The lens is made up of 30 elements in 24 groups, and has a wide array of special glass. It has an ED element, super ED element, fluorite element, SR element, and an aspherical lens, in addition to Nikon’s Arneo and Meso-Amorphous coatings. Nikon says that, compared to its DSLR-era 120-300mm F2.8, this lens has three fewer elements and is more mechanically simple, with fewer moving lens groups. The elements that are there are thinner, too, making the lens around half a kilogram (1.1lb) lighter. It has 9 aperture blades.

Mitchell Clark

The lens’ flagship optical feature is its built-in 1.4x teleconverter, which, when engaged (with a very satisfying thunk), turns the lens into a roughly 170-420mm F4. If you need even more reach and have plenty of light, the lens is also compatible with Nikon’s external 1.4x and 2x teleconverters. Its zooming and focusing are all done internally, helping keep the lens relatively compact and sealed against the elements. It’s also optically stabilized, and Nikon says it’s good for 6.5EV of correction, when combined with a camera that can synchronize its IBIS system with the lens.

Autofocusing is handled by Nikon’s “Silky Swift VCM” linear motors, like we’ve seen in many of its highest-end lenses. This makes it extremely responsive, so it can track fast subjects like athletes, animals or motorsports vehicles. The lens also has a built-in focus limiter, letting you choose whether it’s searching through its entire range, or ignoring subjects closer than 6m (19′ 8″). Its minimum focus goes from 0.98m (3′ 2″) at the wide end to 2m (6′ 7″) at the long end.

Nikon

For what it is, the lens is quite manageable in terms of its size and weight. It’s 354mm (13″) long and weighs 2735g (~6lb). I carried it around for the better portion of a day, and didn’t find it to onerous, especially considering the range it provided. Of course, it’s at the size where you’ll want to use its included tripod foot if you’re mounting it, rather than attaching the camera body. Thankfully, it’s cut to fit into Arca-Swiss compatible heads without the need for a plate. The tripod collar is also rotatable, though there aren’t clicked detents at 90 intervals, which we’ve appreciated in some other high-end lenses; instead, you just get markings.

The lens has a very large front element, though it’s still threaded for 112mm filters. That’s a relatively exotic size, so if you can’t find a big enough version of the filter you’re looking for, the lens also accepts 46mm drop-in filters at the rear.

In its press release, Nikon pitches the Z 120-300mm F2.8 TC VR S as the ultimate tool for sports and action photography, and it’s priced for professional use. The lens will be available in “mid-November,” and will retail for $13,999.

Nikon

Nikon Nikkor Z 120-300mm F2.8 TC VR S

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Pre-production sample gallery

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it. 

Our samples were produced using a pre-production copy of the lens paired with a Z8 loaned to us by Nikon, so evaluation of its optical quality should be taken with a grain of salt. They’ve been processed using our standard Capture One profile, which applies the manufacturer distortion profile, but doesn’t correct for vignetting.

Nikon Nikkor Z 120-300mm F2.8 TC VR S specifications