I knew that Nikon was toying with a lens release, but it didn’t make the 2025 calendar and instead appeared today: the 24-105mm f/4-7.1 lens. This low cost (US$550) was designed to be a more versatile kit lens for the Z5II (and other lower-cost full frame cameras), and will appear as a bundle option with that camera for US$2200 sometime in the next month or two.
Good things and not-so-good things pepper a lens like this. The good is that it is still weather sealed (though not S), is very lightweight (350g), and provides up to 1:2 close up capability. The not-so-good is that it doesn’t have VR and doesn’t come supplied with the HB-93B lens hood. And, of course, the price is probably the most good thing of all, a relatively low.
The published MTF looks “okay” for the wide angle side—decent through the DX corners—and actually "very good" on the telephoto side, and overall better than the 24-200mm lens, so this new lens may become the preferred travel lens for many.