Nikon Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S brings a built-in 1.4x converter

By Grace Kim

What has Nikon unveiled?

The Nikkor Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S will be available in mid-November for a suggested retail price of $13,999.95. Nikon has fully unveiled the professional telephoto zoom for full-frame Nikon mirrorless cameras. It joins the company’s S-Line series, which the manufacturer says promises exceptional image quality, performance and build quality.

Nikon first announced the lens’s development in early May, and its full unveiling now sets the price, release window and detailed specifications that turn an earlier notice into a concrete product.

Takeaway: Nikon has now fixed the price and release timing for its unusual professional zoom.

What does the built-in 1.4x converter change?

A built-in 1.4x teleconverter gives the lens a role that its focal range alone does not. According to Nikon, no other 120-300mm f/2.8 telephoto zoom includes a converter. The 1.4x unit engages through a switch on the body.

With the converter active, the lens becomes equivalent to a 168-400mm f/4. Nikon describes that range as very similar to its classic and beloved 200-400mm f/4 F-mount lens. Without the converter, the constant f/2.8 aperture and native 120-300mm range suit indoor basketball and hockey.

The longer reach also addresses baseball, soccer and football. Nikon identifies wildlife, particularly large mammals, as another field of use. This gives the design several stated purposes without requiring a second lens.

Nikon says: “Despite being a zoom lens, it delivers outstanding rendering performance comparable to that of a prime lens across the entire frame. With superior resolution and large, natural bokeh, the lens captures athletes’ facial expressions and movements in fine detail, creating immersive images that make viewers feel as if they were part of the action.”

The optical construction uses:

• 30 elements arranged across 24 groups, with a nine-bladed aperture diaphragm.
• An ARNEO coating to suppress ghosting and flare, plus a Meso Amorphous coating. Nikon calls the latter its best anti-reflection performance in history.
• One ED element, one fluorite element, one short-wavelength refractive element, one Super ED element and one aspherical element.

Takeaway: The integrated converter is the lens’s clearest technical distinction within its class.

How does it compare with Nikon's predecessor?

The new lens follows the legendary AF-S 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR, Nikon’s earlier full-frame 120-300mm f/2.8 zoom. That model also received a development announcement before its full unveiling in early 2020. It is now discontinued.

The older lens used 25 elements across 19 groups and weighed 3,250 grams, or over 1.5 Nocts and nearly 7.2 pounds. The Nikkor Z S-Line model weighs 2,735 grams, just over six pounds.

That makes the new lens 515 grams, or 1.1 pounds, lighter despite adding the teleconverter.

Nikon attributes the saving to thinner lens elements and lighter autofocus motors. It used a broadly similar approach when it significantly lightened the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II.

The Nikkor Z lens measures approximately 353.5 millimetres, or 13.9 inches, long. Its maximum diameter is 128 millimetres, or 5.1 inches. The front accepts 112mm filters, and the lens also accepts 46mm drop-in filters.

Like the 70-200mm, the new lens has an Arca Swiss-compatible tripod foot. It removes the need for a separate plate on most standard tripods. The collar adds a rubber cushion and an integrated finger grip.

Takeaway: Nikon has reduced the weight while adding an optical converter, rather than trading one gain for another.

What do the focus and stabilisation figures show?

Focusing uses Nikon’s Silky Swift VCM system, which the company says delivers extremely rapid and accurate focusing. The lens focuses internally.

• Minimum focus distance is 0.98 metres, or 3.22 feet, at 120mm and two metres, or 6.6 feet, at 300mm.
• Maximum reproduction ratio is 0.18x at 150mm without the converter. It reaches 0.25x at an equivalent 210mm with the converter engaged.
• With Synchro VR, the lens promises up to 6.5 stops of shake correction at both the centre and edges of the frame, but that figure depends on using a compatible Nikon body.

The bodies listed at the time of writing are the Z9, Z8, Z6 III, Z5 II, Z5 IIC, Zf and ZR.

These figures map onto Nikon’s stated emphasis on reach, a constant aperture, close focus and stabilisation. The announcement provides no independent comparisons, however, so its prime-like rendering, focusing and VR claims await field use.

Takeaway: The specification sheet is clear; November field use will show how well it performs.