I’ve just returned for three safaris and a wedding, all in Botswana. I’ll be cranking up my Z9 blog again, as I had a pre-production unit on this trip.
While I was away, the FTZ II adapter shipped, as did the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 S VR lens. The Z9 is supposed to have its initial shipment just prior to Christmas. If Santa has a rocket-powered sled and you’re up front in the pre-order list, you might be able to photograph Christmas morning with it.
Nikon also introduced one new not-on-the-roadmap lens and provided a development announcement for a lens that was. Surprisingly, Nikon introduced a US$1200 28-75mm f/2.8 lens, while the development announcement was for the 800mm f/6.3 S VR PF lens.
Speculation is that Nikon licensed the old Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 G1 design (both it and the new lens are 15 element, 12 group designs and near-as-identical specs). I’m pretty sure the speculation is true, and Nikon is rumored to have licensed some other Tamron lenses, as well. What I don’t understand is why Nikon licensed the G1 version optics and then priced their version higher than the Tamron G2 version. The newer Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 G2 is far better optically. I’ll have to look into the origins of this new lens a little more and see what I can find. Someone sent me an explanation that the licensing deals were done outside the main Nikkor lens design group.
Nikon has licensed lens designs from Tamron before. A long history of such licenses exist, and KonicaMinolta has been another source of optical designs Nikon has used. So a Nikkor-branded Tamron design isn’t anything new.
But 28-75mm f/2.8 isn’t a necessary lens in the lineup from a placeholder standpoint, though it might be in the competitive landscape. The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 E-mount G2 version has proven to be a highly popular lens because of its aggressive price and very good optics. We’ve known for some time that Nikon wants to sell as many Z lenses as possible and keep the third-parties at bay for as long as possible, as it pays back the Z System investments faster, and with good margins. Nikon’s shoring up the 24-200mm focal range as fast as possible, as that’s where most of the buying action is. Still, I don’t get this decision on Nikon’s part.
We’re still missing the “value” 70-200mm lens (or 70-180mm in Tamron’s world). And it wouldn’t hurt to have another wide angle zoom, too (e.g. 16-28mm).
Meanwhile, the 800mm now has something besides a silhouette. The development announcement tells us this is an f/6.3 S lens, with built-in VR and PF optics, plus a drop-in filter slot. Personally, I wanted the 400mm PF before the 800mm, but with the recent shipment of the 100-400mm, it looks like Nikon is trying to make sure that the telephoto options are first balanced and spaced (e.g. 70-200mm, 100-400mm, 400mm with 560mm via built-in TC, 800mm).
