5 Minute Reviews: Is the Nikon Z 20mm f1.8 S Special?

Reviews Editor Hillary Grigonis talks about her findings with this beautiful Nikon lens.

The Nikon Z 20mm f1.8 S review is done and scheduled for the coming days. Reviews Editor Hillary Grigonis thinks that it’s a beautiful lens with character, nice colors, and sharp image quality. Indeed, she shoots Nikon professionally. While these are all great, it surely does fall behind the competition. So we took our full review and summarized it in 5 minutes. Also, be sure to check out our Pro Camera Reviews show!

In This Episode:

Nikon Z 20mm f1.8 S:

The Nikon 20mm F1.8 is arguably one of the best wide-angle lenses for the Z mount system. The image quality is spectacular. Photos are tack sharp, barrel distortion is minimal, and bokeh is soft and round. Even the autofocus performance is a little better than some other Z lenses. The sharpness, colors, and even the design of the lens itself is quite similar to the Nikon Z 24mm F1.8 S, but the 20mm does a better job keeping lines straight.

But, the lens design is very minimal. Like the other F1.8 primes in the Z series, there’s no secondary dial, shortcut buttons, or focal distance scale. The 20mm is priced higher than those other primes and, for $1,050, I would have loved to see the lens display panel and a second control ring that Nikon includes in other lenses. Even the budget-friendly DX lenses include a second control ring. The lens is larger, heavier, and more expensive than the similar F mount and Sony’s mirrorless 20mm.

This is a quote from our upcoming full review.

On the Next Episode

The Megapixel Wars Have to Stop: Everything has changed when it comes to cameras, yet everything remains the same. Cameras have come on in leaps and bounds when it comes to technologies like autofocus and AI. Still, the one thing that camera manufacturers keep on trying to cram down our throats is Megapixels. Every week, we see speculation about brands pushing to release 100 Megapixel cameras, but why? At what point do we say enough is enough? In this segment, we’ll talk about the megapixel wars. Why it’s honestly a war that’s not worth fighting, and the implications it will have on you. We’ll also talk about what camera manufacturers should be focusing on instead.

The L Mount System is Finally a Fully Functional Camera Platform: Both Chris and Brett recently bought into the L mount system. They’ve been testing gear for a very long time and they thought it was finally time. The system consists of Leica, Panasonic and Sigma. Chris and Brett will go through what they like about the camera system vs others. And they’ll also tell you where they really need to improve. Could the second mirrorless full frame camera system really be your next purchase?

About Pro Camera Reviews

Pro Camera Reviews happens every Sunday. Sign up to join us! Please Register here or join us in the studio.

Pro Camera Reviews is a web show by the Reviews Team of The Phoblographer. Join them as they candidly discuss the products they’re actively reviewing and the gear they’ve just reviewed. Open Q and A from the audience towards the end of the show. Every Sunday at 7pm EST.

Please register here or join us in the studio!

If you’re looking for a fun time while staying safe, we strongly recommend that you tune in for Pro Camera Reviews. It’s a weekly show where the staff tackles a couple of issues in the Photo World. They mostly pertain to cameras and lenses, but sometimes things get a bit more serious. This is partly because we still feel that we need to be educators and leaders in this space. Additionally, we also need to be responsible. Episodes are done on Zoom and are recorded. They’re Live Streamed to our Facebook Page, then shared on Flipboard TV and YouTube. We recommend that you subscribe to us on Youtube to keep up.