Nikon Z 24-200 for Travel Photography - My personal Review

35mm, 1/500, F8, ISO100

Bit zooms often get little respect from prime shooters. Most cameras come with kit lenses in the 24mm to 70mm range. Some of these kits are very nicely done, like the 18-55mm APS-C lens by Fuji. But to go up to 200mm is a different story. I like to share my viewpoint about this topic, and why I use such a beast. Let me embed this into a story about our recent trip. After all, the zooms are made for hiking and biking.

On our trip to the Northern coast of Germany, North Frisia, the weather was not friendly to us tourists. Photographers tend to see this differently. But, to be honest, the cold and strong wind was hard to bear at times. Only the locals seem to ride their bikes in this weather. Ours stayed safely locked the whole time.

63mm, 1/200, F8, ISO100

I had only two lenses with me for the trip, the Nikon Z 24-200 F4-F6.3 and the Nikon Z 50mm F1.8 S. Most of the time, the zoom stayed on the camera. This also prevents the dust specks to accumulate on the sensor. I could detect more than enough left to be removed from the sky. If you take out the battery before removing the lens, the shutter curtain will close on the Nikon Z5. But, besides the problem with disk access during the removal of the battery, I am afraid that the curtain might be damaged. So, I do not apply this trick.

200mm, 1/200, F6.3, ISO800

The obvious main feature of this zoom is the enormous flexibility from a wide angle to a reasonable telephoto zoom, covering a nice range for travel photography. It may not be wide enough for certain styles of landscape photography, and it is certainly not long enough for birders or safaris. But for those extreme photographic aims, one should use specialized lenses anyway. This lens has a versatile range for everyday use.

69mm, 1/100, F6, ISO100

The Nikon Z 24-200mm turned out to be plenty good for most photographic tasks, way better than any of the travel zooms I used before, even the brilliant Sigma 17-70. I use it mainly in two different modes.

1. Wide open, at least as wide as possible on this F4-F6.3 zoom. This will isolate subjects, especially in the longer range. The lens is then very sharp in the center, even wide open, at least from 24mm to 70mm. Above 70mm it is still perfect to good, with 200mm being the weakest. Off center, it falls off wide open, but above 35mm it performs sufficiently well even in the corners. 
2. Closed down to F11. This yields enough DOF for a chance to get everything sharp. The lens performs still perfect at this aperture, evenly from center to the edges. F8 is slightly better, but on a full frame camera, it does not provide enough DOF.

I have set these modes to two of the user modes. For the wide open one, save the mode when the camera is at F4. That will set it to the widest open aperture in all focal lengths.

200mm, 1/1250, F8, ISO100

The lens also has VR. The Z5 seems to let it do the stabilization and no longer relies on the IBIS. I found it quite effective. On the long end, it is highly welcome. Together with the good performance of the Nikon Z5 at high ISO, I had no problems with sharpness of still subjects. The camera can set the shutter speed and ISO combination depending on the focal length, and you can even select between a slower or a faster mode.

Of course, VR doesn’t help with motion blur. Again, the good noise behavior of the camera helps to allow for short shutter speeds. For quickly moving subjects, I suggest manual mode with Auto ISO. The disadvantage is that you can no longer use the other mode dial for exposure compensation, and have to rely on AEL lock, or set the compensation permanently with +/-. Alternatively, use S mode if you do not worry about the open aperture the camera will choose.

By the way, I think you should switch the image stabilization off on a tripod, although Nikon says you can leave it on. I have no scientific evidence for either method.

36mm, 1/40, F8, ISO125

Don't expect too much regarding Bokeh from this zoom lens. If you need to isolate your subject, use the lens wide open, at a longer focal length, and put the subject close to the camera. Brightly lit backgrounds which are not far away can look agitated and unpleasant, especially above F8. In this case, it might be better to use F11 for overall sharpness. However, F8 can look good, as you see in the image below.

You can get very nice shots of flowers and the like using the telephoto range and the widest aperture you can set. Don't shy back from higher ISO settings in this case, and take care of the background while composing the image. The maximum magnification is around 0.3, so you can get objects around 12cm filling the frame easily. Due to the quality of the system, you can even crop a bit more.

150mm, 1/160, F8, ISO1600

So, what is my summary? I find the 28-200mm superb. It is better than any other super-zoom I know. Using it within its limits, it will serve you very well. I highly recommend the lens. For indoor shots like in museums or taking portraits, I suggest adding a prime lens. I use the excellent 50mm F1.8 S, but the 35mm might be a better choice depending on your style.

An alternative is the 24-120mm F4. The tests suggest that this lens is excellent in the center, even wide open. The edges fall off, but improve when stopped down. The more recent 28-75mm F2.8 is expensive, but seems to be excellent in the center wide open, with blurry corners improving only when shut down. There are also the 24-70mm lenses. The F4 version used to be the kit lens. You can get it for a reasonable price. It is not sufficiently better than the 28-200mm to compensate the restriction in focal length. It just offers F4 at 70mm, and it is cheaper than the 24-200mm. The 24-70mm F2.8 is another story. That professional and expensive lens is ideal for pros shooting weddings or fashion. I cannot justify the expense for my purposes.

As final information, all images on this page, like all my images, are shot in RAW format. I develop the images in Lightroom. Up to ISO800, I do not add much noise reduction. Only above this limit, I apply more noise reduction. The images of the Nikon Z5 will still look very nice and detailed. Usually, the sharpness is at 75% with a radius of 1.0 and details at 25%. 

54mm, 1/50, F5.6, ISO1600