It's here: NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S Lens

[Mary Doo]

It' looks good, a little lighter than its DSLR cousin at 7.2 lb but still quite heavy IMO.  $15,499.95 Pre-Order. 

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/mirrorless-lenses/nikkor-z-600mm-f%2f4-tc-vr-s.html

Here is a first-look by Steve Perry.

[Mary Doo]

Wonder where Shun is?  Haven't seen him around for a while. - Perhaps he is out of the country?  Normally he would be announcing topics such as this.

One thing quite strange is that the Nikon Z Roadmap has not updated to reflect the release of this important lens.

[ilkka_nissila]

The built-in TC adds some weight (the elements of the TC but also the control mechanism that moves the TC in and out of position). However, if one needs the TC then it's very convenient to have it built-in. Nikon (and Canon) lenses with built-in TC are priced beyond what I could possibly spend. I thought about the 180-400 at one point when there was a 25% discounted lens available but before I could scrape together the money, someone had bought it. 🙂

 

Fortunately Nikon offers the 400/4.5 and 800/6.3 for the Z mount which are relatively affordable for those apertures and focal lengths and seem to have received very positive user reports. 

 

Nikon has this page listing the lenses that have not been yet announced or made available but are planned.

 

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/camera-lenses/mirrorless-lenses/overview.page

 

Click on the "future lenses" tab and they show up. Maybe they thought the roadmap was getting crowded as an illustration and most of the lenses are already available. Ah, the 600mm is now in both the future and present lenses listing ... so they haven't updated the web pages fully yet.

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by ilkka_nissila

[mike_halliwell]

I think Steve likes it! Especially, the built in TC....!

[mike_halliwell]

Ricci and Morten H had a play with it..

Nice with/without TC during video takes.... and the usual great Morten & Ricci pix in Norway.

Ricci gives a very cryptic hint about 'There's a lot that can happen in 12 month' just before the end on the review.

[Dieter Schaefer]

8 hours ago, Mary Doo said:

but still quite heavy IMO

Only within 1/2lbs of the Sony and Canon competition - and those do not have a build-in TC.

With Nikon now offering a 400/2.8 and a 600/4 both with build-in TC, the only reason to offer a 500/4 (without a TC) would be price. I wonder if Nikon has plans for such a lens at all.

 

5 hours ago, ilkka_nissila said:

Fortunately Nikon offers the 400/4.5 and 800/6.3 for the Z moun

I can see utility for both lenses - though only the 800mm is of interest to me.

[JDMvW]

You can buy a lot of millimeters for your monetary unit if you're willing to focus and expose manually. 🤔

 

Of course, it helps a lot if you are in law enforcement (since we all know how they love doughnuts).

[ilkka_nissila]

2 hours ago, Dieter Schaefer said:

With Nikon now offering a 400/2.8 and a 600/4 both with build-in TC, the only reason to offer a 500/4 (without a TC) would be price. I wonder if Nikon has plans for such a lens at all.

A modern Z 500/4 without TC would be a lot lighter and something like 30-40% cheaper than the 400/2.8 and 600/4. But since none of Nikon's mirrorless competitors offer a 500/4, there is little pressure to make one. I am sure Nikon wants those who can pay 17k€ for a lens first to purchase a 400/2.8 TC or 600 TC before offering a lens that is a lot lighter and cheaper and probably close enough in results. It seems the rich are richer than in the past while middle class and poor people worry about being able to afford heat and electricity. Price obviously matters to a lot of people, and so does weight.

[mike_halliwell]

1 hour ago, ilkka_nissila said:

A modern Z 500/4

I guess they could tweak the 'old' F 500mm 5.6 PF to a fractional 1/3 stop faster Z mount lens.

Shorter, lighter and cheaper.... what's not to like?

😉

[joseph_smith3]

I just viewed Steve Perry's video on this lens.  If  I were a Pro I would be ordering one. As a hobbyist, the price is pretty steep for me. I think Nikon made a good decision to add the built in 1.4x tc. 

[bgelfand]

Here is Steve Perry"s take on the lens - a needed by Wildlife professionals, for amateurs nice to have if you can afford it:

 

 

[mike_halliwell]

1 hour ago, bgelfand said:

Here is Steve Perry"s take on the lens

Indeed a worthy vid. Mary linked to it in her first post!

Now, it's time to raid the piggy bank, remortgage the house, pawn that spare kidney and sell the kids......... but maybe not in that order...😉

Edited November 3, 2022 by mike_halliwell

[mike_halliwell]

Interestingly, Ricci hints at longer Nikon lenses soon as does Thom in his review....😱

[bgelfand]

12 hours ago, mike_halliwell said:

Indeed a worthy vid. Mary linked to it in her first post!

Now, it's time to raid the piggy bank, remortgage the house, pawn that spare kidney and sell the kids......... but maybe not in that order...😉

No, she linked to the official Nikon announcement. 

But I do not have to worry about it. The lens will not fit my D750, so the piggy bank remains intact, and the house remains mortgage free. 😁

Edited November 4, 2022 by bgelfand
Add a reply to second sentence

[ilkka_nissila]

The built-in TC goes to the middle of the optical path in the new 600mm:

The TC seems to have one ED and one SR element.

Edited November 4, 2022 by ilkka_nissila

[ilkka_nissila]

The Z TC 1.4X that is sold separately has one aspherical element:

The cross-sections are from the imaging.nikon.com website.

Edited November 4, 2022 by ilkka_nissila

[mike_halliwell]

2 hours ago, bgelfand said:

No, she linked to the official Nikon announcement. 

It's almost Pantomime Season so, 'Oh yes she did!' 

[mike_halliwell]

1 hour ago, ilkka_nissila said:

The TC seems to have one ED and one SR element.

Unlike the TC 1.4 built into the 400mm 2.8 Z which seems to have just one ED element.

 

[bgelfand]

9 hours ago, mike_halliwell said:

It's almost Pantomime Season so, 'Oh yes she did!' 

 

[bgelfand]

Oop,. I do not know why I did not see that, Mike. And I have new glasses, too. 😃

[rodeo_joe1]

Gawd, what an optical diagram! 

With 25 elements, including the TC, it makes me wonder why Nikon went with the rather clunky switchable TC option, rather than just designing an f/4 - f/5.6 600 ~ 850mm zoom with more flexible focal length options. It surely wouldn't have added any more optical complexity, nor more weight and size? 

A zoom with a 1.4x ratio is nothing by comparison. But I guess the outdated perception of a 'prime' lens has more kudos in the eyes of many long-serving customers. Who, let's face it, are among the few people with 15.5 grand spare to spend on a lens in these cash-strapped times. 🤑

P. S. No idea what that emoji is meant to represent, but it looked appropriate!

[ilkka_nissila]

Zooms in this range tend to be much heavier than primes, and somewhat lower quality.

 

E.g. the only roughly comparable zoom lens would be the Sigma 300-800/5.6. It weights 5.9 kg vs. the 3.3 kg of the Z 600/4 TC. 

 

The 180-400/4 TC Nikkor is 3.5 kg vs. the 1.2 kg of the prime Z 400/4.5.

[Mary Doo]

9 hours ago, ilkka_nissila said:

Sigma 300-800/5.6. It weights 5.9 kg 

Look at the size and the carrying case.  Horror!  😨🙄🙃😱

[mike_halliwell]

Puts the 800mm PF in perspective....😀

[roland_vink]

On 11/6/2022 at 1:21 AM, rodeo_joe1 said:

With 25 elements, including the TC, it makes me wonder why Nikon went with the rather clunky switchable TC option, rather than just designing an f/4 - f/5.6 600 ~ 850mm zoom with more flexible focal length options. It surely wouldn't have added any more optical complexity, nor more weight and size? 

Nikon have made one lens similar to the one you suggest, the super-telephoto AI-P 1200-1700/5.6-8. An interesting features of this lens is that it maintains a constant entrance pupil through the zoom range (1200mm/5.6 = 1700mm/8 = 213mm). Instead of regarding it as a zoom, it could be considered to be a 1200/5.6 prime with a built-in variable 1.0 ~ 1.4x TC. After all, putting a 1.4x TC on a 1200mm/5.6 lens yields a 1700mm/8 lens.

I have sometimes wondered why this concept hasn't been introduced to more super telephotos. Each "zoom-TC" would be properly optimized for the master lens. Even with with a small 1.4x zoom ratio, it would offer greater flexibility than the drop-in TC approach, allowing the photographer to frame a scene more precisely. They could, for example, zoom to 1.2x instead of being restricted to 1.0x or 1.4x. I imagine it could be simpler mechanically, it is surely easier to keep elements aligned in a zoom-type design than having a set of elements which drop in from the side - it must require a very high level of precision to keep the drop-in TC perfectly columnated when in place. Also, the designer wouldn't have to leave a space in the master lens for optical design for the TC to fit in, the zoom-TC would be more integrated into the optical design as a whole. But, I would expect the lens designers at Nikon do know more about this than me 🙂