Wide angle for Nikon FM3A

[loupgarou]

Hey All
I was recently given one of these guys and was keen to get a wide angle lens for it. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this set up?
Thanks
Raj

 

[nlubis]

Lucky you.
How wide? I have 35 1.4 that is great.
The 28 2.8 AIS has a character.
And the ones I've not tried, 24/2 and the 28/2.

 

[loupgarou]

I guess wider than 35...I have a Voigtlander 40 F2 Ultron which is great...keen for some 28 or 24 focal lengths...interested to hear what people think on these..

 

[Tin]

I have both the 28/2.8 and the 24/2.8. But since I got the 24 years ago, I rarely used the 28. The 24 pairs up well with a 35mm.

 

[redisburning]

ZF.2 25mm f2.0 distagon!

near APO, has weak corners but everything else is world beating levels of sharpness and contrast. great OoF rendering for a wide angle, too.

 

[Corran]

You can pick up a 28mm f/2 AI for $250 or less these days. It has CRC correction and is extremely sharp everywhere even at wider stops. Touch of spherical aberrations wide-open, but it cleans up nice.

I tested 5 different 28mm and 35mm lenses and it was the sharpest between the bunch, including the 28mm f/2.8 AIS that everyone raves about. This test was near infinity, which is the weakness of that lens though.

The extra speed is also nice to have.

 

[loupgarou]

Thanks guys...really appreciating the input!

 

[daveywaugh]

I haven't owned too many Nikon wides but I have always liked the results from the AIS 24/f2.8 Beautifully made too.

 

[DNG]

I have the 24 f/2.8 Ais with CFC
it is my go to lens on my FE.
it has near zero Distortion, and sharp at all f stops.
my other lens is a 50 f/1.8 long nose.
for me this is a nice pairing of two lenses

 

[Godfrey]

One of my all time Nikon favorites is the Nikkor 20/3.5 AI-S (52mm filter thread). Small, light, very contrasty and sharp. Liked it much more than the later f2.8 model, it was my ultra-wide for Nikon for almost 21 years.

G

 

[Phil_F_NM]

The 24mm f/2.8 Ai is great. Has a wonderful look to it but gets "smeary" in the corners.
The 24mm f/2 Ai or AiS are decent but I think they stretch the design too much. I had a perfect sample of this lens and just didn't like the results. It's got too much coma for my taste. If I'm going to have that much coma in a lens, it ought to be a 35mm f/1.4 or 50mm f/1.2.

The 28mm f/2.8 AiS is fantastic because it is so highly corrected against distortion. It's very sharp if you get a good, clean sample. It excels at close distances and when you put on an extension ring to get closer, it just gets better. Problem is you have to get so close to your subject that you need a ringlight or cross-lighting from strobes and have to watch for shadows.
For anything with straight lines in it, this is a great lens because it has no detectable distortion without loading into a PP program and sticking rulers on it then pixel peeping.

If you have a 40mm already then a 28mm might be too close.
If you want to get really wide, go for one of the 20mm lenses. The f/2.8 AiS is the best overall but I personally prefer the f/3.5 Ai because it's not much more than a pancake lens. Very small, light and a fantastic performer. Not much bigger than a squash ball so it can fit in your bag or even a pocket easily.

Phil Forrest

 

[loupgarou]

Hmmm...didn't think about 20mm option...am intrigued

 

[daveleo]

I have the 20mm/f4.0, the (AI) 24/f2.8 and the 28mm/f2.8.
The 28mm is wonderful; I love the images it makes. It is my favorite of the 3 in terms of what the pictures look like.

I just bought the 20mm and have only made maybe a dozen pictures (and those were on a digital APS format Nikon) and I like them and love the very wide angle (on my FM3a) so I am keeping it.

The 24mm is fine (I do like the 28mm better), but in fact (here's a shameless plug) I am selling the 24mm (see the ad here in the classifieds). I don't need 3 lenses that close to each other.

The FM3a is a fabulous camera. You should have a great time with it.

 

[markwatts]

Another vote for the 20 f/4. Many webpages claim it is inferior to the 3.5 version. I don't know, but I like mine.

 

[Roninman]

I think you should try the AIS 20 f2.8, and the AIS 28 f2, I have them both and find them excellent. Beautifully made, and will seemingly last a lifetime. Good luck!

 

[loupgarou]

Wow sounds like I can't go wrong with any of these Nikons!

 

[Dwig]

Hmmm...didn't think about 20mm option...am intrigued

It is very useful to think of FL increments in a geometric progression similar to the familiar f/stop increments:

40mm<>f/4 compared to 28mm<>f/2.8 compared to 20mm<>f/2.0 ...

Lenses spaced "1 stop" apart are about the closest spacing that is worth considering. A "2 stop" spacing is somewhat large but is still very reasonable (e.g. the "classic Leica set" of 21-35-90). Generally, larger increments (>"2 stop🙂 are popular only with longer than normal lenses. I used to shot primes on my old film Nikons and my pet set was 20-35-105-300 with a 55 Micro as a specialty lens.

 

[dtcls100]

A few months ago, I got a Nikon FM3a body and purchased a Nikon 105 DC lens for it. (Superb lens BTW). I figured I needed a wideangle as well. After looking at a Nikon 28mm 1.4 and reluctantly deciding that it wasn't worth paying over $1200 for one of those lenses, I ended up picking up a Nikon 28mm f2.8 AIS, which had sticky blades. Just got it professionally serviced last week by Nippon Photo Clinic and took two rolls of B&W with it. Waiting to get them processed and am keeping my fingers crossed that the lens is as good as most say.

Now that I have Nikons along with my extensive Olympus OM collection, I am tempted to conduct some comparative lens tests between:

OM Zuiko 100mm f2.0 versus Nikon 105mm f2.0 DC versus OM Zuiko 90mm f2.0 macro versus Vivitar Series 1 90mm f2.5 macro. In my experience, all of these lenses are extremely sharp with wonderfully smooth bokeh.

OM Zuiko 28mm f2.0 versus Nikon 28mm f2.8 AIS. Both have close range correction and the Zuiko has a very sharp yet wonderfully smooth image signature. Eager to see how the Nikon compares.

 

[mfogiel]

I have used the FM3A a lot with the 25/2.8 Distagon - not as perfect as the Biogon, but on the other hand, it has a very interesting rendering close up - you can focus up to 7cm from the lens.
Frankly, wide angle Nikon lenses I own look very soft in comparison:


RESTAURANT by mfogiel, on Flickr


SILOUHETTE by mfogiel, on Flickr


2008040302 by mfogiel, on Flickr

 

[Peter_Jones]

Does it have to be a prime lens ?

The Nikkor 20-35 f/2.8 AF-D will work fine as a manual-focus lens on an FM, and also extremely useful for AF 35mm and FX DSLR.

Some say it's not so good in the corners, however my specimen works great. Can be picked up for sensible money too. It might look ridiculous on an FM though, it's a big hefty 77mm-threaded bruiser of a lens 😀