You pays your money and you takes your choice, as Mark Twain famously said. But pricing and choices can be difficult to navigate with some of Nikon’s prime lenses, especially those that have favorite focal lengths for many photographers. When the Z system was in its infancy, not that long ago, I was quite surprised that the first trilogy of up-market S-line primes had an f/1.8 rather than f/1.4 aperture rating, namely the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 S, Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S and Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S. I was quickly won over by the image quality and all-round performance, and at least they were relatively compact and lightweight, in keeping with slimline mirrorless cameras. However, they clearly weren’t as fast as the f/1.4 lenses to which enthusiast and professional photographers are often more accustomed. Perhaps more surprisingly, Nikon recently launched a pair of Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4 and Nikon Z 50mm f/1.4 which are naturally faster but lack S-line credentials and are less exotic than their f/1.8 siblings. And if you’re in the market for a lens with a less ‘classic’ focal length but you want something seriously small and lightweight, there are the Nikon Z 28mm f/2.8 and Nikon Z 40mm f/2, both of which are available in ‘SE’ versions with retro styling to match the Nikon Z f and Nikon Z fc.
So where does the new Z 35mm f/1.2 S fit into the scheme of things? Well, it literally puts the other 28mm, 35mm and 40mm lenses in the shade. It’s comparatively big, heavy and hugely expensive to buy. As such, it follows the Nikon Z 50mm f/1.2 S and Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S, completing a trinity of super-fast f/1.2 lenses that are designed to extract every last micron of performance from Nikon’s best Z system cameras, as well as being one of the best Nikon Z lenses in its own right.
