ampguy
Veteran
Your 85/2 gets good reviews
Your 85/2 gets good reviews
I like the 80-200 4.5 because it still uses 52mm filters. I think Nikon stopped making zooms this well, so they could keep on selling primes
Your 85/2 gets good reviews
I like the 80-200 4.5 because it still uses 52mm filters. I think Nikon stopped making zooms this well, so they could keep on selling primes
Chris101
summicronia
85mm f/1.8AF, non-D. Beautiful look to pictures taken with this lens.
novum
Well-known
Hey Raid, I had owned the 500 f/8 for a few years in the late '70s. That lens was not a good one, though I won a photo competition in h.s. because it compressed a scene composed of some tiled Japanese rooftops nicely. Wow, it was bad otherwise! Nice leather case and cool little 39mm filters if I remember right.
novum
Well-known
I want a 35/1.4 AI, too, but it looks like it's going to be $600 from Japan for one in perfect condition.
novum
Well-known
sonofdanang, while I never cottoned to my D40, my favorite images were made with a borrowed 55/2.8 micro.
kjoosten
Rocket Scientist
Remember the FM has that little flippy lever on the lens mount - flip it up for non-AI, down for AI/AIS
N
Nikon Bob
Guest
ampguy
If you are looking for tech specs on Nikkors here is a good site http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/specs.html . I would help you sort out changes in optical formulas.
Bob
If you are looking for tech specs on Nikkors here is a good site http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/specs.html . I would help you sort out changes in optical formulas.
Bob
The center 2/3rds of the Image of the 55/1.2 is good, the edges were not as sharp as the 50/1.4 or 50/1.2.
As you have a crop factor, it should do great and be less money. They used to run ~$100, but I think those days are over.
As you have a crop factor, it should do great and be less money. They used to run ~$100, but I think those days are over.
shadowfox
Darkroom printing lives
I like the 35/2.8 AIS a lot:
Used to have a 35/2 AF, I like the sharpness but the bokeh is "patterned." I like this one better.
Used to have a 35/2 AF, I like the sharpness but the bokeh is "patterned." I like this one better.
Another "old-school" lens that is a favorite is the 35mm F2 Nikkor-O. It is an eight element design, and is very smooth and sharp.
The 5.8cm F1.4 is as close to a 1950's "Leica Look" lens that Nikon ever made. Optically, it is very similar to the Summarit. Lower contrast, and "swirly Bokeh". It has become something of a Cult lens, as it was produced for a very short time. It is at home on my "Bullseye" Nikon Photomic F.
The 5.8cm F1.4 is as close to a 1950's "Leica Look" lens that Nikon ever made. Optically, it is very similar to the Summarit. Lower contrast, and "swirly Bokeh". It has become something of a Cult lens, as it was produced for a very short time. It is at home on my "Bullseye" Nikon Photomic F.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Nikon has some dogs out there. If you can find a 28/2.8 AIS, get it. It focuses VERY close and is world class, even better than the 28/2 or 28/3.5.
While I like the sharpness and look of the 24/2.8, I never like it's ability to make footballs out of peoples heads anywhere but in the center of the frame.
B2 (;->
Harry Lime
Practitioner
That may have been the first version. I think it was called 'H'.
It was adopted from the RF version, as the first lens for the Nikon F (I think...).
I'm a little fuzzy on this, but if I remember correctly there was something strange about the way it focused. Something about the front element being fixed and the rest of the cell moving to focus.
Or something like that.
http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/nikkor/n02_e.htm
The Nikkor-H.C 2/50 was a different design.
Anyhow, it looks really good in black and white, in particular with Tri-X...
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Harry Lime
Practitioner
And let's not forget the Micro-Nikkor 3.5/55 and 2.8/55
Very, very, very sharp.
I like the 3.5/55 in particular. It's blazing sharp, but blooms a little. Again, a great B/W lens.
Also the Nikkor 2/28mm.
Very, very, very sharp.
I like the 3.5/55 in particular. It's blazing sharp, but blooms a little. Again, a great B/W lens.
Also the Nikkor 2/28mm.
rumbliegeos
Well-known
In general (both film and digital):
28 2.8 AIS
35 2.0 AIS
50 1.8 AIS (not E) (the bokeh can be jarring, though)
50-135 3.5 (bought it because John Shaw used one extensively for film, and it is great on a D200, too)
200 4.0 AI
28 2.8 AIS
35 2.0 AIS
50 1.8 AIS (not E) (the bokeh can be jarring, though)
50-135 3.5 (bought it because John Shaw used one extensively for film, and it is great on a D200, too)
200 4.0 AI
Robert Lai
Well-known
Nikkors that I have known
Nikkors that I have known
Back to your original question about the 50 1.2, you'll love it if you shoot real things and not brick walls / resolution charts. It's a little soft at 1.2, but still quite good. At any aperture wider than 2.8, it's actually sharper than the 50mm f/1.4 AIS and 50mm f/1.8 AI. For that reason, I've gotten rid of the 50mm f/1.4 (I have tried 3 of them). I've kept my 50mm f/1.8 because it was one of the first lenses I owned.
There is some barrel distortion with the 50mm f/1.2, but it's easily corrected when editing your scans or files.
The 50mm f/1.8 at infinity is distortion free, but at minimum focus there is just the slightest amount of barrel distortion.
I use the 50 f/1.2 in preference to the 1.8 because the focusing image is so much brighter and easier on my F3. I use Kodachrome 64 indoors, so the extra speed is helpful.
Other lenses:
20 f/3.5 AIS. Great tiny little wide angle that is completely flare resistant. It can also be reversed with the K1 ring for great wide angle macro pictures. The distortion is slightly wavy, which can make correction difficult. Thankfully, it is rather minimal for such a wide lens.
24 f/2.8 AI. Sharp wide angle, but it is prone to flare.
28 f/3.5 PC. Great for architecture due to its ability to shift. I use the shift also to create stitched panoramics, which give the equivalent view of an 18mm lens, with far less distortion. There is a slight amount of barrel distortion, which is surprising for a lens designed for architecture. This is easily corrected now by software. This is a pre-set lens. You need to stop the lens down manually, and shift prior to metering. The F3 is the only exception to the metering issue - it can meter accurately whether the lens has been shifted or not. All other cameras require you to meter after shifting.
35 f/1.4 AIS. Outstandingly sharp lens from f/2 to f/5.6. There is barrel distortion. Wide open, there is loss of sharpness and vignetting. You can focus very closely with this lens (it has CRC), but then the distortion becomes quite extreme. Still, this was for many years this was the standard lens for photojournalists.
35 f/2 AIS. Very sharp, compact lens. I probably would have kept it had I not decided to go for the f/1.4 speed.
35 f/2.8 AIS - Lousy, fuzzy piece of garbage. I know someone else above loves his, so maybe mine was a bad sample.
45 f/2.8 AI-P. The little pancake lens that came out with the FM3a. A very cute little Tessar, it is distortion free at all distances, and very sharp. My main dislike was its supremely tiny size. There's no mounting ring such as with all other Nikkors. You need to grab the focusing ring to mount the lens, which makes me wonder about the long term durability of the infinity stop. It also vignettes quite heavily until about f/5.6. Now discontinued, you'll pay a lot because it's become a cult lens.
50 f/1.2 - great lens, still available new. Get one now before it's discontinued, and becomes a cult item.
50 f/1.4 - Some people love this, I personally dislike it. The bokeh is really horrible. Bokeh is bad on all 50mm Nikkors, but this is the worst. There is barrel distortion. The image is fuzzy until about f/2.8 due to coma and spherical aberration. I really tried to like this lens, and even bought 3 or 4 of them to try out. I just couldn't get the idea that this was any better than the 50 f/1.2, and it was worse at the wider apertures than the f/1.2 lens.
50 f/1.8 AI - also a great lens when it's brighter outside. Distortion-free at infinity. Not much to say as it's almost the perfect lens. Usually available for well under $100.
55 f/2.8 AIS Micro - phenomenally sharp lens that is useful as a regular all-around lens as well as a macro lens. Great at infinity, and also as a macro lens. No distortion, minimal vignetting wide open. There were reports of oil getting on the aperture blades of some of these lenses, but I never had a problem. To get to 1:1, you need the PK-13 tube. I once considered getting rid of my other 50mm lenses in favor of just this lens. That's good if you're not shooting slow film.
60 f/2.8 AF-D Micro - this replaced my 55 f/2.8 AIS Micro. The only reason was for cosmetics. I sold my old 55 Micro as it had a beat up look (I bought it that way). I wanted a more pristine looking lens so I sold the 55 Micro (yes, I know it seems trivial, but I keep my gear in very good shape and I want it to look like that). The salesperson at B&H convinced me that the 60 Micro was even better than the 55. I shoot only the F3, so the AF feature was pointless for me. But, I'm always happy to get better performance. This lens can go to 1:1 on its own. It is extremely sharp as a Macro lens, and it is distortion-free with a flat field. I don't think it is better than the 55 f/2.8 though. This vignettes until about f/5.6. Unlike the 55 Micro, the infinity focus is much more difficult to use as it's squeezed into a very few degrees of rotation of the focus ring. The 55 had a luxuriously long helical that allowed super-fine tweaking of the focus. This lens is now discontinued by Nikon, replaced by a "G" lens (G = Gelding, as it has no aperture ring :-().
70-180 f/4.5-5.6 ED- AF Micro Nikkor. This is the world's first and only true zoom macro lens. It is about the same size and weight as the 180mm lens. Once you get the puny tripod collar foot securely mounted (see Bjorn Rorslett), this is an outstanding lens. I sometimes wonder why I keep the 60mm Micro around. I almost reaches 1:1 on its own. To do that, I use the 6T doublet lens (also discontinued by Nikon, now also a cult item). Do that with the PK-11 extension tube, and you can go beyond 1:1. It can get pretty dim for focusing when you do this, so in that instance I change my focusing screen to the "M", which works by aerial focusing. The big advantage of this lens over other macro lenses is that you don't need to move the entire setup and refocus when you want to change your framing in macro mode. It also works quite well as an ordinary telephoto zoom. There is some minimal barrel distortion at the shorter end, and very slight pincushion at the longer end.
This cost about $1150 back in 2002 (USA, new). Now that it's been discontinued, it has become one of the SUPER-CULT lenses. Sorry, mine is NOT for sale.
85 f/2 AIS. Can be a very nice, sharp medium tele. However, I found that it was close to my 105 f/2.5, and the 105 produced better image quality. No distortion.
105 f/2.5 AIS - a classic. Just get one. Beautiful portrait lens due to residual spherical aberration wide open - great background bokeh. Close down to f/4 or 5.6 if you want a super-sharp tele. Now discontinued by Nikon, it was produced in such large numbers that it's unlikely to become collectable (i.e. no cult value). But, a great photographic tool nevertheless. No distortion.
180 f/2.8 ED AIS. Another classic manual focus Nikkor, now available in AF version with IF. This is a lens that can be shot wide open. It is a bit heavy, and it has no tripod collar. Beware of this if you put your camera on a tripod - there's a lot of leverage exerted against the lens mount. This is better hand-held and stabilized in some other way. Surprisingly, I don't use it as much now that I have the 70-180 cult lens. No distortion.
200 f/4 AIS. Virtually as good as the 180, it is a lot lighter. It is still rather long physically. It takes 52mm filters which were the Nikon standard size for decades. Still, I had the fast lens fetish, so I went for the 180mm and sold this lens. No distortion.
300 f/4 AFS. This lens is incredible, and a great value. Super-sharp at all apertures. Stopping the lens down from f/4 to 5.6 eliminates the slight amount of vignetting. Relatively flat field of view, it works very well with the TC-14 and the PK-11 tube to produce a great 420mm close focus lens. You can get as close as about 4-5 feet away from your subject with this lens combo. That made it a great lens for shooting bumble-bees in my garden. The only thing that is bad is the standard tripod collar from Nikon, which fails their usual standard of excellent engineering. The collar is a weak, wobbly affair. Change to a Kirk replacement collar (also one available from Really Right Stuff), and you can fully exploit the potential of this great optic.
Well, that's all that I have ever tried in Nikkor land. I hope that you'll find some of this useful.
Nikkors that I have known
Back to your original question about the 50 1.2, you'll love it if you shoot real things and not brick walls / resolution charts. It's a little soft at 1.2, but still quite good. At any aperture wider than 2.8, it's actually sharper than the 50mm f/1.4 AIS and 50mm f/1.8 AI. For that reason, I've gotten rid of the 50mm f/1.4 (I have tried 3 of them). I've kept my 50mm f/1.8 because it was one of the first lenses I owned.
There is some barrel distortion with the 50mm f/1.2, but it's easily corrected when editing your scans or files.
The 50mm f/1.8 at infinity is distortion free, but at minimum focus there is just the slightest amount of barrel distortion.
I use the 50 f/1.2 in preference to the 1.8 because the focusing image is so much brighter and easier on my F3. I use Kodachrome 64 indoors, so the extra speed is helpful.
Other lenses:
20 f/3.5 AIS. Great tiny little wide angle that is completely flare resistant. It can also be reversed with the K1 ring for great wide angle macro pictures. The distortion is slightly wavy, which can make correction difficult. Thankfully, it is rather minimal for such a wide lens.
24 f/2.8 AI. Sharp wide angle, but it is prone to flare.
28 f/3.5 PC. Great for architecture due to its ability to shift. I use the shift also to create stitched panoramics, which give the equivalent view of an 18mm lens, with far less distortion. There is a slight amount of barrel distortion, which is surprising for a lens designed for architecture. This is easily corrected now by software. This is a pre-set lens. You need to stop the lens down manually, and shift prior to metering. The F3 is the only exception to the metering issue - it can meter accurately whether the lens has been shifted or not. All other cameras require you to meter after shifting.
35 f/1.4 AIS. Outstandingly sharp lens from f/2 to f/5.6. There is barrel distortion. Wide open, there is loss of sharpness and vignetting. You can focus very closely with this lens (it has CRC), but then the distortion becomes quite extreme. Still, this was for many years this was the standard lens for photojournalists.
35 f/2 AIS. Very sharp, compact lens. I probably would have kept it had I not decided to go for the f/1.4 speed.
35 f/2.8 AIS - Lousy, fuzzy piece of garbage. I know someone else above loves his, so maybe mine was a bad sample.
45 f/2.8 AI-P. The little pancake lens that came out with the FM3a. A very cute little Tessar, it is distortion free at all distances, and very sharp. My main dislike was its supremely tiny size. There's no mounting ring such as with all other Nikkors. You need to grab the focusing ring to mount the lens, which makes me wonder about the long term durability of the infinity stop. It also vignettes quite heavily until about f/5.6. Now discontinued, you'll pay a lot because it's become a cult lens.
50 f/1.2 - great lens, still available new. Get one now before it's discontinued, and becomes a cult item.
50 f/1.4 - Some people love this, I personally dislike it. The bokeh is really horrible. Bokeh is bad on all 50mm Nikkors, but this is the worst. There is barrel distortion. The image is fuzzy until about f/2.8 due to coma and spherical aberration. I really tried to like this lens, and even bought 3 or 4 of them to try out. I just couldn't get the idea that this was any better than the 50 f/1.2, and it was worse at the wider apertures than the f/1.2 lens.
50 f/1.8 AI - also a great lens when it's brighter outside. Distortion-free at infinity. Not much to say as it's almost the perfect lens. Usually available for well under $100.
55 f/2.8 AIS Micro - phenomenally sharp lens that is useful as a regular all-around lens as well as a macro lens. Great at infinity, and also as a macro lens. No distortion, minimal vignetting wide open. There were reports of oil getting on the aperture blades of some of these lenses, but I never had a problem. To get to 1:1, you need the PK-13 tube. I once considered getting rid of my other 50mm lenses in favor of just this lens. That's good if you're not shooting slow film.
60 f/2.8 AF-D Micro - this replaced my 55 f/2.8 AIS Micro. The only reason was for cosmetics. I sold my old 55 Micro as it had a beat up look (I bought it that way). I wanted a more pristine looking lens so I sold the 55 Micro (yes, I know it seems trivial, but I keep my gear in very good shape and I want it to look like that). The salesperson at B&H convinced me that the 60 Micro was even better than the 55. I shoot only the F3, so the AF feature was pointless for me. But, I'm always happy to get better performance. This lens can go to 1:1 on its own. It is extremely sharp as a Macro lens, and it is distortion-free with a flat field. I don't think it is better than the 55 f/2.8 though. This vignettes until about f/5.6. Unlike the 55 Micro, the infinity focus is much more difficult to use as it's squeezed into a very few degrees of rotation of the focus ring. The 55 had a luxuriously long helical that allowed super-fine tweaking of the focus. This lens is now discontinued by Nikon, replaced by a "G" lens (G = Gelding, as it has no aperture ring :-().
70-180 f/4.5-5.6 ED- AF Micro Nikkor. This is the world's first and only true zoom macro lens. It is about the same size and weight as the 180mm lens. Once you get the puny tripod collar foot securely mounted (see Bjorn Rorslett), this is an outstanding lens. I sometimes wonder why I keep the 60mm Micro around. I almost reaches 1:1 on its own. To do that, I use the 6T doublet lens (also discontinued by Nikon, now also a cult item). Do that with the PK-11 extension tube, and you can go beyond 1:1. It can get pretty dim for focusing when you do this, so in that instance I change my focusing screen to the "M", which works by aerial focusing. The big advantage of this lens over other macro lenses is that you don't need to move the entire setup and refocus when you want to change your framing in macro mode. It also works quite well as an ordinary telephoto zoom. There is some minimal barrel distortion at the shorter end, and very slight pincushion at the longer end.
This cost about $1150 back in 2002 (USA, new). Now that it's been discontinued, it has become one of the SUPER-CULT lenses. Sorry, mine is NOT for sale.
85 f/2 AIS. Can be a very nice, sharp medium tele. However, I found that it was close to my 105 f/2.5, and the 105 produced better image quality. No distortion.
105 f/2.5 AIS - a classic. Just get one. Beautiful portrait lens due to residual spherical aberration wide open - great background bokeh. Close down to f/4 or 5.6 if you want a super-sharp tele. Now discontinued by Nikon, it was produced in such large numbers that it's unlikely to become collectable (i.e. no cult value). But, a great photographic tool nevertheless. No distortion.
180 f/2.8 ED AIS. Another classic manual focus Nikkor, now available in AF version with IF. This is a lens that can be shot wide open. It is a bit heavy, and it has no tripod collar. Beware of this if you put your camera on a tripod - there's a lot of leverage exerted against the lens mount. This is better hand-held and stabilized in some other way. Surprisingly, I don't use it as much now that I have the 70-180 cult lens. No distortion.
200 f/4 AIS. Virtually as good as the 180, it is a lot lighter. It is still rather long physically. It takes 52mm filters which were the Nikon standard size for decades. Still, I had the fast lens fetish, so I went for the 180mm and sold this lens. No distortion.
300 f/4 AFS. This lens is incredible, and a great value. Super-sharp at all apertures. Stopping the lens down from f/4 to 5.6 eliminates the slight amount of vignetting. Relatively flat field of view, it works very well with the TC-14 and the PK-11 tube to produce a great 420mm close focus lens. You can get as close as about 4-5 feet away from your subject with this lens combo. That made it a great lens for shooting bumble-bees in my garden. The only thing that is bad is the standard tripod collar from Nikon, which fails their usual standard of excellent engineering. The collar is a weak, wobbly affair. Change to a Kirk replacement collar (also one available from Really Right Stuff), and you can fully exploit the potential of this great optic.
Well, that's all that I have ever tried in Nikkor land. I hope that you'll find some of this useful.
Cale Arthur
---- ------
Harry, the first F-mount 5cm/f2 version was the Nikkor-S, modeled (i believe) after the 5cm/f2 RF lens, as you said. It seems to focus the same as the Nikkor-H, et al. I just picked one up for $15, and absolutely love it..
Some examples:
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ampguy
Veteran
Getting confused. For those of you mentioning the 50/1.2, are you talking about the 7 blade or 9 blade?
Also, for those who aren't fans of the 28/2.8 non AI (.3m focus), I should have a gallery of 300 stellar images from this lens in an hour or two. I'd like to know what you don't like about this lens.
Also, for those who aren't fans of the 28/2.8 non AI (.3m focus), I should have a gallery of 300 stellar images from this lens in an hour or two. I'd like to know what you don't like about this lens.
dfoo
Well-known
I love this len. I don't think I've made it flare despite the lack of hood, which is more than I can say for the 28mm Ultron 1.9!
Nikon 24mm/2.8, wide open (FP4)
Other lenses I have:
Nikon 35mm/2.0 AIs. Beautiful lens. (Lucky 100 black and white)
Nikon 50/1.4 - great lens! Sharp wide open if focused correctly (TriX pushed two stops)
Nikon 105/2.5 - a classic. Very sharp, great lens! (TriX)
This is the 105 on a Canon 5d. F4.
ampguy
Veteran
Here's another question - which lens has more coma and SA wide open, the 50/1.2 (7 or 9 blade if you know), or the 55/1.2 (and version 6 of them or so if known)??
Which one looks more like the noctilux with night shots?
Which one looks more like the noctilux with night shots?
novum
Well-known
Nice and comprehensive list, Robert. I've got a shopping list, now. One of my favorite threads ever on RFF.