Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8 - £529/$497

This pancake prime lens has a compact, lightweight build and a weighty price tag

- Matthew Richards

The Nikon Z 26mm f/2.8 is Nikon’s skinniest Z system lens to date, meaning there’s little room to shoehorn features into this pancake lens. Despite only having eight optical elements, three are aspherical, helping to reduce the size and weight. The lens is supplied with a slip-on front cap, rather than Nikon’s chunkier type and the bayonet-fit HB-111 hood supplied is similarly slimline. There’s no filter thread on the lens, so you can only fit filters with the hood mounted.

Build and handling

Despite the weight, build quality feels solid – it has a metal mounting plate, which should prove durable, and weather seals to keep moisture and dust at bay. But something has to give, and here, it’s the inner barrel. At the infinity focus point, the inner barrel is flush with the front surface of the lens but gradually extends as you sweep through to the shortest focus distance of 0.2m. It’s then obvious why there’s no filter thread on the lens itself, and filters can only be fitted via the hood.