
The new Nikkor Z 24-200mm lens arrived Monday afternoon and I realized I had forgotten to buy a protective NC filter so I spent an hour searching for the extra 67mm filter I knew I had someplace. Its whereabouts remain unknown however so eventually I borrowed the filter from my Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens so I could finally try out the lens. I attached it to my Nikon Z7 and went outside to see what I could find. A ray of sun hit one of the flower clusters on the garlic chives where a couple of honey bees were busy collecting pollen and nectar. I’m not sure what honey from garlic chives might taste like but I was happy to get the flower and the bee isolated in the afternoon light. I zoomed to 200mm and was only a couple of feet away from the flower cluster but I wanted to get closer so I switched to High Speed Crop to get another 100mm reach. Minimum focusing distance of this lens at 200mm is less than 2 and 1/2 feet, so it’s possible to get fairly close to the subject and thus increase the size of the image by zooming with your feet. I’ve only had a chance to take a few photographs so far but I’m very pleased with the performance and sharpness of the lens. I can tell this camera and lens combination will become a go-to pair for me when I want to limit the weight of my gear. Much more to come.