Get creative with the NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 – a classic prime with macro capability

Nikon Team •Hot Shots •16 Oct 2025•4 min read

Try these projects with NIKKOR’s DX standard micro lens and up your creativity

Try a macro shoot at home

Macro photography is a great way of getting to do some amazing photography when the light outside is too dull or you just want to stay indoors. Whether it’s coins, cut flowers, small toys, kitchen utensils, fruit and vegetables and more, you can uncover a miniature world of texture and colour. And with a couple of pieces of card and a small LED light you can create an entire miniature photographic studio on a desk.

Get into street photography

As a ‘standard’ focal length lens, the NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 is a great choice for street photography. The large aperture means you have a lot of creative options, including shooting in low light, while the size and weight of the lens, especially attached to a Nikon DX camera, make it a perfect set-up for carrying around and capturing busy city moments.

Try these projects with NIKKOR’s DX standard micro lens and up your creativity

Try a macro shoot at home

Get into street photography

Nikon Team

What’s in our kitbag?

NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7Just add imagination

Discover creativity through bokeh

The f/1.7 aperture on the NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 enables the lens to produce a lovely creamy background and foreground blur. Try some portraits in the park with the aperture wide open, using autofocus to focus on the eye of the subject. Place your subject between some long grasses in the foreground and trees in the background and you’ll get stunning separation.

Up your food photography game

That fine-looking meal that just arrived at your table deserves to be photographed, and the NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 is the lens for the job. With a focal length that is close to what the human eye sees, and the fast f/1.7 aperture letting you snap in low restaurant light, you’ll get great images and make the memory last. Try taking photographs of the food you cook, too, and see how mouthwatering you can make it!

Learn to zoom with your feet!

Most kit lenses that you would have got with your camera are zooms, which can change focal length as you twist the barrel. The NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 is a prime lens with a fixed focal length, so you have to zoom by moving yourself. Pick a subject and take various images, moving closer and further away to see the difference it can make to your composition.

Experiment with low light

The large aperture of the NIKKOR Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 makes it a fantastic lens for creating images in low-light situations, indoors or outside. Try some indoor shooting during the day using sideways window light on your subject to provide interest. Or go out at dawn or dusk to capture some brilliant images of golden hour.

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