Nikon's 600mm F6.3 VR S Is a Featherweight Lens for Wildlife

pcmag.com:

There's just no getting around it, if you're interested in taking photos of far-off subjects, whether they be backyard critters or linebackers scrambling to make a tackle, a long telephoto lens is a must-have. But because of the the amount of glass required to get close up, the lenses tend to be pretty big, and correspondingly heavy to carry. Nikon is addressing that problem head-on with the latest addition to its mirrorless lens catalog. Its Nikkor Z 600mm F6.3 VR S weighs just 3.1-pounds, thanks in part to its Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element.

Phase Fresnel elements are a known-factor in lens design and share a lot in common with the lenses used in lighthouses. A Fresnel lighthouse lens puts prisms into the glass to concentrate light to make a brighter beacon. In camera lenses the PF element works similarly, if you examine one you'll note concentric circles that concentrate light coming into the system, the aspect that makes such a light telephoto possible.

The tech comes with some drawbacks, any good PF lens requires corresponding Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) elements to suppress false color. The 600mm F6.3 VR has these, along with Nikon's unique Short-Wavelength Refractive (SR) glass, an element that further suppresses false blue color. We've not yet tested the 600mm F6.3 VR S to see how these come together in the real world, but Nikon provided some good-looking sample photos, and the similar Nikkor 500mm F5.6E PF ED VR for SLRs is a fantastic lens.

The lens is easy enough to lug around at 3.1 pounds, but it's still a 600mm telephoto, and not tiny at 11.0 by 4.2 inches. It's an easier lift than the Nikkor Z 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 VR  (12.4 by 4.3 inches, 4.3 pounds).

You'll want to use the included tripod collar if you're