I have been a huge fan of 35mm primes for almost as long as I’ve been a portrait and wedding photographer! Today, in this Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 review, I’m excited to tell you why that is. In my opinion as both a professional and a hobbyist, this DX Nikkor prime lens is perfect for both photographers and videographers who love capturing candid moments, environmental portraits, and all types of content from everyday life to world travels.
Yes, I prefer this focal length more than the “nifty fifty” 50mm (equivalent) focal length. That is, on full-frame, I prefer 35mm more than 50mm. So, on Nikon DX cameras with their 1.5x crop factor, this means I prefer 24mm instead of a ~35mm focal length.
I strongly believe that you’ll feel the same way I do, especially if you’re interested in capturing a little bit more of your subjects’ environment. That’s what I love most about this exact focal length; it’s not “too wide” that it turns every image into a dramatic landscape scene. It also has enough shallow depth of field to still give that portrait look, the subtle background blur that isolates your subjects.
Without any further, ado, let’s dive into this Nikon Z 24mm f/1.7 DX review!
Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 | Specifications
- FOCAL LENGTH & ANGLE OF VIEW: 24mm, 61° (36mm full-frame equivalent)
- LENS MOUNT(S): Nikon Z mirrorless (DX 1.5x crop)
- APERTURE & RANGE: f/1.7 to f/11, 7 rounded blades
- STABILIZATION: No
- AUTOFOCUS: Quiet STM motor
- MANUAL FOCUS: Yes, electronically controlled
- OPTICAL CONSTRUCTION: 9 elements in 8 groups
- MECHANICAL BUILD: Mostly plastic, no weather sealing
- MAGNIFICATION & FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.19x, 4.7 in. (11.9 cm)
- FILTER THREADS & HOOD: 46mm, cone-shaped hood w/ 46mm threads
- SIZE: 2.8 x 1.6 in. (70 x 40 mm)
- WEIGHT: 4.8 oz (136g)
- PRICE: $276.95
Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 Review | Who Should Buy It?
As I have mentioned in my Nikon Z50 ii Review, and a few other Nikon mirrorless camera and lens reviews, one of the biggest reasons why I love Nikon’s system is that it’s so easy for me to recommend it. Simply put, the question “who should buy it?” is so easy to answer, because Nikon’s lineup offers such a smooth transition from “total beginner” to “high-end professional”.
Let me put it this way: if you’re just starting out, you can get a lens like this DX Z-mount 24mm f/1.7, and a camera like the Nikon Z50 ii, …and you’ll be getting a nearly identical experience compared to the full-frame (FX) Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.4 and the Nikon Z5 ii. The controls are incredibly similar, and the image results are beautiful as well.
With most other systems, you don’t get to feel the same level of continuity as you potentially upgrade from a beginner camera to a prosumer or flagship pro camera.
So, whether you have lofty goals of being a professional portrait photographer some day, or you actually just want professional results as a lifelong hobbyist, …this is the perfect lens for you.
Portrait & Wedding Photography / Video
I really love this focal length for portraits and weddings; I think it’s actually my top recommendation for candid types of portraits, wedding photojournalism, and all sorts of things!
This lens is perfect for those types of dynamic environments where one minute you’re snapping the perfect detail pic of an aesthetic plate of food, and the next minute you’re clicking group portraits of 3-5 friends.
I also love how compact and lightweight this particular 24mm f/1.7 is, because it really allows me to “disappear” as either a guest at a wedding/event, or even as the working professional. That’s one problem with gigantic portrait lenses such as a 70-200mm f/2.8, or any f/1.2 prime… They’re so obnoxiously huge, that it’s very difficult to point your camera in anyone’s direction without them becoming aware, and likely self-conscious.
However, with a lens like this, you can capture gorgeous, professional results, while maintaining the outward appearance of being a casual observer, and an active participant in what’s happening around you.
Video: Vloggers & Content Creators
Although portrait & wedding professionals also make video content, of course, I was mainly referring to photographers in the previous section. However, make no mistake, this lens is also perfect for video.
Whether you are an all-around lifestyle content creator, or you’re looking to do professional work in events, weddings & portraits, or other things such as travel, you will really like this lens, too.
There is only one caveat, though, and that is this: If you’re exclusively a vlogger, then 24mm on 1.5x crop is definitely too “tight” of a view. Especially when you activate digital stabilization, which adds even more cropping to your video frames; this lens is going to be have more like a 40-50mm lens.
That’s great for general B-roll video, but again, if you’re primarily a vlogger, you’ll want something wider. I’d recommend the Nikon 12-28mm DX, which I also just reviewed. I do wish that Nikon would create another DX prime, anywhere in the range from 12mm to 16mm, for vloggers. Surely, such a prime is in the works! Until then, this lens gets my recommendation for video work of all types, with this asterisk for vloggers in particular.
Candid Street Photography, Travel, Vacation
Even if you have no interest in posed portraits or any sort of professional work along those lines, I still strongly recommend having a prime like this. It’s a perfect balance for all-around everyday photography. Whether you’re just commuting around town, hanging out with friends & family, …or you’re on an epic vacation that you’ve been saving up for all year, this could be the lens that stays on your camera most of the time.
Of course, I’d pair this lens with at least one zoom, as well. The 12-28mm for those who want to emphasize landscapes, or the 16-50mm for those who want to do a little bit of everything, or the Nikon DX 55-250mm for those who photograph lots of wildlife and/or action sports.
Landscape & Nightscape Photography
Once again, I do wish that Nikon would make a 15mm or 16mm f/1.4 or f/1.7 DX prime lens, and/or a 10mm or 11mm f/1.8. Any lens along those lines would be much better for both landscapes and nightscapes, since the night sky often demands a much wider focal length than the equivalent of 35mm.
Having said that, I did find this Nikon Z 24mm f/1.7 to be excellent at night; with decent image quality even wide open and in the image corners. Furthermore, when stopping down, it becomes incredibly sharp across the entire image frame. Still at this focal length, I’d probably rather have a zoom for general landscape photography.
Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 Review | Pros & Cons
I will go over the pros and cons of this lens from the standpoint of, a beginner photographer who has professional aspirations. In other words, I believe this lens does deliver professional results on a beginner-friendly budget! There are a few caveats, but they’re minor and I honestly think Nikon hit the nail on the head with this prime.
Image Quality: Sharpness
A 35mm lens is often very “easy to make sharp”, so the bar has been set very high by virtually all competitors. Having said that, this sub-$300 lens delivers resolution that would have you mistaking the results for any of the competitors that cost two or three times more, easily.
It’s not flawlessly sharp, to be sure. There is some faint softness wide-open at f/1.7, and the best results are gained at around f/2.2, or f/4 if you’re really pixel-peeping the corners.
Honestly? Considering that the emphasis of most users will be to achieve a flattering aesthetic when capturing pictures of people and other casual subjects, I think the overall image quality is a perfect balance of resolution and a smooth “character” to the image results. But, more on the bokeh next…
Image Quality: Bokeh
Indeed, one of my favorite things to do with a lens like this is to use it wide-open and get buttery-smooth background blur. Honestly, that’s part of the whole point of having a prime lens. Compared to a kit lens such as the Nikon 16-50mm, which is severely restricted in terms of how much background blur can be achieved at any focal length.
Wide-open at f/1.7, the background blur is gorgeous. Even when stopping down to f/2.2 or f/2.8, the results are very flattering, and perfect for group photos of 3-5 people.
Image Quality: Colors & Contrast
I use Nikon’s built-in Picture Controls pretty religiously, and I’m always switching back and forth between the “Landscape” color mode for all outdoor/nature scenes, or the “Natural” mode for portraits & other everyday imagery, (and video) …or of course the in-camera monochrome mode, sometimes.
These in-camera settings aren’t going to harm your raw files; you can change them later in post-production. But I like to set them in-camera to make my colors and contrast really perfect when showing people photos on the back of the camera. Then, in Lightroom or Capture One, I can re-apply those same Picture Controls, and achieve virtually the same beautiful color response as I did in-camera.
With this particular lens, the results speak for themselves: gorgeous colors, and no, I am not editing most of these images at all, aside from setting the Picture Control!
Image Quality: Vignetting & Distortion
As with virtually all modern mirrorless lenses, you’ll want to use the built-in lens profile that is automatically applied to JPG and raw image files. The vignetting is minimal and the distortion is virtually nonexistent!
The only caveat to this is if you’re doing low-light work with extremely high ISOs, especially time-lapse images of the night sky. In these scenarios, the noise can create a horrible pattern if the distortion correction is turned on, in rare cases. So, for me as a nightscape photographer, I just got in the habit of, “better safe than sorry” and I turn off the distortion and/or vignetting correction when photographing the night sky.
Image Quality: Sunstars & Flare
With an odd number of aperture blades, (7) this prime lens has double the number of sunstar points, actually. (17) As with many modern mirrorless lenses, the points of the sunstars aren’t very…pointy. They’re more open-ended, which is slightly less appealing, but not really a big deal since this isn’t a dedicated cityscape lens.
Image Quality: Color Fringing, Aberration, Coma & Astigmatism
Usually such affordable lenses fall short in this technical category of a review. In other words, a nightscape photographer with a critical eye might say that a lens is “trash in the corners”.
I’m happy to report that even in the image corners, things like coma, astigmatism, and other aberrations are relatively minimal! I wouldn’t hesitate to run this lens wide-open for a nightscape time-lapse.
Image Quality: Macro & Close-Up Photography
I love using “normal” primes for close-up work; even if they don’t say “macro” in the name of the lens, they’re still highly capable! With that in mind, the maximum magnification of 0.19X seems rather underwhelming, but the results speak for themselves. As long as you’re not specifically looking for macro-level magnification factors, you’ll be delighted with the close-up results from this lens.
I did find that when getting to the absolute minimum focusing distances, it helped to stop the lens down to about f/2.2 or f/2.8 in order to get crisp, sharp results. Otherwise, softness does creep into the images. The good news is, at such close distances you won’t see you bokeh suffer any hit at all when stopping down just a little.
Nikon Z 24mm f/1.7 DX Review | Design & Durability
Physically, this is clearly a budget-friendly lens. The mount itself is plastic, as well as the rest of the lens barrel. This isn’t really a big problem compared to a metal mount, however, because the lens is so stubby that it’s simply not possible to exert any sort of stress on the mount! Your only concern will be mild wear-and-tear if you’re incessantly swapping lenses for 5+ years.
There isn’t any weather sealing, either, so again, just take decent care of this lens and you’ll be fine. I’ve taken innumerable lenses out in a light rain, or into a dune field, and all you need is a bit of common sense and everything will be fine.
Focus Breathing & Gimbal Balance
For video shooters of any type, these are important metrics for any lens review. I will flat-out refuse to own a giant, heavy lens if I think I’ll be using it on a gimbal for video work, period. Thankfully, this is an excellent balance even on the lightest types of gimbals. Also, focus breathing is minimal; you won’t really notice it unless you’re doing absolutely static scenes and are racking focus back and forth a lot.
Ergonomics & Portability
Whenever a lens is this tiny, I always fear for its image quality. Of course, I already mentioned and demonstrated how good the image quality is! So, now I get to remind you just how tiny and lightweight this thing is. It’s about as small as a very old 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, which means it is perfectly pocketable in most jacket pockets. (I never recommend actually stuffing a whole camera into a pocket, by the way; I’m just giving you a sense of scale!)
Autofocus Performance & Manual Focus
With such tiny glass elements, a single STM motor is all that is needed to make focusing snappy, responsive, and reliable. It’s virtually silent, too; you’ll never hear it if you’re using any sort of external microphone for your video work.
The manual focus is electronically controlled, as with most all AF mirrorless lenses. The dampening and sensitivity is excellent; focusing on challenging subjects such as stars is very easy.
Features & Customizations
This is a minimal, no-frills lens. It omits the AF/MF switch, as many compact, budget-friendly mirrorless lenses do these days. It only has the one manual focus ring, unlike some of the other Nikkor primes that have both a dedicated manual focus ring and a “control” ring which can be customized.
The one neat feature of this lens is that its hood, which is tiny, thread-in, and cone-shaped, actually maintains the filter threads at its front. This means you can still mount the lens cap, at the front of the hood. I generally leave this hood off, however, because it is designed in a way that gives the appearance of a control ring, and a couple of times I tried turning the hood expecting to perform either manual focus or the custom function.
Value
For well under $300, it’s impossible to deny that this lens offers an incredible value. Honestly, even if the image results were downright mediocre or even underwhelming, I’d still consider the ~$277 price tag to be “fair”.
I’ll do some more comparisons next, but here’s the bottom line: Nikon’s full-frame, 35mm options range in price from double, nearly triple, to a staggering 10X more than this 24mm f/1.7. Apples VS oranges? Yes, of course, especially at that highest end of exotic glass. Still, for the entry-level photographer who wants truly impressive results, (instead of feeling pressured to upgrade sooner than later) …this is the lens for you.
Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 Review | Compared To The Competition
First, the comparison I had promised previously: If you’re comparing this 24mm f/1.7 DX lens against the FX options, here are some shocking numbers:
- Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4: $ 597
- Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 S: $847
- Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S: $2797
So, as you can see, a good 35mm prime lens can get incredibly expensive, very quickly. Which is why I’m so happy to recommend this prime lens to DX shooters; it’s an incredible bargain at under $300. (In case you’re wondering, I’d classify the image results as somewhere in between the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 and the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 S. In other words, you’re getting the results of a $700 full-frame lens, basically.)
Since there aren’t any other Nikon DX prime lenses in this range, we must next compare the 24mm f/1.7 against other alternatives. For example, Nikon’s full-frame 26mm f/2.8 is also incredibly compact, but it costs $397-497, and has a slower f/2.8 aperture. I don’t recommend it unless you’re absolutely certain that you’re going to upgrade your crop-sensor camera body to full-frame in the very near future.
Next up is Nikon’s 28mm f/2.8, which is actually very affordable at $227, (when a $70 savings is available, that is) …but again, it’s an f/2.8 prime. I think it’s a very reasonable choice for those who want the flexibility of upgrading from DX to FX without having to dump a DX lens. However, you’ll have to consider how the focal length will affect your shooting style. Personally, I actually love 28mm on both APSC and full-frame, so it’d be a perfectly acceptable choice for me. In fact, for anyone who think they might one day own BOTH a Z50 ii and a Z5 ii, I’d recommend the 28mm f/2.8 instead of this DX 24mm f/1.7.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet see Sigma’s full lineup of APSC lenses available for Nikon’s Z mount, but they’re likely coming sooner or later. If you aren’t in a rush to cover this focal length, it might be worth waiting. Personally, though, I wouldn’t wait. Just get this lens and enjoy the perfect coverage of a favorite focal length now, or on your next adventure!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other systems out there. Fujifilm has an impressive 23mm f/1.4 that is perfectly suited for professional work on APSC cameras, plus a few other options. If you want to stick with an APSC system even for professional work, as opposed to mixing and mingling your crop-sensor system with a full-frame one, then Fujifilm is basically your only choice.
On the Sony E-mount, once again, there isn’t a perfectly matched competitor, really. Sony’s 24mm primes are much like Nikon’s: expensive and made for full-frame. The dedicated APSC lenses are all third-party options, such as Sigma’s 23mm f/1.4. (Again, I bet that lens will arrive on Nikon’s Z mount sooner or later, and yes it is a gem!)
Speaking of third-party options that may or may not be available on the Z-mount sometime soon, Rokinon/Samnyang does make a great full-frame 24mm f/1.8 that I love. We have no word about when that brand duo will be allowed to make Z-mount lenses, as far as I know.
Last but not least, Canon’s RF mount does get some benefits; their full-frame 24mm f/1.8 is a great lens, but it’s ~$600. Canon also makes a 28mm f/2.8, like Nikon, but it’s a sub-par “pancake” optical formula. Oh, and you do finally get Sigma’s excellent 23mm f/1.4 “Contemporary” at your disposal, if you have ~$600 to spend.
All in all, Nikon has definitely filled a unique niche with their Nikkor DX 24mm f/1.7. The price point and the performance make it a strong reason to consider not just it but the whole Nikon DX system as a whole.
Nikon Z DX 24mm f/1.7 Review | Conclusion
To sum up this whole review, I need only repeat that previous statement about competitors: Nikon did a perfect job of filling a niche need in the APSC lens market. A 24mm prime on a 1.5x crop is a perfect all-around lens, and I think almost every photographer should have one. I truly do prefer the ~35mm focal length equivalent, instead of a 50mm prime.
Of course, some of you might really prefer 50mm, and that is, quite literally, “normal”! I’m just speaking from my years of experience doing all sorts of photography; mainly portraits and weddings, but also, almost everything else from theater and stage performances, to food and product photography. Almost every time, I want a prime like this.
Honestly? If Nikon makes some sort of prosumer “Z500” any time soon, I would actually consider the Nikon DX system to be 99% professionally ready. I’d still like to also see some f/2.8 zooms for APSC as well, at least for weddings. But for portrait work, and almost everything else, Nikon’s Z mount is looking more and more attractive for the entry-level range as well as the paid professional on a budget.
With that said, I definitely recommend checking out the Nikon Nikkor DX 24mm f/1.7.
Check Pricing & Availability
The Nikon Z 24mm f/1.7 DX is available for $296.95, without any discounts at present. That’s already an incredible price, so I recommend it outright, however, a modest savings of $25-50 might eventually pop up once or twice a year, if you’re patient. If you’re looking at sticking with the Nikon DX system for a while, though, I say just jump on this awesome lens right away!
