"Z-reviews are getting closer" someone said beginning of February. Okay, they for sure got 3 MONTHS closer, but maybe "closer" refers to a point in the far future... 
But then, lens announcements and announcements of "development of a lens" also happen long before the lens becomes available. I wonder how long Nikon will be able to keep that disappointingly low pace of completing their Z-system? Still no sign of availability of the 70-200/2.8, therefore ongoing quality issues? The 24-200, kind of a "genuine all-round lens" for holidays and travel, is supposed to arrive around mid of June, so I read. Anyway, as slow as Nikon puts new stuff on the market, they are still faster than OL's lens reviews - sorry Markus, couldn't resist.
If you make sort of promises, you might loose one day the credibility that they eventually will happen to become reality. 
One lens which is particularly more interesting to me than their 24/1.8 S just arrived last week. This Nikkor Z 20/1.8 S which was announced 3 months ago.
It's a pleasant surprise to me and for sure "sharp enough", but also surprisingly nice in terms of bokeh - that's actually one good reason to get it, the other is (in theory) to do reportage stuff. I'm not sure if face recognition will be very effective with it in more distant ranges - but then, stopping down will do the trick and compensate what face recognition does not reconize. Another pleasant surprise was the minimal focus distance of 20 cm - that is 8 cm in front of the front lens, giving more possibilities for compositions than the Sigma's 27.6 cm.
I compared some of it's features to the Sigma 20/1.4 Art. A lot in this forum were always yelling "more compact and lighter lenses!" for mirrorless. Matter of fact, the Nikkor Z 20/1.8 has half the weight of the Sigma 20/1.4 Art with FTZ adapter. Ready to use (with lens hood, and the Art lens with FTZ) the Sigma is just 15mm longer, it's diameter (of the lens hood) 15 mm (!) smaller. Of course, leaving the hood at home reduces the ø from 106 mm to 84 mm - easier to put into a photo bag.
Looking at the distance of the rear element, it certainly is not a DLSR lens with a glued adapter like some of the Sigma Art lenses for Sony currently are. Besides, that's not the worst thing to do. Why? As I stated before, the shorter flange distance has also a couple of downsides. One (too) often visible - at least within the Z system - are the colour blobs due to internal reflections of the sensor towards the rear elements when shooting into bright light sources.
![[Image: i-Q6nvNSX.jpg]](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Q6nvNSX/0/25c8fa44/O/i-Q6nvNSX.jpg)
Although the Sigma (bottom picture) has a bit more glass, it doesn't act as bad as the average Z-lens does. If anyone knows how to get rid of this colour blobs, feel free to share - I know how to get rid of "normal flares" like aperture spots, but the colour patterns are tougher.
What else? Switching off the lens corrections in Capture One was not as horrible as the 14-30/4 is. I think the prime is well corrected.
On average, Z-lenses in front light maintain more contrast than the Sigmas and therefore often appear sharper.
The build quality of the Z-lenses I know is alright but not outstanding. The "function ring", usually to be used to focus manually has quite some play contrary to it's other colleagues. But as it's only focus by wire, it's not that much of a deal. All my Z-primes are made in China, all my Z-lenses made in Thailand. Interesting... another difference I haven't noticed: All f/4 or variable aperture zooms (I could say the cheaper ones...) have this function ring as plastic with rubber profile, the primes have one made of metal.
But then, lens announcements and announcements of "development of a lens" also happen long before the lens becomes available. I wonder how long Nikon will be able to keep that disappointingly low pace of completing their Z-system? Still no sign of availability of the 70-200/2.8, therefore ongoing quality issues? The 24-200, kind of a "genuine all-round lens" for holidays and travel, is supposed to arrive around mid of June, so I read. Anyway, as slow as Nikon puts new stuff on the market, they are still faster than OL's lens reviews - sorry Markus, couldn't resist.
If you make sort of promises, you might loose one day the credibility that they eventually will happen to become reality. One lens which is particularly more interesting to me than their 24/1.8 S just arrived last week. This Nikkor Z 20/1.8 S which was announced 3 months ago.
It's a pleasant surprise to me and for sure "sharp enough", but also surprisingly nice in terms of bokeh - that's actually one good reason to get it, the other is (in theory) to do reportage stuff. I'm not sure if face recognition will be very effective with it in more distant ranges - but then, stopping down will do the trick and compensate what face recognition does not reconize. Another pleasant surprise was the minimal focus distance of 20 cm - that is 8 cm in front of the front lens, giving more possibilities for compositions than the Sigma's 27.6 cm.
I compared some of it's features to the Sigma 20/1.4 Art. A lot in this forum were always yelling "more compact and lighter lenses!" for mirrorless. Matter of fact, the Nikkor Z 20/1.8 has half the weight of the Sigma 20/1.4 Art with FTZ adapter. Ready to use (with lens hood, and the Art lens with FTZ) the Sigma is just 15mm longer, it's diameter (of the lens hood) 15 mm (!) smaller. Of course, leaving the hood at home reduces the ø from 106 mm to 84 mm - easier to put into a photo bag.
Looking at the distance of the rear element, it certainly is not a DLSR lens with a glued adapter like some of the Sigma Art lenses for Sony currently are. Besides, that's not the worst thing to do. Why? As I stated before, the shorter flange distance has also a couple of downsides. One (too) often visible - at least within the Z system - are the colour blobs due to internal reflections of the sensor towards the rear elements when shooting into bright light sources.
Although the Sigma (bottom picture) has a bit more glass, it doesn't act as bad as the average Z-lens does. If anyone knows how to get rid of this colour blobs, feel free to share - I know how to get rid of "normal flares" like aperture spots, but the colour patterns are tougher.
What else? Switching off the lens corrections in Capture One was not as horrible as the 14-30/4 is. I think the prime is well corrected.
On average, Z-lenses in front light maintain more contrast than the Sigmas and therefore often appear sharper.
The build quality of the Z-lenses I know is alright but not outstanding. The "function ring", usually to be used to focus manually has quite some play contrary to it's other colleagues. But as it's only focus by wire, it's not that much of a deal. All my Z-primes are made in China, all my Z-lenses made in Thailand. Interesting... another difference I haven't noticed: All f/4 or variable aperture zooms (I could say the cheaper ones...) have this function ring as plastic with rubber profile, the primes have one made of metal.