NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
Magnifications Reviewed
It has been quite a while since Nikon released the AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED mid-telephoto macro lens in 2006. The release of a new lens design in the form of the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S in 2021 has been much anticipated by Nikon macro photographers.
The new design included a number of new elements compared with the older AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor.
NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
16 elements in 11 groups
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G
14 elements in 11 groups
Yellow: ED element Blue: aspherical lens element Red: fluorine-coated front lens element
In terms of resolution the lens produces excellent results, with raw files sharpened with Adobe defaults exceeding what should be expected for the 24.3 MP sensor on the Z6II. To allow comparison with other data on this site the results with a small amount of default Adobe Photoshop sharpening are presented.
Nikon has a number of corrections that can be performed in-camera and these were turned off for the analysis shown. When Nikon corrections are applied in camera the MTF data is different probably due primarily to the diffraction compensation applied. Nikon in-camera distortion correction plays a very important role as uncorrected images at x 0.4 show a quite high -0.75% barrel distortion which is reduced to -0.048% with distortion correction enabled. The diffraction compensation is very apparent when comparing camera JPG with all corrections with RAW at x1 magnification on a Z8.
With this lens performing as mild telephoto as well as a macro lens this is definitely an inclusion in my Nikon Z lens kit!
This lens compares very favourably with the older AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm and the manual focus Zeiss Milvus 100M when attached with a FTZ adapter. Comparison Data
A detailed comparison of resolution data over the whole sensor area below reveals a bit of variation in the NIKKOR Z MC 105mm fully open that reduces as the lens is stopped down. The Zeiss Milvus 100 has much more even fall-off to the corners at wide apertures.
A comparison of performance of this lens on the Z6II and Z8 reveals that when stopped down to f/16 both
cameras provide similar resolution indicating the diffraction-limited performance at this aperture. Data