Nikon today issued a press release officially describing its intention to produce a 28-135mm f/4 PZ lens. The PZ stands for power zoom.
Nikon has done power zoom lenses before, including for Z DX. And the MN-10 Remote Grip has the ability to remotely trigger zoom. However, you might have noted my use of quotes in the headline.
Nikon’s view of the “video market” is a bit different than a dedicated videographer probably thinks. You’ll note the lack of some significant mechanical gearing in Nikon’s supplied image. In the video world, geared focus, zoom, and aperture rings are common, and for good reason: doing managed “pulls” can be precise.
Moving the zoom to a lever or remote lever is more of a broadcast type design, where you go for minimal external rigging to stay nimble. The PZ design would appeal more to the camcorder crowd than the dedicated videographer.
Thus, all those stories you see today on other sites linking this lens to part of Nikon’s purchase of RED seem a bit of a stretch to me. The RED cameras are not really designed as run-and-gun cameras, where you’d want power zoom. I see the 28-135mm f/4 PZ as more a step towards video as opposed to an immersion in it. Moreover, since Sony has had 28-135mm f/4 since 2014, the impetus for launching a Nikon version probably is more due to that than RED. I should also note that the Sony version has geared rings and image stabilization.
No real details were made available about Nikon’s version, though from the photo we would say “removable, rotatable tripod mount, multiple LFn buttons, and probably no lens VR.” The gold mount ring and lettering seems to imply a new series of lenses.
As to why a development announcement today, I take this to mean that Nikon has some of these lenses in the field at the moment for late testing. In the past, Nikon development announcements have tended to come when prototypes are circulating in pro hands where someone might be able to spot them (though in a couple of cases they were clearly FUD [fear uncertainty doubt] marketing initiated).
