"old feeling" nikon f-mount lenses

[chris91387]

anyone know of any nikon f-mount lenses that have that classic old uncoated flare-prone look of the lenses from the 30's-50's? ideally i'd like to recreate the look of an old summar.

i've been eyeing some nikkor-s and nikkor-h lenses from the 50's but even those might be "too good"? surely over 50+ years of f-mount lens manufacturing between nikon and various 3rd parties there must be some really interesting glass out there.

- chris

 

[Al Kaplan]

Your best bet would be to find some old uncoated lenses in Exacta or Practica (Pentax thread) mount and then find a camera body that will accept them, using an adapter if needed. By the time Nikon started making F lenses in the late 1950's multi-coating was beginning to be common although it'd be a few more years before Asahi (Pentax) started to use it as a marketing ploy.

You might find some old Astro-Berlin lenses that are "interesting" and many of them can be adapted to Nikon F using Astro's own adapters. Really old ones might still be uncoated. So much of the really high quality glass from the uncoated era got coated later. The Astro Berlin lenses were really made for the motion picture industry. Top qualty glass and focusing mounts, no auto or pre-set diaphragm, just manual, and low production figures. The prices make Leica glass look cheap.

Schacht and Meyer both made some flare prone lenses, and both started making them before coating was common. They weren't the sharpest lenses around, they were inexpensive, and odds are they would have ended up in the trash rather than someboy paying to get them coated. Again, Exacta and Practica mounts, not Nikon. Another second tier lensmaker going back that far was Enna.

I've seen both Zeiss Jena and Schneider uncoated lenses, but again in Exacta and Practica mount.

 

[chris91387]

interesting, thanks for the info.

i was thinking of an m42-to-nikon adapter which would open up a whole world of m42 lenses.

- chris

 

[Al Kaplan]

There ya go Chris! A simple adapter is the path to a gazillion cheap crummy old lenses. Then you can tell all your friends "Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but I heard that Leica is actually the one who's supplying the optics to Nikon, and they bought the rights to the Schacht name so nobody would figure it out. I shot this with the 85/2.8 which I managed to pick up for only $3,500 in the corroded aluminum finish, but they're supposed to be making a limited run of 500 with chipped black paint. I can't wait to see it!"

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Some say:
The

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Sorry:

Some say 1. That the old Pentax screw mount lenses have that look 2. The New Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f1.5 probably has that look in b&w.

 

[Graham Line]

Nikon's flange to film distance in greater than the Pentax M42 mount, so anything on a screw-mount to Nikon adapter, if there is one, isn't going to have the usual range of focus.

 

[peterm1]

I think the early 50mm f2 has an "interesting look" but could not say its similar to uncoated lenses.

But you can approach something of an old lens look - vignetting and all, if you are willing to play around in photoshop.

 

[vha]

was looking around for similar stuff some years ago, ended with a 50mm nikkor H, it might be coated, but at f2 its special,
use some ilford XP-2 and a green filter X1 i think and you have a special signature. But not sure its summar like.

 

[Frank Petronio]

You could always "degrade" a cheap Nikon lens by over-cleaning it, or use a mucked up filter over a good lens. Might be worth trying before jumping through hoops.

 

[peterm1]

was looking around for similar stuff some years ago, ended with a 50mm nikkor H, it might be coated, but at f2 its special,
use some ilford XP-2 and a green filter X1 i think and you have a special signature. But not sure its summar like.

I agree the Nikkor 50 I was referring to in my previous quote is this version which I have adapted to AI after finding an Ai conversion kit on eBay. This allows me to use it on my D200, which I do fairly regularly. I also use the early pre AI 35mm f2, 105mm f2.5 (sonnar version) and 135mm f2.8 each of which I regard as pretty special and interesting too. I deliberately went for these older lens designs as they may not be technically as sharp as the later designs but they sure produce nice (and yes, interesting) images.

My other post mentions that I experiment a lot in post processing to get unusual effects and sometimes by design or chance these look a little like the images produced by older lenses.

I know there are a few bits of software out there that are designed to emulate the "look" of certain film types (nik SilverEffex filters for example.) I feel sure that it would be possible for a savvy person to build a Photoshop filter (or maybe a set of 'actions" in Photoshop which emulate the look of certain older lenses like the Summar which have a distinctive character.

Any other takers? Or anyone with skills neded to achieve it?

 

[nikola]

...a little off topic. 🙂

I understand that matrix metering doesn't work with non-cpu lenses, is it possible somehow to hack that?

 

[WoolenMammoth]

2. The New Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f1.5 probably has that look in b&w.

absolutely totally not.

its a sonnar for sure, but it is most certainly a modern looking sonnar without question. Everyone looks like they have glass eyes with this lens, not an attribute Id give to an old, uncoated lens. I say this having only shot bw with it, and a ton of it at that.

 

[kxl]

You might want to check out the non-AI 35mm/2 Nikkor-O. I used to have one and gets you close to what you're looking for.

It's easily AI'd if you need that.

 

[RayPA]

anyone know of any nikon f-mount lenses that have that classic old uncoated flare-prone look of the lenses from the 30's-50's? ideally i'd like to recreate the look of an old summar.

i've been eyeing some nikkor-s and nikkor-h lenses from the 50's but even those might be "too good"? surely over 50+ years of f-mount lens manufacturing between nikon and various 3rd parties there must be some really interesting glass out there.

- chris

There's probably a Photoshop filter for this. 😀

.

.

 

[charjohncarter]

Here is my latest uncoated lens and an image. Now this is character:

Just kidding, but it does have that old look.

 

[hans voralberg]

IMO the 35/2 Nikkor-S has very smooth and low contrast rendering, which could be "old-looking"

 

[willie_901]

The hack for the matrix metering issue is to meter AI/AIS lenses using you brain instead of the Nikon engineers guess at what the exposure might be.


The Nikkor 24/2.8 AIS loves to flare even though it's coated.

 

[nikola]

...and in situations when my brain is unavailable even for such trivial task? 🙂

 

[hans voralberg]

Just set to something that looks sensible and pray for the best 😛