S is a great lens, and one that I find myself recommending to a lot of Nikon Z photographers. The balance of sharpness, portability, and focal length range is unparalleled even today, several years after the lens was first announced. Correcting some distortion to get there is really no big deal.
That said, I do think that it’s worth considering the alternatives before you take the $1350 plunge. The Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8 doesn’t reach 14mm, but it’s just as portable and has a brighter maximum aperture of f/2.8, with relatively similar sharpness. There’s also the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S if price is no object, and that lens really is the king of Nikon’s ultra-wide zooms. Finally, you might want to consider a prime lens like the Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S if you don’t need the flexibility of a zoom and just want the utmost image quality possible. There are no bad options among this bunch.
Personally, if I could go back in time and pick again, I would still choose the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 for my own photography. It’s wide, sharp, and takes 82mm filters, while costing about half the price of the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S. That’s enough for me.
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The next page of this review has some more sample photos from the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S, followed by reader comments on the final page. Use the Table of Contents below the star rating to jump to the section you want.
Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S
- Build Quality and Handling
- Size and Weight
- Sharpness Performance
- Other Image Quality (Before Software Corrections)
- Value
Photography Life Overall Rating
Table of Contents