A Strange, Yet Common Question: S Lens vs...Z Lens?

The internet is full of interesting questions. This is not one of them.

You Are Asking What Now?

Facebook was a place where college kids could come together and share thoughts, ideas and assorted pictures from the party the night before that you may want to remove now that you are older and trying to keep that high paying job. Now it is a place for people asking strange questions about Nikon Z series camera lenses.

One question I see quiet often is:

What is the difference between Z lenses and S lenses?

Now, I understand that not everyone is a huge camera-tech nerd like myself and others that occupy social media forums 24 hours a day. In fact, I would dare to say that you don't have to be a huge dork that fawns over camera gear to be good at photography. Crazy, right? While it is an odd thing to ask, let's answer it for all the camera noobs out there.

Camera Mount

All camera manufacturer designates their camera's lens mounts by some alphanumeric classification. For example:

Camera Company	Lens Mount
Canon Mirrorless	RF
Sony Mirrorless	E
Fuji	X
Panasonic/Leica (Mirrorless)/Sigma	L
Leica (Rangefinder)	M
Nikon Mirrorless	Z

So, we can see that Z is just the classification for the lens mount. All Nikon and third party lenses for the Nikon Z series cameras are therefore "Z lenses"

Nikon Z8 - Arrow points to the lens mount. In this case, it is designated "Z".

Lens Quality

Just as all camera manufacture's have a alphanumeric classification for mount, they also have one for their "premium" or "professional" lenses. These lenses are typically designed for professional use and have better optical quality when compared to other lenses the manufacturer produces.

Camera Company	Premium Lens Designation
Canon Mirrorless	L
Sony Mirrorless	GM
Fuji	XF
Panasonic	S
Nikon Mirrorless	S

Yeah, so Panasonic and Nikon have the same designation. How original. Anyways, Nikon S lenses are geared more towards professionals and have higher optical quality when compared to their non-S peers.

Please No More Questions

Let's put this question to bed. In summary:

Z refers to the camera mount, whereas S refers to quality. All Nikon Mirrorless lenses are Z lens, but only the best are considered S lenses.