Romancing the Retro Look

Nikon’s first 28mm f/2.8 was released in 1974. The fourth iteration of this legend, the Nikkor Z 28mm f/2.8 (SE) is certainly classic in its look and focal length, but there is a lot more to this lens, as K Madhavan Pillai discovers.

- K Madhavan Pillai

Essentially a full-frame FX prime, the Nikon Z 28mm f/2.8 (SE) is equally home on APS-C or DX Z mirrorless cameras. The ‘SE’ or Special Edition version of this lens matches well to the retro-styled Z fc APS-C camera, and in fact, they were launched together, and available primarily as a kit. The lens is also available independently.

In every other way, the lens is identical to the contemporarily designed and slightly lower priced Nikkor Z 28mm f/2.8. On a full-frame body, the 28mm delivers the quintessential classic wide-angle field of view. On the Z fc, however, this usefully translates to a crop factor equivalent of 42mm, as a slightly wide standard prime.

Features

The lens is made of nine elements in eight groups, including two aspherical elements. A maximum aperture of f/2.8 serves to keep both size and weight of the lens relatively low, while offering a large enough aperture for low light photography and background or foreground blurs. The aperture is enabled by a rounded 7-blade diaphragm.

The manual focus ring can be used to tweak the focus after AF. However, uniquely, the MF ring can also be configured to alternative functions when in AF mode, including stepless aperture control (useful for video), exposure compensation or ISO. There are no other controls on the lens, and no dedicated aperture ring or distance scale.

AF is enabled by a very quick, quiet stepping motor, the speed of which can be slowed down for video through the camera. The minimum focus distance is usefully 0.19m or 7.56 inches, for a maximum magnification of 0.2x. The lens has is no optical stabilisation, relying on the in-camera stabilisation of the full frame Z bodies. The APS-C cameras, the Z 50 and Z fc, are not stabilised.