We love our manual focus Nikkor lenses!
- Thread starter COBALT
- Start date
Anthony Lee
Senior Member
Thanks Ben. I am looking for one for video, and I prefer 2 touch with parfocal, so that during shooting, I just need to zoom and not having to re-focus.
JimmyChooShoots
Member
I very much agree with you.
Let me share a shot taken with an old pre-AI lens, the 50mmF2 HC which I AI'ed myself:
F4 1/320s ISO100
100% crop
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Cheesecake
Senior Member
JimmyChooShoots said:
Well done!
JimmyChooShoots
Member
Thanks, Cheesecake.
But I must say that manual focusing needs some practice to nail it. I have been doing quite a bit of it with another venerable old lens, the 105mmF2.5. I used it for a few weeks and now I am trying out this 50mmF2. It is not so easy with just the ground glass screen and the camera's range finder, but with some practice you get to know what it should look like on the ground glass alone. In many situations there is not enough time to confirm the focusing with the rangefinder's dot. Other aids like a katzeye screen, microprism or split image circle would definitely help. So with a lot of practice on the ground glass alone the keeper rate goes up.
Take care, and take more pictures - with MF glass I might add!
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Cheesecake
Senior Member
yup, i can only handle the wide lenses at infinity. hahahahahaha :bsmilie:
any range in particular? could see if can find anything to recommend
Zichar
Senior Member
Don't think I posted this in here
With the 35mm f/2 AIS
FE2 + Ilford Delta 3200
Because I'm not prolific, a lot of shots tend to get stuck in the camera
Only 6 into my new roll now
With the 35mm f/2 AIS
FE2 + Ilford Delta 3200
Because I'm not prolific, a lot of shots tend to get stuck in the camera
Only 6 into my new roll now
Anthony Lee
Senior Member
Wide end 28 or 35mm, tele, anything from 70 to 85, and don't mind 105 if the whole set-up is not too big and heavy. Now looking at a very good condition Tokina ATX 35-70 f2.8 but prefer something smaller and lighter like the OM 35-70f3.6 that's around 400gm which I had before. Thanks for your help.
the tokina 35-70 is a good lens; not terribly sharp wide open, but with lovely colour rendition n contrast. its also v small for a 2.8 zoom, 62mm filter thread and about as long as the 18-55 kit lens fully extended. that copy could possibly be the one i brought in from US ^^v.
anyway, erm.. can check out the 25-50 3.5, thats a good lens with 2 rings. there's also the 35-70 3.5 62mm version thats decent, and the 28-85 3.5-4.5 which is pretty good, though i suspect the latter is a tokina clone. in the 70-80 range... i don't know of any manual focus 2 touch tele-zooms.. perhaps the 80-200 2.8 AIS but thats huge and expensive. the only one i can think of is a vivitar 100-300 f5.0.. most of them are 1 touch. if you can live with plasticy AF lenses there's an 80-200 f/4.5-5.6 which is v small n light but gives decent results, could look at that one.
Anthony Lee
Senior Member
Many thanks Ben. Was looking for an ais with range 28/35 - 70/85 actually but most seem to be too heavy.
Hi sorry for the late reply, was busy with work.
Well i've a Katzeye focus screen that I bought off a fellow CSer quite some time back. Here are some instructions on how to install one bought online:
Focusing Screen
All aftermarket focusing screens have the same installationif i'm not wrong, just choose the instructions based on your cam model.
However, I screwed up the process and in the end gotten Fatigue aka David to fix it for me in less than 10min heh. Guess I was pretty freaked out when the metal retaining spring/thingy popped out of its catch.
And thanks for your compliment haha.
The 50mm f2 is the hardest to nail focus even with the help of my katzeye screen for some reason. I always have to rely on the green dot. Slows down shooting quite abit. =/
Hi there,
Remember me? haha.
I would like to volunteer my Nikon glass for such test if you are interested, just like what the guys in the RF subforum have done. I've a 105mm f1.8 AIS, 105mm f2.5 AIS, 50mm f2 AI and a 20mm f4 AI that I can bring along.
Maybe we can have a cup of coffee and a friendly meet up if you guys are interested too.
the 28-85 3.5-4.5 would be your best bet then; its compact but i guess still kinda heavy at 510g
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/zoomsMF/2885mm.htm
there's also a 35-105 3.5-4.5 : http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/zoomsMF/35105mm.htm
the 50 f2 is abit of a low contrast lens so that gets in the way of things >< if you re shooting black and white, a yellow or orange filter will help make things better. the earlier nikkor-S 5cm f2 is abit better in that respect.
also, changing the focus screen is one thing, having its properly calibrated is another. you may want to check for front/back focus issues btwn the focus screen and sensor. i usually have to calibrate with aluminium foil in the mirror box ><
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diediealsomustdive
Senior Member
Hi there,
Remember me? haha.
I would like to volunteer my Nikon glass for such test if you are interested, just like what the guys in the RF subforum have done. I've a 105mm f1.8 AIS, 105mm f2.5 AIS, 50mm f2 AI and a 20mm f4 AI that I can bring along.
Maybe we can have a cup of coffee and a friendly meet up if you guys are interested too.
Yes, but mostly from your posting in this thread.
Thanks for the offer, would take it up but for my work schedule in the next 4 weeks - traveling extensively. Still thinking about whether to bring the D800 along since there is little opportunity to shoot. When I come back in October if I can do it I will pm you, maybe organize a time where others can bring their collection and alllow those unfamiliar with MF to join us to oggle at our MF collection? See and handle the stuff!
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Actually my experience with the 50mm f2 is vastly different from you. The contrast is very very high wide open, even better than a lot of modern lenses with their special nano coat and ED elements. I've used over 30+ different MF/AF lenses and my copy of the 50mm f2 just beats most of them. Sometimes I had to dial down the in camera contrast to retain fine details. I donno how to explain it, but will post some pictures in the future to show it. Spherical aberration is minimal compared to my 50mm f1.8 AFD, and colour fringing too. Only downside is that the bokeh is ugly. But IMO it has a very distinctive character, something that most SLR lenses lack unlike rangefinder glasses, and I can spot a photo taken with the lens very easily. I call it the Nikkor 50 summicron. ;p
My focus screen seems quite accurate, focusing the 105mm f1.8 near MFD is spot on. What's wrong with focusing with the 50mm f2 is probably due to the slow lens design, the larger DOF (compared to say a f1.4 lens) kinds of mask the true focusing plane, thus making the focus via ground glass slightly harder.
Thanks for your advice though.
Yup sure, I'll be overseas soon till early sept too. Hmmm I'd still bring the camera if I were you, kiasu abit no harm haha.
Here's a part of my collection before I sold off a huge chunk of it:
Kind of misses the 28mm f2.
I don mind re-buying a 55mm micro, 180mm f2.8 ED and 28mm f2 again if given the chance and right price. Also, I hope to land a 45mm f2.8 Ai-P and 15mm f5.6 in the future. Any lobang? :bsmilie:
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Yup sure, I'll be overseas soon till early sept too. Hmmm I'd still bring the camera if I were you, kiasu abit no harm haha.
Here's a part of my collection before I sold off a huge chunk of it:
Kind of misses the 28mm f2.
I don mind re-buying a 55mm micro, 180mm f2.8 ED and 28mm f2 again if given the chance and right price. Also, I hope to land a 45mm f2.8 Ai-P and 15mm f5.6 in the future. Any lobang? :bsmilie:
that's a nice collection! no lobang for a 45mm f2.8 ai-p but can only be a :devil: love that lens. it's now part of my small camera kit. downside to it is that you might need to get used to the aperture and focus rings being so close to each other
diediealsomustdive
Senior Member
Yup sure, I'll be overseas soon till early sept too. Hmmm I'd still bring the camera if I were you, kiasu abit no harm haha.
Here's a part of my collection before I sold off a huge chunk of it:
Kind of misses the 28mm f2.
I don mind re-buying a 55mm micro, 180mm f2.8 ED and 28mm f2 again if given the chance and right price. Also, I hope to land a 45mm f2.8 Ai-P and 15mm f5.6 in the future. Any lobang?
Nice. Let me try to id the lenses:
Back from L: AiS 105mm f/1.8, AiS 35mm f/1.4, Ai 85mm f/2, AiS 105mm f/2.5, AiS 105mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor
Front from L: AiS 50mm f/1.2, EM with AF 50mm f/1.8 (probably the N version with the wider focus ring), AF or AFD 85mm f/1.8.
That's 3 pieces of 105mm, you must be fanatical about 105mm. Ha ha, I beat you to this on 105mm, I have a Nikkor-P 10.5cm f/2.5, Nikkor-P 105mm f/2.5, AiS 105mm f/2.5, AFD 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor (on long term loan to a full-time Christian worker), AFS 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. But interestingly only one overlap - the AiS 105mm f/2.5.
You want my AiS 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor? :sweat: Ha ha. You can play with it... :blah: Hard to believe, but I have the AiS 55mm f/2.8, AFD 60mm f/2.8 and AFS 60mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkors. :sweat:
I might buy a 50mm f/1.2 if I find one at the right price...
My next aim is to have at least one Nikkor of each era, based on look of the lenses. So far I am missing the metal ring Nikon E lens, thin focus ring AF Nikkors, AFG Nikkors, AF-I Nikkors, Cosina made Nikkors (FM10/FE10 lenses). Have at least one of these Nikkors/Nikon lenses: cm marked, silver filter ring non-Ai, black filter ring non-Ai scallop focusing ring, rubber focusing ring non-Ai, Ai, AiS, black ring Nikon E lens, AF, AFD, AFS, DX.
Drop me a pm, if I find the lenses you want I can reach out to you.
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