Nikon today officially announced the 600mm f/4 TC VR S lens. The 600mm has been on the Road Map for well over a year, and now is available for US$15,999.
As expected, this new exotic takes the pattern of the 400mm f/2.8: it has a built-in 1.4x teleconverter, meaning that it can be used as a 600mm f/4 or 840mm f/5.6 at the flick of a lever. You can mount additional teleconverters on it, giving you either a 1200mm f/8 or 1680mm f/11. Nikon is also pointing out that with 2.3x video crop available in the Z9, you can record video with an equivalent of 1932mm (at f/5.6). Also like the 400mm, the new 600mm drops a fair amount of weight (550g) from the F-mount version, despite the addition of a built-in teleconverter.
The remaining details are also basically as expected: the Silky-Swift voice coil focus motor for autofocus, additional anti-reflection coatings, dust and drip-resistant build, and Synchro VR (5.5 stops CIPA) with cameras that support it.
Which brings me to some commentary.
First, I'm not going to purchase this lens. I'm already set with my telephoto choices for the Z-system, and can't justify the expense. Thus, it's also likely that it will be a long while before I review this lens, and when I do so, it's likely to be from borrowing one from the NPS loaner pool some day. Which is to say, it won't be an official review, it will be a quick look, as I wouldn't likely have the lens for more than one extended session.
While some are predicting that you might have as long as a year's wait for this lens, I suspect that having both the 400mm and 600mm exotics will improve availability a bit for both, as buying both is not as likely as buying just one (see previous paragraph). That said, if you're NPS and want this lens soon, you need to get your NPS Priority Purchase request in ASAP, lest you find yourself in future shipments instead of the first shipment. Likewise, if you're not NPS, you need to have an order in with a reputable authorized dealer sooner rather than later.
Finally, we now have 400mm (2x), 600mm, and 800mm exotics (or near exotics) in the Z-mount lineup. The 200-600mm in the Road Map has yet to appear, but it's clearly not an exotic, but a consumer-oriented lens. The question now is what exotic or near exotic might be next. This is relevant because it appears that Nikon is doing the same thing now with the Z-mount that it originally did with the F-mount in the early film days: build out a full set of telephoto options that are state of the art.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction as to how Nikon proceeds next. Some of this is based on close evaluation of patent activity, some on conversations with people who would be privy to the information, and a bit on a couple of anonymous emails I've received that appear to have some credibility. I'm going to couple all that with what I would do as a line product manager:
- 200mm f/2 or f/2.8 TC VR S — The existing 400/600/800 trio leaves the two ends open, and the most logical candidate for the short end would be another dual-nature exotic. But the wild card is the 120-300mm f/2.8E VR being brought over from the F-mount, which shouldn't be difficult to do, and would also fill this same position decently. I see the 200-300mm range now being the most important for Nikon to fill in the exotic telephoto lineup, so I believe something will happen in this space soon. It's even possible that we'd get both (the TC VR and the zoom).
- 600mm f/6.3 or f/7 VR S — Just as the 400mm exotic got a slower sibling, I suspect the 600mm will, too. There's a lot of tech that can be dropped (TC, voice coil, coatings, and so on) that, coupled with not trying to fully max out the MTFs, which should produce a lower-cost version for those who don't have >US$10,000 credit card limits ;~). However, I wouldn't expect such a lens before other exotics and near exotics appear first.
- 1000mm or 1200mm f/8 or f/11 — At the far end of the focal range, the rumblings tell me that Nikon is very likely to go long, and sooner rather than later. I'm not overly enthused by this, as I find even 800mm too long for most of my work, but the push for "more reach" among enthusiasts is propelling the camera companies to see how long they can really support. Don't be surprised if we see a 1200mm f/8 autofocusing mirror lens, as I'm pretty sure Nikon doesn't want their longest telephoto to be US$20,000. The volume is at any price 1/3 to 1/4 of that, but with high optical quality. There's not a lot of ways to get that performance at that price.
