In this video, photographer, Christopher Frost, takes a look at his first Nikon lens (congrats Frost by the way), the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S which is the kit lens for the Z6/Z7 cameras.
So how good really is the Nikon kit lens for the Z6/Z7 cameras? it has a good build quality, with weather sealing, relatively small and light (about half a kg) with a user-configurable focus ring (which you can change to control other settings like ISO, aperture or exposure compensation). The zoom ring (the second one which is furthest away from the camera) needs a little push and you can extract it (yes this lens retracts and extends when you zoom).
The AF motor is fast and quick (although maybe not as fast as the 24-105mm kit lens for the Canon RF line), the lens has no visible focus breathing thanks to a Nikon technology that exists with all Nikon Z lenses (it crops in automatically in-camera).
The lens has no image stabilization (although both Z6 and Z7 has IS) and is very sharp in the center at 24mm from f/4 (on the high res Z7) and the corners are O.K. but not amazing but still pretty decent. this is basically true for other focal lengths (at 70mm it isn’t quite as sharp especially in the corners but it is still fairly good).
The lens has a lot of barrel distortion and corner darkening if you turn off in-camera correction – it seems that Nikon decided to take care of both distortion and vignetting with in-camera software rather than actual optics for this lens.
You can focus down to about 30cm and image quality is O.K. but you should really stop down to f/5.6 for better performance. Flare control is good. Bokeh is nice although you will need to get close to your subject (and have a pretty distant background).
All in all, the lens performance is quite good for a kit lens (especially if you let the camera control distortion and vignetting) and you make sure to stop down to f/5.6 if you need better corner sharpness) and the lens also works very well for video shooting.
As for pricing, the official price for this lens on its own is $1000. The is a lot of money for a kit lens (even one as good as that). However if you but it renewed or as a kit with a Z6/Z7 its price can be as little as half.
You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid and you can find more of Frost’s videos here on LensVid.
Iddo Genuth 
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