The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Nikkor lenses

Maggie O

Active member
Thanks, Steen! I'm delightfully surprised at how well my old lenses draw on the brand-new D600.

Vivek, there's no accounting for personal taste, so no offense can be or is taken! :)

I will say that with their whiskers and tabby marked coats, cats make excellent test subjects for lenses. If you pixel-peep, on some lenses, chromatic aberrations will show up on the edges of whiskers and in the hair, along with moire artifacts.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Thanks, Maggie. From your photos, it is quite clear that you cherish your cats. I can appreciate that.
 

bensonga

Well-known member

Gary, that Micro Nikkor looks sparkling and tack sharp on the D2x CCD sensor, you can almost feel the texture


The D2x still impresses me. It was my first Nikon DSLR (which I bought a couple years ago). I bought it specifically to use with my manual focus Nikkor lenses. Since I have owned a pair of Nikon F2s for 30+ years and later an F3HP, I've got quite a few non-AI and AI/AIS lenses. Nice to have a Nikon DSLR to put them on. The 55mm Micro Nikkor was always one of my favorite lenses.

Here's another shot with the D2x, this time using a 50mm f1.4 AIS lens. It doesn't do too badly either.

 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

I just found a ~ 40 years old AI-modified Nikkor-S Auto 1.4/50mm, basically a ~ 50 years old optical design (1962).

I had this pre-AI lens about 45 years ago in the film days and I was recently reminded about it by Y Sol who on the Nikon board posted some very nice pictures taken with it on a digital F-mount SLR.
Thanks a lot, Y Sol, for demonstrating that this old optic also behaves nicely in a modern digital context :thumbup:

As I already have the AI-S Nikkor 1.2/50mm I didn’t exactly need yet another 50mm but the Nikkor-S Auto 50 also has such sweet aberrations and a nice personality in general.
So, just for Christmas’ and nostalgia’s sake :angel:

Besides, these old pre-AI lenses can be found at very low prices, and making nice results with old, used, and therefore cheap optics adds to the fun (for me at least).

As my full frame camera has been stolen by a burglar I am for the time being also back on my old, year 2007 APS-C Nikon D300.
So all in all, with this rig I hope I can run for president in the Cheap Gear Society :D


Here’s the old Nikkor-S Auto 1.4/50mm


©lick for actual pixels











© • all captured with Nikon D300 • AI-S Nikkor 1.2/50mm • at f/5.6 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

I have no volunteer model at hand so you will have to do with these stabbing vegetables

at f/1.4

























© • all with Nikon D300 • Nikkor-S C Auto 1.4/50mm • at f/1.4 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

at f/2


©lick for actual pixels


© • Nikon D300 • Nikkor-S C Auto 1.4/50mm • 1/640 sec. at f/2 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

at f/2.8


©lick for actual pixels


© • Nikon D300 • Nikkor-S C Auto 1.4/50mm • 1/4000 sec. at f/2.8 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

at f/4


©lick for actual pixels


© • Nikon D300 • Nikkor-S C Auto 1.4/50mm • 1/800 sec. at f/4 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

at f/8


©lick for actual pixels







© • both with Nikon D300 • Nikkor-S C Auto 1.4/50mm • at f/8 ISO 200 • Capture NX 2.4.5

All the above Nikkor-S Auto 50 pictures were captured handheld


The End

 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

Thank you, Thorkil, Karl-Heinz, and Gary .-)

If any of you ever go for a Nikkor-S Auto 50mm or other Pre-AI lenses, make sure they have already been AI converted, as Nikon no longer does the conversion and no longer fabricates the conversion kit.

Quoting Thom Hogan:

(…) ”The original F-mount appeared in 1959, and lenses that were produced from then until about 1979 are usually referred to as Pre-AI.
These lenses are dangerous on current Nikon bodies.” (…)


And shortly after:

(…) mounting one of these lenses on your new Nikon will result in damage, so don't even try it.
If you find that you have one of these lenses and want to use it on a current camera, you
must have the lens converted to AI first. (…)


Today Nikon Df is of course a current exception from this rule.
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
Steen and thereby you mean that on a Df there will be no risk with such a lens?
thorkil
(very tempted by a Df, but its expensive!)
 

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member

Yes, correct, Thorkil.

On the Nikon Df you can flip-up the AI aperture coupling lever and mount your old, Pre-AI lenses from all the way back to the F-mount start in 1959, even if the lenses are not AI-converted for use on current F-mount cameras.


The way DPReview puts it:

"Here's how the Df maintains compatibility with pre-Ai lenses - its Ai tab (indicated here) can be flipped backwards, out of the way of the lens mount, preventing older pre-Ai lenses from jamming."





cropped screen dump from dpreview.com
 
Top