In addition to updating my Missing Nikkors article for the umpteenth time, I decided to take another approach. What follows is my current (and probably last F-mount) Nikkor Wish List and my rationale for it.
DX Lenses
I've been extremely vocal about Nikon missing the boat with DX lenses (buzz, buzz). Yes, Nikon can and did sell a lot of consumer convenience 18-xx DX zoom lenses. A lot, as in millions in total. The problem is that these are all one-time buys, they stay on the camera forever, and that user is done buying lenses. Then Nikon wonders why no one is still buying DX lenses. Well, it's a lower level user and they have the one lens they want.
Yet Nikon management can look across town and see Fujifilm selling a whole bunch of APS-C (DX) type lenses. What's going on there?
Duh: photography, dudes. The serious photographer understands lenses and wants more. Not more 18-xx lenses, not more kit lenses, not more low-cost and lower-quality AF-P lenses. Funny thing is, one of Nikon's more successful and well-regarded recent cameras is the D500, and you'd think they'd want to make the D7500 successful too. These cameras absolutely demand appropriate lenses. But Nikon doesn't have many of them. Indeed, other than the 16-80mm f/2.8-4E and the 35mm f/1.8G they don't have any.
So here we go. The needs in the DX lineup are plentiful:
- 14mm f/2.8E DX — Does Nikon remember Galen? He'd be demanding a lens like this. Because he'd still be running up mountains, only with a DX body instead of an N65.
- 16mm f/2E DX (1) — My requirement used to be f/2.8, but because of the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8, it went up: Nikon needs a fast wide prime to shift some sales.
- 23mm f/1.4E DX — The modern mild wide angle that can roam indoors and out.
- 23mm f/2.8E DX Pancake (2) — For the rest of the world, the travel lens that is also mild wide angle.
- 50mm f/1.4E DX (5) — (Can be anything from 50mm to 60mm) — The modern short portrait tele for the crop sensor crowd.
- 70mm f/2E DX (4) — The longer portrait tele. This is about as far as we can go in primes and get any real benefit from making the image circle DX instead of FX, so the FX line will take the mantle the rest of the way. Technically, the current 85mm f/1.8G FX can hold this space, though I find it a little long for portraits and a little fat for a DX lens. Thus, this isn't the first hole I'd try to fill if I were Nikon and its priority drops to #4.
- 12-24mm f/4E DX VR (3) — The remake of the original wide angle pro lens from Nikon. We don't really need 10mm. What we need is really good performance to the edges that holds up with 20/24mp image sensors (and whatever comes next for DX).
- 16-50mm f/4E DX AF-P VR — In theory, a clearly smaller lens than the 16-80mm f/2.8-4. We need to keep the DX advantage (smaller than FX) in our kits, even if it means sacrificing something (in this case a stop of aperture and some telephoto).
- 50-135mm f/2.8E DX AF-P VR (6) — The missing fast telephoto zoom. Frankly, Nikon has their work cut out for them, as the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 Art is a really, really good lens. So good I might not buy this Nikkor even if it existed.
- 50-135mm f/4E DX AF-P VR — The complement to the other two f/4 zooms, giving you a capable 12-135mm (18-200mm equivalent) kit that's highly capable (24mp acuity levels) in as small as possible sizing (the f/4 and DX bits).
Had Nikon started by delivering two of these a year starting in 2014, we'd have been done in 2019. Moreover, the signal that it would have sent would have kept some of the defections to Fujifilm from occurring. Now, well, that's 10 lenses I defined, and Nikon only introduces about six a year on average. They'd have to completely prioritize DX lenses or add a great deal of launch capability to turn DX around.
So, to all those managers at Nikon scratching their heads wondering why DX failed them so quickly, go down the hall to the restroom and look in the mirror.
I hold out very little hope that Nikon will address the DX lens wish list. What that means that any followups to the D7500 and D500 will do worse than Nikon is forecasting in their future spreadsheets. You'll notice the numbers in parentheses in the above list. If Nikon is going to produce any future DX lenses, at all, those are the priority numbers I'd give them: 16mm f/2 first, 23mm f/2.8 second, a better 12-24mm f/4 next. Put out one a year, worst case. Anything less than that means Nikon will simply just let DX DSLRs turn to dust, as far as I'm concerned. Pity.
FX Lenses
The tricky part here is that Nikon updated many of their FX lenses, but they didn't make them E or AF-P or video/mirrorless ready. I'm not 100% sure what they should do about that. Starting the prime lineup all over again seems like a task that would delay the mirrorless line, unfortunately.
Still, I like the idea of revisiting a few key lenses. In particular:
- 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm f/1.4E AF-P fast focus primes. Some focal length gaps are fine; these are the lenses needed to quickly help fill that E/AF-P/video/mirrorless requirement but still work fine on the big, high resolution DSLRs. We need that 18mm for crop video by the way, not so much for still use.
- 135mm f/1.8E and 200mm f/2.8E primes, and a 400mm f/4E PF prime. This rounds out the telephoto prime set (the 400mm gives you the 500/600mm f/5.6 with the TC-14EIII). I know a lot of folk will be surprised that a 200mm f/2E FL or 300mm f/2.8E FL aren't on my list. I'm pretty sure they're on Nikon's list, unfortunately, though that might be a mirrorless list. The problem is that that boat has passed. Once we get into the exotic lenses, the demand is now near zero for new ones at the current pricing. Basically most of those lenses end up getting bought by lens rental companies, and they're not repeat buyers. Still, Nikon's likely to give us the two FL lenses before we get any of the three I've asked for in my wish list.
- 200mm f/4E Micro-Nikkor VR. Oh dear have we missed this lens. For a company that was so instrumental in pioneering macro photography, it seems that they've completely lost the thread. Instead of new capabilities, we keep getting "copy stand" macro lenses (e.g. 40mm DX and 60mm FX). Anyone still have a copy stand?
The good news is that the zoom side of things has given us remakes to bring latest technologies into the key Nikkor lenses. The 24-70mm and 70-200mm f/2.8E zooms are already in place. The 14-24mm f/2.8 is the one that needs the most refresh, and I'd make the 24-120mm into a 24-85mm f/4 or maybe 24-105mm f/4 myself. The 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G could use a freshening, too, as the new 70-300mm and 200-500mm have revealed its weaknesses, and Nikon could really use a better handholdable telephoto zoom that makes it to 400mm.
So in FX, I've got twelve lenses on my current wish list. And I'd have to admit that some of them can wait a bit, as the current lens in that position is still fine for most uses (e.g. 24mm f/1.4, 14-24mm f/2.8). The biggest need out of all dozen lenses I want: a 50mm f/1.4 that's up to the performance of the current Nikon DSLRs. Even Nikon doesn't suggest any of their many 50mm lens options for D850 users. Wow. Talk about admission of failure.
Final Thoughts
I haven't even talked about the mirrorless system, and I've identified 22 lenses I believe Nikon needs to produce for DSLRs. That's four years worth of their historic levels of introduction (six a year).
The problem is that Nikon's missing lenses, the lenses that we all wish for, the ones that I identify in this article, those are all current demands, not what we hope to see five years from now.
Nikon's strength entering the DSLR era was lenses. Ditto for Canon. It's why they dominated the DSLR market as they did the late film SLR market. I can't believe that Nikon didn't realize that lenses are a truly protective barrier against competitors. Fujifilm has erased the DX advantage now with the XF mount onslaught of lenses. Not the proliferation of Fujifilm mirrorless cameras, which is also happening, but lenses. It's those Fujifilm lenses that are attracting crop sensor customers right in the heart of Nikon's success (the D70 level, which currently is served by the D7500).
Someone needs to wake the boys up at the glass factory. Maybe it got too hot for them with all that glass being made and they all took a long siesta. Siesta time is over. Nikon needs to muscle its way back into the "we make the best glass, no matter what you need or want for whatever Nikon camera you choose." Nothing less is satisfactory now.
Thus, my wish list here is also a checklist as to whether Nikon is trying to fill the gaps. Yes, we can quibble about many of the specifics I've outlined (is it a 16mm f/2 or f/1.8 or pancake f/2.8 DX?). That's not the point. The point is that the Nikon F-mount has holes and weak points, and the serious DSLR shooter is still waiting for them to fill those. Can I cross any of the wish list lenses off my wish list with Nikon's next lens introductions? Any? We'll see. I'll do just that in this article if they do, but currently, nothing is crossed out, and this article has been visible and updated for three years running ;~). (I didn't change my list from three years ago, I crossed nothing off in those three years ;~(
Finally, let me make another point: I'm not talking about the quality of the lenses Nikon does make. For several years now, the Nikkors that have been introduced are really knocking it out of the park. At low price points (200-500mm). At high price points (70-200mm f/2.8E). And at everything in between.
Nikon makes excellent lenses. The question is this: are they making the right lenses? Will they make the right lenses soon to shore up the gaps?
I find it a little disconcerting that no real progress has been made at this in three years. About the only gap lens I removed from my wish list was the 105mm f/1.4.
