A 35mm lens for a Nikon FM3A

Shab said:
Hi,

I'm looking for a 35mm lens for a nikon fm3a. I will use it with B/W film.

I have used a Zuiko OM 35mm 2.0 on my OM-1n in the last 15 years... someone has talk about the Nikkor 35mm 1.4 AIS... and there is the Zeiss 2.0/35 Distagon ZF.2... I used a 2.0/35 Biogon in a Zeiss Ikon ZM and it was a lovely lens. Is the Distagon near to the Biogon? Or these are very different lenses?

Which one would you use? Any other sugestion?

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

My most used Nikon lens is the 35mm f/1.4 AIS. I use it across multiple film bodies with monochrome film, and I have used it with my D750 digital as well. It is reasonable weight, contrasty, and tack sharp.
 
Ljós said:
Shab, I 'll chime in with my 35mm Nikkor and 40CV experiences in a minute, but I'm curious, so I gotta ask: how did the switch to/addition of a FM3A come about? For years you've been one of the most remarkable spirit-of-Maitani-ambassadors ;-) (I'm serious though) here on RFF, your pictures in the Zuikoholic-thread are just awesome. You have your own distinct style and a great eye. And the small, unobtrusive OM-bodies and the Zuikos you've been using seem to gel perfectly with that.

At the same time I understand the siren song of a camera with two more stops of shutter speed than OM-1 or OM-2, and the possibilities of the F-mount.

Here's my experience: I used a 35mm f2 Nikkor for many years as my main lens. I *think* it was the AI-S version, and I am pretty sure it had 7 iris blades, not 9. I'd say: it served me well, but it was not remarkable. Bokeh (overall) was not bad, but not great, it had trouble with ghosting during nighttime scenes, and while it was not unusably soft at f2, I never felt it had a truly great balance of sharpness, lens speed and size/weight. Compared to what's possible in the 35mm range with rangefinders, I found it lacking. (I switched to Leica M2 with 40mm Rokkor f2 and later 35mm f2.8 Summaron, and was much happier.)

I also had the CV 40mm Ultron f2 in F-mount for a short while, the very first version. I think it's a really good lens, and it's great to be able to buy a lens that's recently manufactured, and for a mount system that keeps being updated with new lenses (thinking of Voigtländer 28 2.8 or 58 1.4 etc.). But it did not floor me, and I did not gel with the FM2 I used it with. After shooting Leica M for a couple of years it felt clunky and unrefined. I checked out Olympus OM-1 (inspired, in part, by you and your pictures in the Zuikoholic-thread, Sir! 🙂) and liked the experience way more than with the FM2.

(I did even own the now unobtainable 40mm f2 Zuiko for a short while, sold it to a fellow RFF'er who was very happy with it and must have doubled or tripled his 'investment' in the meantime, this was about 10 years ago and prices have been climbing ever since. I really liked the lens and the focal length, it was the closest one could get to the Leica M with 40mm f2-experience in SLR-land, but I was wondering how the lens would hold up over the years if I used it every day (I'm talking about the filter ring being integrated in the moving aperture ring, I would not say it felt flimsy ... just not as confidence inspiring as I would have liked.)


If you're looking for a small walkabout 35mm for Nikon: have you considered one of the versions of the 2.8 35? The six element version maybe: NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights No.38 | NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights | Nikon Consumer ? I know it has quite some fans here on RFF, and can be found for less than 200 Euro. But since you are considering the Distagon you're maybe looking for something more modern?

Since you're coming from the 35 f2 Zuiko, which has a certain look wide open:
If you are looking for a lens with a distinct fingerprint (and some imperfections which can be put to use creatively) I'd guess that you'll be happier with the 35 1.4 Nikkor than with other, more 'perfect' options. Are you looking for "soft" or "clinic"? ;-) The 35 1.4 could possibly give you both, as it is very sharp stopped down, but has a bunch of field curvature and sharpness falloff and vignetting wide open.
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First of all, thank you so much Ljós...

...and about Olympus gear, I love using it and the photographs I make with it.

A lot of years ago, I decided to buy my first mecanichal SLR and I saw an OM-1n + 28mm 3.5 + 50mm 1.8 in a shop of UK. It's price was 115€ + shipping. I didn't know a lot about SLRs... so I bought this kit.

When it came home and I get the OM-1n the first time it was a great experience... I don't have big hands and it was so nice in my hands, with its viewfinder... and I began to use it and at the same time I began to discover the B/W I could get from it... and I became Zuikoholic!!

After all this years I have tried a lot of gear... but there was "Nikon" all the time in the shadows of my brain. Why? Because a very good friend always talks about Nikon's SLRs and lenses... and I see a lot of beautifull photos makes with Nikon gear in this forum... and I had the caprice of trying one.

In December I saw a Nikon F4 in a shop... and I remenbered @p.giannakis and his beautiful photos... but I decided to not to go and I didn't enter to the shop. But some weeks ago we went to the same city and I decided to enter to the shop and try the F4... and when I get the camera it was too BIG for me. This incredible camera isn't for me. Then the man who was working in the shop told me: "I have something you may love..." and he gave me the FM3A + 105mm 2.5... and it was another thing... we (my wife, children and me) went to take a coffe while I was thinking about the camera... finally I bought the kit.

It is a very different feeling if I compare it to my OM-1 cameras... and at the same time it is so great also!

It's more "industrial" feeling, more "robust"... but the OM-1n has a more "romantic" feeling for me, I can not explain it better. I love both, but in a really different ways.

So I have bought a Nikkor Ai 35mm 2.0, after reading all the posts in this thread... because I want to try it with a "same" lens.

I will use this lens (when it arrives, of course) and then I will develop some rolls and I will see the photographs I have been able to make with this kit...

Thank you so much to all of you that have writen in this thread. After some weeks I will share with you my first photos make with this kit.
 
Shab said:
It's more "industrial" feeling, more "robust"... but the OM-1n has a more "romantic" feeling for me, I can not explain it better. I love both, but in a really different ways.
Click to expand...
A friend of mine is in the imaging business. Years ago, he got a contract to capture (on film, that was in the 20th century) a large (50,000??) archive of images. Started with an OM-2, that died after a few 1000's images. Switched to a Nikon F2, that carried out the rest of the work.
 
Shab said:
So I have bought a Nikkor Ai 35mm 2.0, after reading all the posts in this thread... because I want to try it with a "same" lens.

I will use this lens (when it arrives, of course) and then I will develop some rolls and I will see the photographs I have been able to make with this kit...

Thank you so much to all of you that have writen in this thread. After some weeks I will share with you my first photos make with this kit.
Click to expand...
I am thrilled to see your pictures with the 35 Nikkor, Shab! And thanks for sharing your "Olympus origin story" 🙂
 
Shab said:
First of all, thank you so much Ljós...

...and about Olympus gear, I love using it and the photographs I make with it.

A lot of years ago, I decided to buy my first mecanichal SLR and I saw an OM-1n + 28mm 3.5 + 50mm 1.8 in a shop of UK. It's price was 115€ + shipping. I didn't know a lot about SLRs... so I bought this kit.

When it came home and I get the OM-1n the first time it was a great experience... I don't have big hands and it was so nice in my hands, with its viewfinder... and I began to use it and at the same time I began to discover the B/W I could get from it... and I became Zuikoholic!!

After all this years I have tried a lot of gear... but there was "Nikon" all the time in the shadows of my brain. Why? Because a very good friend always talks about Nikon's SLRs and lenses... and I see a lot of beautifull photos makes with Nikon gear in this forum... and I had the caprice of trying one.

In December I saw a Nikon F4 in a shop... and I remenbered @p.giannakis and his beautiful photos... but I decided to not to go and I didn't enter to the shop. But some weeks ago we went to the same city and I decided to enter to the shop and try the F4... and when I get the camera it was too BIG for me. This incredible camera isn't for me. Then the man who was working in the shop told me: "I have something you may love..." and he gave me the FM3A + 105mm 2.5... and it was another thing... we (my wife, children and me) went to take a coffe while I was thinking about the camera... finally I bought the kit.

It is a very different feeling if I compare it to my OM-1 cameras... and at the same time it is so great also!

It's more "industrial" feeling, more "robust"... but the OM-1n has a more "romantic" feeling for me, I can not explain it better. I love both, but in a really different ways.

So I have bought a Nikkor Ai 35mm 2.0, after reading all the posts in this thread... because I want to try it with a "same" lens.

I will use this lens (when it arrives, of course) and then I will develop some rolls and I will see the photographs I have been able to make with this kit...

Thank you so much to all of you that have writen in this thread. After some weeks I will share with you my first photos make with this kit.
Click to expand...

It is interesting reading this because I had the reverse path. I started on a Nikon FTN Apollo, but was later in a very remote area where someone basically offered me the new price for the entire kit, so I sold it with the intent of buying an F2. When I got back to "civilization", the OM-1 had just come out, so I bought it with the 50mm, 35mm, and 24mm lenses because I figured it would be easier to carry around. The optics were superb and the system really was very portable.

My problem is that I have the reverse of you - large hands - and the OM-1 never felt quite right in my hands. I could live with easily because then- and now I was used to shooting with a Leica IIIf as well which is very much a smaller camera. But then the Nikon F3 came out and I dove back in to Nikon world. The F3HP had great relief for eyeglass wearers and was sized somewhere between the FtN and the OM-1. It was "just right".

Now these many years later, the OM-1 is gone and I have a Nikkormat Ft, another Apollo FTN, an F2, and a different F3HP. I shoot them all and enjoy them a bunch, but every now and then an OM-1 appears for sale and I am deeply tempted ... 😉
 
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I can second (third? fourth? fifth?) the recommendation for the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4. It's a good size match to the smaller bodied Nikons. I am sure the Zeiss lenses are optically better, but the Zeiss 35/1.4 is gargantuan and would probably be uncomfortable, in-hand.

The 35/1.4 Nikkor is fairly high resolution, but has lots of coma and spherical aberration at full aperture - giving a glowy impression over a nicely resolved image. The glow goes away very quickly from f/2 onward.

JHF01347 by Jim Fischer, on Flickr

JHF01515 by Jim Fischer, on Flickr
People at Tanabata Matsuri by Jim Fischer, on Flickr
 
I just took delivery of a nice Zuiko 35mm f2, and boy is that a good looking and surprisingly well balancing lens. At the same time I am so intrigued by what Xabier is going to do with his newly acquired 35 Nikkor. Funny thing: while I was pondering whether I had made the right move to put my eggs in the Zuiko and Olympus basket I dropped off some color film to be developed at a lab I like in my neighbourhood. Turns out the owner had his personal black Nikon FE2 with a nice 35mm f2 AIS sitting there on the counter as if to taunt me ;-)

I asked permission to handle his camera, which he was totally fine with, and ... what can I say, the FE2 is a bit bigger and boxier and heavier than my OM-2n, and the Nikkor lens (which I know so well, having used one for quite some some time years ago) was bigger and heavier than a comparable Zuiko ... but not by a whole lot. Tempting, considering the fact that there still are new lenses made for F-mount (Voigtländer, Zeiss....), the FE2 and FM2 have higher shutter speeds which I do find useful (even I made do with 1000th max. for decades now), and there is always the siren song of getting a nice Nikon F2 at some point.

And yet, here I go in the opposite direction, a OM-1n is on its way, and starting today I will be able to compare the Zuiko 35mm f 2.8 (great walkabout lens because of its size and handling and flare resistance without hood) and the newly arrived 35mm f2 Zuiko. And since I never found my 35mm Nikkor f2 to be tack sharp at f2, and have okay, but mostly lackluster bokeh, I am totally fine if my f2 Zuiko turns out to be soft at f2, and even hope it has some .... character ;-) wide open. There is always the smaller f2.8 brother when I want predictable.IMG_0530.jpegIMG_0531.jpeg
 
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Just to add to Marty’s recommendation - I had a ZE 2/35 and it was lovely. I am passively watching for a reasonably priced ZF or ZF2 example to come up at a reasonable price for my FM2.

I think, in the UK at least. Prices on Manual F mount lenses have been falling quite hard, so should become accessible.

Mike
 
sojournerphoto said:
Just to add to Marty’s recommendation - I had a ZE 2/35 and it was lovely. I am passively watching for a reasonably priced ZF or ZF2 example to come up at a reasonable price for my FM2.

I think, in the UK at least. Prices on Manual F mount lenses have been falling quite hard, so should become accessible.

Mike
Click to expand...
This was the first picture I took with it, moments after pulling it from the box. She’s now 23 and doing her masters in music performance (clarinet and bass clarinet)…

U25074I1246555404.SEQ.0.jpg
 
sojournerphoto said:
Just to add to Marty’s recommendation - I had a ZE 2/35 and it was lovely. I am passively watching for a reasonably priced ZF or ZF2 example to come up at a reasonable price for my FM2.
Click to expand...

Apart from being a bit big I couldn’t fault it on film, and on digital it had only a (manageable) bit of chromatic aberration, just more than the very newest generation of lenses. That @sojournerphoto used it 15+ years ago shows its age.

sojournerphoto said:
I think, in the UK at least. Prices on Manual F mount lenses have been falling quite hard, so should become accessible.

Mike
Click to expand...

Indeed. Lens swamps worldwide are getting deeper. Always wondered what photos from the 35mm series e or 35/2.8 look like? Just get one.
 
I bought the Nikkor Ai 35mm 2.0 in MPB and they sent it by DHL... and they sent it on 9th May... but it hasn't come at home... :-( So I sent an email to DHL and MPB... but it seems it will not be easy to get the lens... I can't understand how it can be... so, we will see if the NIkkor Ai 35mm 2.0 will arrive at home. I will tell you... have a nice weekend!
 
Shab said:
I bought the Nikkor Ai 35mm 2.0 in MPB and they sent it by DHL... and they sent it on 9th May... but it hasn't come at home... :-( So I sent an email to DHL and MPB... but it seems it will not be easy to get the lens... I can't understand how it can be... so, we will see if the NIkkor Ai 35mm 2.0 will arrive at home. I will tell you... have a nice weekend!
Click to expand...
Good luck! I hate waiting…
 
You can't go wrong with a manual focus 35mm f2 nikkor. Even the very first one is a wonderful lens.

Nikon vs Olympus... they are kind of opposites. I agree the OM's are romantic cameras. The nikons are less subtle but have their charms. Looking forward to some shots with the new lens Shab!
 
oldwino said:
Try to find a Nikkor-O 35/2 that's been converted to AI. Lovely lens, beautiful rendering. It was Nikon's answer to Leica's 8 element summicron 35mm.
Click to expand...
This so much. A used Nikkor-O was my first Nikkor back in the mid 70s, and it’s still one of my favorite lenses. I was able to AI convert it using the Nikon kit back in the early 80s. It’s my favored F mount 35 for black and white work.
 
Ken Ford said:
This so much. A used Nikkor-O was my first Nikkor back in the mid 70s, and it’s still one of my favorite lenses. I was able to AI convert it using the Nikon kit back in the early 80s. It’s my favored F mount 35 for black and white work.
Click to expand...
I bought a pre-AI a couple of years ago and had it converted by the gentleman in Michigan that does them. Lovely lens on my F4.

Ai Conversions

Ai Conversions for Nikon Lenses by John White Update as of February 10, 2025: I will be back in the shop tomorrow and accepting orders. Thanks for the patience of those customers awaiting my return. Thanks for finding my service. I am still converting pre-Ai* Nikon lenses while my website is under
sites.google.com sites.google.com
 
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