Nikkor AF-S 24 to 120mm f4 lens

This is the Nikkor 24-120 f/4 lens from Nikon. Unlike Canon, Nikon includes lens hoods for camera lenses. I believe even third-party lens manufacturers like Tamron, Sigma, Youngnuo, and even Meike do the same.

This is a zoom lens, meaning it doesn’t have a fixed focal length. And it is also a telephoto lens by zooming in all the way to 120mm. Note that not all zoom lenses are telephoto lenses. There are the 10-20mm, 11-16mm and 16-35mm lenses which can equally zoom in but still produce wide images and videos.

The Manual and Auto Focusing sliders are located on the sides. The vibration reduction slider and this other one. There are some interesting inscriptions on the lens though, like the Nano Crystal Coat, SWM, VR, ED, and IF, which all have specific meanings and determine what you get with this lens. So, if you’re interested in learning more about that, kindly check the first link in the description.

Because this is a premium lens, Nikon spared no expense to ensure that the ring mount is made entirely of metal. The plastic body is of a concern though, but it appears to be hard plastic, so you wouldn’t have to worry too much about dropping it.,

This is a compact and versatile 5x standard zoom lens with 9 aperture blades that opens up to a maximum of f4 and a minimum of f22. If you didn’t already get that from the name, it has a focal length of 24 to 120 millimetres if you don’t already get that from the name, and a minimum and maximum focusing distance of 0.45 meters and infinity, respectively. The focusing ring also provides a smooth zoom in and out with very few jitters. This lens has support for Nikon F mount systems so if you’re on a newer Nikon camera, say the Z series, you would need the proprietary lens adapter for this. Although the Standard zoom is designed for Full Frame FX-format F-mount cameras, it can also be used with Crop Sensor DX models where it provides a 36-180mm equivalent focal length range.

It comes with Nikon VR II; VR which stands for Vibration Reduction to help stabilize handheld shots as much as possible. Nikon says this is more of a standard zoom lens so I guess that’s why they practically have it bundled with most new cameras you would purchase.

Image quality is good enough if you have good lighting. For a great shot, though, zooming in is the way to go. I noticed there were blurrier backgrounds when zoomed in.

Here’s how the lens video quality looks with aperture f4 and varying focal lengths. At 120mm, 85mm, 70mm, 50mm, 30mm and finally at 24mm.

And here’s how it looks in an indoor shot at 120 mm, 85 mm, 70 mm, 50 mm, 30 mm, and finally at 24 mm. As you may have guessed, the indoor shot is much darker because of the f/4 aperture, which is the maximum.

One thing I forgot to mention is that this lens is in no way small or lightweight, at least, in my opinion. I know there are much heavier lenses, especially in the 70-200s and the general telephoto range of lenses, but, this is equally heavy. Funny enough, it doesn’t feel as heavy as the Sigma 35mm f/1.8 lens.

So, for about GHC 15,000 brand new and between GHC 6000 and 8000 for use, should you get this lens? Well, here’s what I think. Depending on what you use it for, this lens would be either super helpful or a complete waste of resources. If you’re going to be shooting a lot of landscape and wildlife or would be primarily using this lens on bright days or heavy lighting conditions, then this is one to go for. But if most of your work will be indoors or you need a wider aperture for extremely blurry backgrounds, then for $1100 I would rather go in for a Tamron or Sigma 24 to 70mm f2.8 lens. Yes, you would lose out on the 71 to 120mm extra focal length but you would also make up for it in a wider aperture. The Tamron and Sigma lenses do work well with Nikon cameras, even with the adapters so it’s worth considering as well. Links to the lenses mentioned will be in the description below, so be sure to check them out