In working on future site updates and design, I built a few tools that allow me to look at things a little differently. One of those was to put all the Z lenses into a database I can work from. This led me to play around a bit—I like play, as it often informs work—and to discover a few bits and pieces that are amusing, if nothing else.
I'm going to do this just for Z-mount autofocus lenses. Here are some things you can learn by playing with a database like this:
- Widest lens — Laowa 10mm f/2.8 (130° diagonal)
- Narrowest lens — Nikkor 800mm f/6.3 (3° diagonal)
- Current total AF lenses —
9394 (I don't count SE models or other duplicate models as different) - Number of DX lenses —
3233 (another introduced as I published this) - Most complex optical construction — 600mm f/4 TC VR S (26 elements in 20 groups)
- Highest number of ED elements — 6 (tie between 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S)
- Highest number of aspherical elements — 7 (24-120mm f/4 S)
- Best non-macro magnification — 1:2 (Nikon 70-180mm f/2.8, Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-5.6)
- Smallest length — 26mm f/2.8 (24mm)
- Longest length — 600mm f/4 TC VR S (437mm)
- Lightest weight — TTArtisans 27mm f/2.8 DX (100g)
- Heaviest weight — 600mm f/4 TC VR S (3260g)
- Lowest price — Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 DX (US$120)
- Highest price — 600mm f/4 TC VR S (US$15,499)
So by the powers vested in me by the Nikkor gods, I hereby proclaim the 600mm f/4 TC VR S the winner, taking four categories in a rout over the competitors.
Another amusing thing to do is to consider the Nikkor model numbers as indicative of when they were approved to go to production (something I believe to be true) versus their announce date. The first lens that got a model number appears to be the 24-70mm f/4 S. Any lens model number introduced out of order after that becomes conspicuous. The big surprise there was the 24mm f/1.8, introduced a year after the next number in the series (35mm f/1.8). Another curiosity is the missing numbers. We seem to be currently missing 20121, 20124, and 20127.
Okay, I'm done playing. Back to work.
