Nikon NIKKOR Z 20mm F 1 8 S Review | 54 Data compared

The Photography Life review identifies the Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S as a superb ultra-wide prime delivering top-tier optical performance, with outstanding center sharpness at f/1.8 and extreme clarity in the corners by f/4. Key pros include excellent weather sealing, a durable design, a 77mm front filter thread, and superior control over aberrations compared to F-mount versions. Conversely, the lens is noted to be noticeably longer than its F-mount predecessor, making it somewhat bulky for a mirrorless prime. Minor cons include busy, "onion-shaped" bokeh highlights when shooting at close distances and a minimal design lacking a built-in focal distance scale or extra dials.

However, the lens is notably large and heavy for a mirrorless prime, matching the physical length of older DSLR designs with an adapter attached. It exhibits softness in the extreme FX corners—particularly at longer distances during landscape shoots—and is prone to occasional longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Additionally, its high list price of $1,050 / €1,200 makes it a costly investment. The unusually wide 49mm control ring increases the risk of accidental adjustments, and the included flimsy soft pouch offers subpar protection compared to competitors.

The Nikon NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S is rated as an outstanding, weather-sealed ultra-wide prime with a 5/5 rating, featuring excellent sharpness, smooth bokeh, and a fast, silent multi-focusing system. It boasts exceptional flare resistance, a customizable control ring, and 0.2m close-focusing capabilities, providing superior optical performance. While offering high quality, the lens is expensive, shows significant vignetting and -2.0% barrel distortion wide open, and lacks physical distance scales, relying on in-camera corrections for optimal performance.

The Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S is a highly capable, weather-sealed professional wide-angle lens that delivers superb optical performance, particularly for astrophotography. Priced at €1097, it features a durable metal and high-quality plastic construction, weighing a relatively light 505 grams, and includes a 77mm filter thread. The lens's standout strengths (pros) include its outstanding sharpness across the frame, excellent contrast, and highly accurate color output. Center sharpness is excellent even wide open at f/1.8, and the corners reach maximum sharpness when stopped down to f/4. Crucially for night-sky photographers, it handles coma exceptionally well, outperforming more expensive lenses by minimizing the distortion and stretching of stars in the corners. Despite its premium optical output, the lens does exhibit a few drawbacks (cons). It produces noticeable vignetting when shot wide open at f/1.8, though this is heavily minimized by f/2.8. There is also some inherent physical lens distortion, which is expected from an ultra-wide focal length, though both distortion and vignetting are easily corrected using post-processing lens profiles. Additionally, the physical lens body completely lacks a manual focus distance scale on...

The Nikon Z 20mm f/1.8 S is a highly versatile, wide-angle prime lens designed for full-frame Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras, offering a generous 94-degree viewing angle (and a 70-degree equivalent on DX bodies). Weighing 505g and featuring a 77mm filter thread, it is well-suited for landscape, cityscape, architectural, and astrophotography due to its minimal coma and astigmatism. Key technical highlights include a fast f/1.8 aperture for low-light shooting, an optical design of 14 elements in 11 groups with weather-sealing, and an exceptionally short minimum focusing distance of 0.2 meters that excels at exaggerating perspective. Video creators will also appreciate the lens's virtually silent autofocus and negligible focus breathing. The reviewer awards the lens a perfect 5-star rating, praising its spectacular corner-to-corner sharpness and non-existent lateral chromatic aberration, with only minor uncorrected barrel distortion and vignetting that are easily fixed in-camera. The primary pros highlighted are its outstanding image quality, minimal focus breathing, and the convenience of a separate lens hood with a standard filter thread. On the downside, the cons note that the lens is relatively pricey—costing about the same...

The LensTip review of the Nikon Nikkor Z 20 mm f/1.8 S concludes that this fast, ultra-wide-angle lens is an outstanding optical instrument designed to deliver exceptional image sharpness starting right from its maximum f/1.8 aperture. Tested on full-frame mirrorless Z bodies, the lens stands out for its superb resolution in the frame center and remarkably sensible image quality on full-frame edges even when wide open. Key pros highlighted in the review include its solid, weather-sealed casing, exceptionally low longitudinal and lateral chromatic aberrations, lack of serious distortion issues, and an accurate, silent autofocus system. Additionally, the lens yields pleasant bokeh (out-of-focus areas) for such a wide angle of view and shows excellent resistance when shooting against bright light. However, the review notes that achieving this tier of edge-to-edge sharpness required specific compromises from Nikon's optical engineers. The primary cons identified by LensTip include noticeable astigmatism and a weak coma correction, the latter of which causes point-like light sources to distort and lengthen in the corners of full-frame sensors—a distinct disadvantage for astrophotographers. The lens is also the heaviest and...

The Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm F1.8 S is a bright, ultra-wide prime lens designed exclusively for full-frame Nikon Z mirrorless cameras, making it a specialized choice for astrophotography, architecture, and landscape photographers. Tested on the 45-megapixel Nikon Z 7 II, the lens delivers exceptional resolution that enters the "excellent" range at f/2.8 across the entire frame and maintains strong performance down to f/11. Its dual-motor autofocus system operates quickly and quietly, and it supports a close-focusing distance of just 7.9 inches, which allows for unique close-up shots with beautifully rounded bokeh highlights in the background. Built to withstand outdoor elements, the lens barrel features dust and splash protection to match the durability of Nikon's full-frame camera bodies.

The Nikon 20mm f/1.8 S is a high-quality wide-angle prime lens for Z-mount cameras that delivers excellent sharpness across the center and DX crop areas wide open, which improves dramatically across the entire frame when stopped down to f/2.8 or f/4. Its multi-focus dual-motor system provides exceptionally snappy autofocus performance with low levels of focus breathing, making it a reliable option for both standard shooting and focus stacking. Optically, the lens excels at controlling flare, veiling glare, and coma, rendering it an extremely strong tool for landscape and astrophotography work. Furthermore, its robust weather-sealing and effective fluorine and nano crystal coatings enhance its durability in outdoor environments.

The Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S is a highly recommended ultra-wide-angle prime lens built for Nikon's full-format Z-mount system. It delivers outstanding optical resolution across the broader center of the image right from its maximum f/1.8 aperture, with impressively sharp borders and very usable corners for astrophotography. Stopping down the lens to f/2.8 and f/4 lifts corner sharpness to very good levels and achieves global peak performance. Surprisingly for an ultra-wide lens, it offers a remarkably smooth bokeh with well-maintained circular highlight discs across the image field. Chromatic aberrations are reasonably well-controlled, and its uncorrected barrel distortion sits at a moderate 2.1%, which drops to a negligible 0.2% via in-camera software. On the downside, the lens suffers from very high raw vignetting, showing a light fall-off of 3 EV at f/1.8 that requires software profiles to fully resolve. It also exhibits some bokeh fringing (longitudinal chromatic aberration) at wide apertures and a tiny amount of focus shift when stopping down. In terms of build, the weather-sealed chassis is sturdy and reliable, though it strips physical controls down to a minimum...