An extraordinarily compact and light super-telephoto lens!

While the official name does not include those two magical letters ‘PF’, the lens does use a Phase Fresnel element in its design

- Ashok Kandimalla

Nikkor Z 800 mm f/6.3 VR ₹5,87,995

This contributes to its unusually small size (for an 800 mm lens). Nikon did produce two very compact and light lenses using PF elements but both these were with the F mount. This is the first PF lens with the Z mount and its specs caused a sensation when they were announced. Compared to the existing F mount lens of the same focal length, the new lens is 76 mm shorter, just a little more than half the weight, and now the biggest surprise - less than half the cost! The only loss is in terms of lens speed which drops from f/5.6 to f/6.3 (about 1/3 stop) – not a big deal. So, how does it perform? Read on, to find out.

Design and Build Quality 

While it is small for an 800 mm lens, this is a large lens that flares very rapidly towards the front to accommodate a very large front element.

As with all S primes, there are two rings. The first is very broad and is for manual focussing. The second called the control ring is customisable for aperture control or exposure compensation or ISO. The huge front element prevents the use of screw-in filters and necessitates the use of the rear ‘drop-in’ type.

The usual focus limit and AF/MF switches are also present. The former has two settings - full range or 10 m to infinity. There are seals and gaskets to make the lens dust and moisture-proof. Coming to buttons there is one for setting focus memory plus a multi-function programmable button called L-Fn. There is another set of four buttons, all of which are called with the same name that is, L-Fn2 and all support the same programmed function. In other words, L-Fn2 is replicated four times around the lens barrel for easy access. The overall fit and finish is excellent.