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Manual focus lenses

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Well dammit, and it's all Dave's and Roger's fault! :ROTFL: I found a copy of the 28/1.4 so had it overnighted for a trial run this weekend. Fingers crossed it'll be a sweet keeper :D
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Well dammit, and it's all Dave's and Roger's fault! :ROTFL: I found a copy of the 28/1.4 so had it overnighted for a trial run this weekend. Fingers crossed it'll be a sweet keeper :D
Great news looking forward to your thoughts on it .
 

D&A

Well-known member
Well dammit, and it's all Dave's and Roger's fault! :ROTFL: I found a copy of the 28/1.4 so had it overnighted for a trial run this weekend. Fingers crossed it'll be a sweet keeper :D
Jack, really looking forward to your assessment and hope it's everything you hoped it would be.

Dave (D&A)
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
28 arrived. Initial reaction is it's a good copy, but want to do more testing. AF is notably old school screw-drive slow, but it has the MF disconnect on the lens and MF action is typical Nikon MF nice. Not a ton of magic, but some; a very nice bokeh and a notable painterly quality wide open, but still good saturation and contrast. It appears even the early hand-ground aspheres made for commendable performance in wide lenses. Surprising how well it sharpens up by f4 too -- it's a very good lens even by todays standard on the D800E. First notable nit is it is not very sharp at long distances wide open and this isn't a focus plane issue, just plain doesn't perform well wide open beyond about 50 feet. However, it's very sharp at the typical closer distances I'd use it for wide open. Again, it sharpens up notably by f4 at distance, even corner to corner on the D800E, to where it outperforms my stalwart 17-35/2.8. Initially it also appears remarkably flat field for a wide -- impressive actually.

This copy came from KEH rated EX and is very clean generally, but has an un-mentioned 4mm scratch in the front element. I documented it and asked for some refund for it, will wait and see what they say after reviewing the pictures I sent them. I did shoot it into the Sun and it is remarkably low flare -- again impressive -- and no obvious sign of the scratch which of course is good news.
 

JoelM

Well-known member
No one mentioning any zooms? Again, the Nikkor 25-50/4 constantly surprises me with great contrast and rendering.

Joel
 

D&A

Well-known member
Jack, nice initial impressions, Yes, the painterly quality wide open is what attracts me to this lens and I should have mentioned that most copies seem to bias performance at closer range when shot wide open till approx f3.4. Copies vary though in this regard. It's not that the lens is magical on all fronts but wait till you do some atmospheric shots at dusk and low light nighttime shooting. The lens often shines under these situations. The more varied situations you shoot it in, the more most appreciate how this lens renders.

Addition: I should also mention that wide open at mid distance is where I saw very wide variation in performance between different samples of this lens.

Dave (D&A)
 

jagsiva

Active member
the Coastal Optics 60mm F4 manual focus lens is the best lens I have used on the D800. If speed is not an issue, it does just about everything else perfectly, does macro, and is quite small. Two negatives are price and speed.

Also, it is a multi-spectral lens so just solid in IR if you're into IR at all.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Here is a quick sample from the 28/1.4 -- not a stellar image, but I think it shows the promise of this lens and this particular copy. Processed pretty much as shot with a slight bump to saturation and balancing levels. First the whole shot for reference and bokeh. Note the flower is pretty small, about 1.5 inches long overall, and I'm focused about 14 inches from it:



Here is a 1000px center crop on the main flower -- hopefully showing some of the painterly quality I was looking for:



Now here is a surprise -- this 1000px crop from the lower left corner showing resolution of what just by luck fell on the focus plane at the corner:

 
M

mjr

Guest
Nice Jack, in the crop it has all the detail but in a really delicate way, the bokeh is absolutely superb. Looking forward to seeing more.
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

Poor man's Noctotus :lecture:

The AI-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 wide open - here on a 12Mp cropped DX sensor camera (D300, it's all I've got for the moment).

Still-life with reference to Jorge's Otus illustration .-)


You can take a closer look at the RAW file to judge aberrations and sharpness (or lack thereof) etc.

30C_3403_50mm_f1.2_wide_open_on_D300



©lick for native size


© • Nikon D300 • AI-S Nikkor 1.2/50mm • 1/500 sec. at f/1.2 ISO 200 • Lightroom 4.4
 
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Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

Jack, if you like the AI-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 you will also like the AI-S Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, I think.

Here the AI-S Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 wide open - and again on a 12Mp cropped DX sensor camera (D300).


You can take a closer look at the RAW file to judge native aberrations and sharpness (or lack thereof) etc.

30C_3404_105mm_f2.5_wide_open_on_D300




©lick for native size


© • Nikon D300 • AI-S Nikkor 2.5/105mm • 1/200 sec. at f/2.5 ISO 200 • Lightroom 4.4

(Exif says the wrong 50mm at f/1.4 because I forgot to change non-cpu lens data in the camera settings)
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

Built-in telescoping hood and all :)



©lick for actual pixels











© • all with Nikon D300 • AF-S Nikkor 1.4/50mm G • 1/3 sec. at f/8 ISO 200 • Capture NX
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member

Jack, if you like the AI-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 you will also like the AI-S Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, I think.

Here the AI-S Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 wide open - and again on a 12Mp cropped DX sensor camera (D300).
Steen,

I agree it's lovely, but I already own it's younger but larger brother, the 105 DC -- same basic design as the 2.5, but slightly faster at f2.0 and then has an adjustable front group for varying the spherical ab's effect at the focus plane. (It also adjusts the focus plane at the same time, but the effect is stellar when not overdone.) Also a laser stopped down a few, though slightly lower contrast than the newer offerings. It also has the built-in retractable hood --- really like that feature from the bygone era.

Anyway, if you like your 105/2.5, you really should try the 105 DC! It is one of my favorite lenses...
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Just for thread posterity, here are a few from the 50/1.2 wide open as well -- all from the D800 and all hand-held:



And a center crop from that one for pixel performance:



The lens obviously has a ton of falloff wide open, and the effect is exaggerated when the key light is in the center frame -- note there is no added vignette in post in these images:






Finally, an example that was an attempt to show what IMO is outstanding (even though a little swirly swirly -- which I happen to like) front bokeh:



And then a center crop at the focus plane from that image for pixel performance -- I was pretty impressed with this distance performance at f1.2, even if it is just center field:

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
And again for thread posterity, some sample 105DC images -- wide open at f2.0 and also f2.5 to compare more directly to the 105/2.5. Processed in C1 with identical base settings, only difference between images is aperture and ISO. Focus point was center of yellow flower. Posted on top of each other for easier comparison, both with zero DC offset (sharpest setting):




And crops for reference:




While DoF does not appear to change much in the main image, you can see it in the crop. Also a few other notable observations are 1) how much it sharpens up at the pixel level stopped down just that 2/3 stop -- it is initially sharp, but gets notably more so just 2/3 stop down; and 2) the change in falloff is relatively major, close to a full stop, lifting foreground corners on tabletop.
 
M

mjr

Guest
Evening gents (and ladies)

Great recommendations, I now have an offer for a 105 f2.5 plus, I know it's not a manual focus lens exactly but just got a great deal on a 200 f2 that should be arriving next week, very excited! It's a version 1 but I don't think that'll be an issue, it looks new!

Thanks for all the advice, hopefully I'll get lots of pleasure from these new purchases.

Mat
 
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Hulyss Bowman

Active member
The 105 DC is very good but much bigger than the 105 f2.5 AIS. I so love manual focus lens !! If someone have one 105 f2.5 AIS in excellent condition and want to sell it, let me know (would need a little fly over Atlantic ;) ).

I'm just lucky enough to have found a 50 f1.2 brand new under Nikon warranty some months ago but I would like to had a 105 f2.5 AIS to my collection.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
The 105 DC is very good but much bigger than the 105 f2.5 AIS.
Yes, if size and weight is important, then the 105/2.5 is a good choice. Both the 105DC and 105/1.8 are about 1cm wider, 2cm longer and weigh about 160 grams more. But if you look at Photozone and Photodo, you'll also find that both are a little better performers.…
 
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