Nikon NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens (Black)

The Nikon NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR Lens (Black) is the smallest, lightest lens in Nikon’s Z-mount lineup, a compact standard zoom designed for DX-format (APS-C) Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras, delivering a 24-75mm full-frame-equivalent focal range. Covering a highly practical zoom span from wide-angle to medium-telephoto, it’s ideal for a wide variety of everyday scenes and subjects, from street scenes and landscapes to portraits and close-ups.

Optically, the lens is built from 9 elements in 7 groups, including one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass element and four aspherical elements, reducing color fringing, chromatic aberration, and other aberrations for sharper, clearer image quality throughout the zoom range. Nikon’s Super Integrated Coating helps control flare and ghosting, and a rounded 7-blade diaphragm contributes to pleasing out-of-focus rendering, well suited to shallow depth-of-field techniques.

Autofocus is handled by a stepping motor (STM), delivering fast, accurate, smooth, and near-silent focusing with reduced focus breathing, making the lens well suited to video work in addition to stills. Internal focusing keeps the lens’s physical length from extending during autofocus, and a specialized electromagnetic aperture mechanism provides greater exposure control stability, particularly beneficial during fast continuous shooting. A programmable control ring allows for direct, customizable adjustment of camera settings.

A standout design feature is the lens’s retractable barrel, extending only approximately 32mm (1.3 in.) in length when fully retracted, roughly the size of a pancake prime, and expanding for shooting, giving it outstanding portability for travel and everyday carry. The lens offers an extremely close minimum focusing distance of 0.2m (0.66 ft.) at the 24mm zoom position, varying slightly across the zoom range (0.25m at 16mm, 0.3m at 50mm), yielding a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.2x. Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) system delivers an effect equivalent to a shutter speed 4.5 stops faster, effectively compensating for camera shake even in low-light or night-landscape scenes.

Build quality is thin and lightweight without sacrificing optical performance, measuring approximately 70mm in diameter and weighing just 135g (4.8 oz.). The lens accepts a 46mm filter thread.

As a DX-format-specific lens, the NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR is designed exclusively for Nikon’s APS-C DX-format Z-mount mirrorless cameras (it will physically fit full-frame Z bodies like the Zf, but is not ideal there since it’s an APS-C lens).

Key Features
– 16-50mm standard zoom for Nikon Z-mount, DX-format (APS-C)
– Approximately 24-75mm full-frame-equivalent field of view
– Maximum aperture f/3.5-6.3 (variable)
– 9 elements in 7 groups, including 1 ED element and 4 aspherical elements
– Super Integrated Coating
– Stepping motor (STM) autofocus with reduced focus breathing
– Internal focusing design
– Electromagnetic aperture mechanism
– Programmable control ring
– Rounded 7-blade diaphragm
– Retractable barrel (approximately 32mm when fully retracted)
– Minimum focusing distance of 0.2m (0.66 ft.) at 24mm; 0.2x maximum reproduction ratio
– Vibration Reduction (VR), up to 4.5 stops of correction
– 46mm filter thread
– Ultra-compact, lightweight design (approximately 135g)
– Designed exclusively for Nikon DX-format Z-mount mirrorless cameras