IN THE FIELD
Nigel Atherton spent a few days in China shooting with the Nikon Z f, and shares his impressions
The late 1970s and early 1980s were a golden age for photography. A new wave of smaller, more refined and more affordable 35mm SLRs had appeared, led by Olympus, whose TV ads made household names of Bailey, Donovan and Lichfield.
Photography was cool. AP’s highest ever readership peaked in 1980, just a few short years before computers, gaming and satellite TV gave photography more competition for the public’s attention.
Of all the cameras from that era, none has maintained the mystique and desirability of the tank-like Nikon FM and its successors. Those iconic models have come to define what a classic 35mm SLR should look like. They represent the zenith of 35mm camera design to many people but not, it seems, to Nikon’s design team who turned their back on this styling in the 1990s – a low point for Nikon camera design, I feel.
I have owned a succession of Nikon cameras since my first one in 1985 (film SLR, DSLR and mirrorless) and all have been excellent, but none has quite had the same aesthetic appeal. In recent years Nikon has belatedly come to understand the depth of affection for those classics. In 2013 it launched the Df, based on the D610, which looked like a super-sized FM. In 2021 the mirrorless Z fc nailed the looks, styling and dimensions of the FM series almost perfectly, but being based on the company’s entry-level, APS-C format Z 50, it never really stood a chance of walking in the FM’s shoes. So when Nikon launched the fullframe mirrorless Z f late last year the internet went nuts. Finally here was a camera worthy of the mantle. A proper Nikon.
Atrip to Shanghai
When I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Shanghai in December, I knew instantly which camera to take. The Z f came supplied with the similarly retrostyled Z 40mm f/2 SE but I opted to take a couple of extra lenses to cover all bases. I chose Nikon’s Z 24-120mm f/4 S as my go-to walkabout lens. I consider this to be the company’s best travel zoom – wide enough, and telephoto enough, to cover 90% of my needs without being too big and heavy. Almost as an afterthought I added the 26mm f/2.8 pancake, Nikon’s smallest, lightest full-frame lens, for discreet street shots.
Taking the Z f out of its box it felt surprisingly heavy and sure enough, my kitchen scales told me that it is indeed heavier than my Z 6, but only by 50g (713g vs 665g). But the weight difference feels a lot greater than that, purely because, unlike the Z 6, it doesn’t have a handgrip, so it’s like the difference between holding a brick one-handed versus holding a dumbbell of the same weight. The Z f is a camera that, out of the box, needs to be held with two hands. Fortunately our Technical Editor, Andy Westlake, who was reviewing the Z f at
