Can the F6's AF handle the 58/1.4G?

NortheastPhotographic · May 10, 2016

I currently have an F100 and a D750, and I shoot with the 58/1.4G. This lens is notorious for requiring AF adjustment on every digital body before being accurate wide open. It needed like +12 on my D750. Obviously on film we don't have this tool. My results with the F100 have been mixed at best, which is another way of saying it's just unreliable. But that lens is a wide open beast and I'd love to use it more with film, because it actually IS sharp when your camera can manage to focus it. Has anyone used it with the F6 and shot a lot at 1.4? If I can get a camera that can focus it I think it would really come in handy at my weddings where I want to shoot film, but don't want to deal with medium format.

Thanks!

(If you don't have an F6 or have not used either the F6 or 58 1.4G please keep the conjecture to a minimum).

Ai Print · May 10, 2016

I use both Nikon film and digital bodies professionally and in my opinion, you would see a benefit in using the F6 wth the 58 but you are going to want to have NPS pair it for it to work right wide open. Once it is paired, you can then dial in compensation as you normally would with your digital bodies.

With the F6 you get the benefit of a camera that is still made so is more easily serviced and that it has the most recent AF in any Nikon film body. In any case, I would call Nikon to verify they will still do this, they seem to be shelving a lot of services for film bodies in recent years.

I had the 58mm for a few months but decided I wanted a bit longer lens in my fastest glass and sold it.

That is my direct and indirect experience in the combination you are looking at working with.

NortheastPhotographic · May 10, 2016

Well it's good to know that they can be calibrated together. I'll have to check with an independent ship like Nippon Photo Clinic to see if they can do it because my equipment is grey market. So much cheaper from Japan these days but Nikon isn't so nice about it...

blockend · May 10, 2016

Being a realist I accept it's unlikely to happen, but it would be interesting to see Nikon develop an F6/2, that kept the same form factor, while introducing the very latest auto focus and exposure capabilities developed for DSLRs. It might lead to renewed interest in Nikon film cameras and would cost relatively little in R&D as the tooling and the technology already exists.

NortheastPhotographic · May 10, 2016

blockend said:
Being a realist I accept it's unlikely to happen, but it would be interesting to see Nikon develop an F6/2, that kept the same form factor, while introducing the very latest auto focus and exposure capabilities developed for DSLRs. It might lead to renewed interest in Nikon film cameras and would cost relatively little in R&D as the tooling and the technology already exists.

If they could simply swap out the AF unit for the 51pt system from even the old D700 that would be a huge improvement. Nikon does not however do it's more niche customers any favors sadly.

Huss · May 10, 2016

Ai Print said:
Once it is paired, you can then dial in compensation as you normally would with your digital bodies.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by dialing in compensation. I use the F6 and there is no way to fine tune the AF by the end user.
The F6 does have a better AF module than the F100, and while I do not use the 58 1.4, the AF is bang on with my 50 1.8G.
The manual focus screen is so good I have no issues getting pin sharp pics with my 50 1.2 AIS or 105 1.8 AIS.
If you had the luxury, you could test the AF of the 58 1.4 and compare it to how you would focus manually.

BMbikerider · May 10, 2016

Let me borrow your lens and I will try it on my F6 (long term test, say a couple of years) and I'll let you know!!

NortheastPhotographic · May 10, 2016

Huss said:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by dialing in compensation. I use the F6 and there is no way to fine tune the AF by the end user.
The F6 does have a better AF module than the F100, and while I do not use the 58 1.4, the AF is bang on with my 50 1.8G.
The manual focus screen is so good I have no issues getting pin sharp pics with my 50 1.2 AIS or 105 1.8 AIS.
If you had the luxury, you could test the AF of the 58 1.4 and compare it to how you would focus manually.

I think what he means is that if you calibrate the F6 and the 58 for each other, it necessarily may throw off the calibration of the 58 to the digitals. So then you'd just use AF fine tune on those bodies to make up for it.

A friend is also working on this problem and Nikon only asked him to send in his lens, not his lens and F6. I'm wondering if there is simply "0 position' of some kind. Perhaps the advent of AF fine tune has enabled factories to loosen their tolerances? He told Nikon he expects his 58 to focus exactly the same on every body he puts it on. At first I felt this maybe a little unrealistic, but he pointed out that all his other lenses do now, he has no reason to think that the 58 should different. I hope we can both get it sorted out because the 58mm with some Portra 160 would make for some beautiful portraits.

Huss · May 10, 2016

Sperdynamite said:
I think what he means is that if you calibrate the F6 and the 58 for each other, it necessarily may throw off the calibration of the 58 to the digitals. So then you'd just use AF fine tune on those bodies to make up for it.

Ahh! Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation!

ic-racer · May 10, 2016

There is no way to manually focus the lens? It is in focus in the view finder but not on the film? AF lenses usually can't be collimated because there is no infinity stop. Why is that lens different than any other AF lens on the F6?

Ai Print · May 10, 2016

ic-racer said:
There is no way to manually focus the lens? It is in focus in the view finder but not on the film? AF lenses usually can't be collimated because there is no infinity stop. Why is that lens different than any other AF lens on the F6?

Sure it can be manually focused, but AF with a modern AF-S 1.4 is often a lot more accurate and repeatable than MF is.
And it is not collimation the lens has to go through but fine tuning of the Silent Wave Motor autofocus calibration on the lens so that it is paired correctly with the camera's AF sensor. The SW motor is paired with a 360 degree continuous rotary encoder so it is not at all hard to move these lenses around in terms of fine tuning them and there really are no stops. In the case of AF film bodies, there is no way for anyone but a factory trained tech to fine tune it. In the case of D series Nikon bodies of reasonably recent build, you can dial in a +/- correction factor based on a sizable range of numerical values. In the case of the most recent Nikon body, it can be done using live view which is a whole new ball game and a big time saver.

ic-racer · May 10, 2016

Thank you AiPrint. I have a F100 and a few other Nikon AF film bodies and lenses, but never knew of this issue.

Ai Print · May 10, 2016

ic-racer said:
Thank you AiPrint. I have a F100 and a few other Nikon AF film bodies and lenses, but never knew of this issue.

Might just be an issue with the 58mm 1.4G. I have the 20mm 1.8G & 85mm 1.4G and they are for the most part, spot on with the F100.

That being said, I did hack a spare FM3A screen to be used with the F100 for manual focus and it works great for that as I like both methods.

Can the F6's AF handle the 58/1.4G?

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