Imagine Yosemite without Half Dome, Zermatt without the Matterhorn, or Iceland without scores of photographers fighting for position to shoot the same waterfall posted a hundred times already on Instagram that morning. As photographers, it’s easy to take our grand landscape opportunities for granted. But in some cases, landscapes aren’t a permanent fixture. So it was for Glen Canyon.

Until recently, owners of Nikon Z mirrorless cameras had no choice if they wanted to shoot with long telephoto lenses: They had to use an FTZ adapter and an F-mount lens. But this is slowly starting to change. Two of the first native Nikon Z telephoto lenses are both 400mm lenses: an f/2.8 and and f/4.5. Both lenses are unicorns that everyone talks about but no one has ever seen, but we managed to get both of them on a recent expedition to Ecuador. In this article, I’ll compare the lenses based on my side-by-side experience.

Haven’t been able to get your hands on a heated clothes airer? Here’s where you can still find them in stock