Nikon Discontinues Crucial Nikon FTZ Adapter
re: Nikon Z8
Nearly five years after the Nikon Z7, the about $3998 Nikon Z8 brings the latest functionality and Nikon’s best-in-the-business haptics to current standards.
Nikon proclaims it as the “true Nikon D850 replacement”. Well, Nikon has shit the bed.
Zeiss Milvus and Zeiss Otus ZF.2 can be used like any Nikkor F-mount lenses using the Nikon FTZ lens adapter. Which I did back when I reviewed the Nikon Z7. Worked great. The Nikon F-Mount is the most versatile and useful lens mounts ever designed.
With 20 or so Nikon F-Mount Zeiss lenses, many large and heavy, how exactly does the Z8 replace the D850 without a functional lens adapter?
Hanging a Zeiss Otus or Zeiss Milvus off a lens adapter with no support is a really BAD idea. That’s what the tripod socket of the Nikon FTZ adapter dealt with.
Nikon discontinues the only good solution with a dilettante solution, the Nikon FTZ II adapter, which lacks a tripod socket.
Nikon has dozens of accessories, the R&D costs are paid for and yet the decision is made to eliminate this one crucial accessory that anyone with Zeiss Otus/Zeiss Milvus lenses or any large/heavy Nikon F-mount lenses of any brand MUST HAVE. Unless you like optical tilt, and/or a warped lens mount from the lever-effect of a very heavy weight well away from the camera.
What lenses does Nikon think people are mounting, exactly? Old 50/1.8 Nikkors? So now it’s a scramble to find the original FTZ adapter somewhere, if I want to test my Zeiss lenses on the Z8.
At this point in time, it is still possible to buy one new (not at B&H): Nikon Mount Adapter FTZ for Adapting F-Mount Lenses @AMAZON, but that won’t be the case for long (once new stock is sold off). UPDATE: I bought an FTZ on Amazon (seller Green's Camera), but they shipped me an FTZ II not the FTZ—I returned it as being useless for my Otus lenses.