Recent content by grant.goodes

Yeah, and go for the deepest one you can get (obviously without vignetting). Too often the "correct" manufacturer shade is _way_ too shallow. My worst example is the Voigtländer 180/4 APO-Lanthar, which has a 37mm deep bayonet hood, totally inadequate for a 180mm lens: I now use the HN-30 for...

I've never had the opportunity to use a completely uncoated lens, but yes, the math of 4% transmission-loss per lens-surface doesn't lie! I do own a Nikkor 105/2.5 P from 1971 or so which, lacking the "C" designation, is supposed to be single-coated. I also have the later NIC and SIC versions...

Good candidates for this sort of apples-to-apples comparison are the early Nikkors which were often upgraded to "C" (multi-coated) versions in the early 70's. Often, Nikon kept the same design in the singled-coated, then multi-coated ("C" designation, and later called NIC, or Nikon Integrated...

I wouldn't say that early, single-coated lenses are "preferable", but they do as you state have reduced contrast over more modern multi-coated lenses. Of course less contrast may be a preferable rendering in some situations, but if I had the choice of a lens with the exact same optics in...

Just got a NOS Nikon Soft 1 filter (62mm to fit my Nikkor 105/1.8) for the super-low price of $15. Apparently Nikon had to stop making the original Soft filters due to the caustic chemical process they had to use to manufacture them, and they have now been replaced by the "New Soft" filters (see...

Like Chris, I have a problem with "collecting" (aka acquiring without limit) items for my hobbies. I have more than 8,000 CDs, but I do listen to them, and they all fit in a rather compact storage cabinet on the wall of my den. I have a Nikon collection, but again, it all fits into a single...

Agreed, but the poster said they have an FM which _does_ work with pre-AI lenses as it has a flip-out aperture follower tab.

Almost certainly, the FA just uses a giant lookup table in ROM (read-only memory) with the light-reading values from each of the 5 sensors being used to lookup in the table for what exposure to select. The table no doubt uses some sort of compression to achieve smaller size (since the memory...

Welcome to Photrio! Both the bodies you have are compatable with pre-AI lenses. The FM's aperture follower tab can be pivoted out of the way to safely mount a pre-AI lens. The F2 Photomic is built directly for pre-AI lenses.

I paid $149 for my factory-AI'ed Sonnar, and aside from rub marks on the focus-ring, it essentially looks and behaves like new. You can easily find pre-AI 105/2.5 lenses for sub $100, and cosmetically challenged copies can be had for under $50. After all they made something like 130K Sonnars...

Until I bought my AI'ed Sonnar last year, I only ever owned the Xenotar 105/2.5 (always an AiS version), and like you mostly shot wide-open or close to it, rarely stopping down past f/5.6: The background blur and subject isolation at wider apertures is very nice with this lens, and is pretty...

The switch from Sonnar to Xenotar occurred in 1971 solidly in the pre-AI era. Sonnar 105/2.5 lenses have the silver snout and quite narrow rear element. The Xenotar design was maintained throughout all AI and AiS versions. The last Sonnars in serial #234140 - 286451 could be factory AI...

The 24/2.8 NC is a particularly great early Nikkor, the first lens with CRC (Close-Range Correction), and has a truly modern/advanced optical design. For the 28mm focal-length, Nikon had the 28/3.5 H, which was one of the first F-mount Nikkors to be released, so for me I would prefer the 24/2.8...

One "pro-tip" is to try out the K1 ring with a Nikon 24/28 lens: This is a mere 5.8mm extension, but with a wide-angle lens will give you a really nice moderate macro setup without having your lens touching the subject. Note that the K1 will not work with AF lenses as it will damage the AF...

Yes, the 28/2.8 AiS is a particularly good wide-angle from the "classic" Nikkor era, a really clean design with a great close-focus distance of 0.2m and good performance from close to far. I was always a 24mm fan, so 28mm Nikkors were never on my radar, but if I was "doing it again", I might...